Alaska's Vanishing Native Villages (full documentary) | FRONTLINE

FRONTLINE and the Howard Center at ASU go inside Alaska Native villages that are fighting for survival against climate change and examine why communities are relocating and struggling to preserve their traditions.

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Researchers have found that parts of Alaska are warming at up to four times the rate of most of the rest of the world. That trend has left some Alaska Native villages fighting for their survival and even facing relocation. “Alaska’s Vanishing Native Villages” examines how these remote coastal communities are navigating flooding, erosion, warming temperatures, and bureaucratic challenges.

The documentary features interviews with residents and local leaders about the challenges they face, including tough decisions around preserving their way of life, which relies on harvesting foods from the sea and the land that aren’t sold in stores, and the prospect of relocating.

“Our ancestors said one day we will come upon this day,” Agatha Napoleon, climate change coordinator for the Native Village of Paimiut, a tribe that is proposing to relocate its people to higher ground, says in the documentary. “I didn’t think it would happen in my lifetime.”

“Alaska’s Vanishing Native Villages” is a FRONTLINE production with Five O’Clock Films. The correspondent, writer, producer and director is Patty Talahongva. The producer is Lauren Mucciolo. The co-producer is Belén Tavares. The senior producer is Frank Koughan. The editor-in-chief and executive producer of FRONTLINE is Raney Aronson-Rath.

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FRONTLINE is produced at GBH in Boston and is broadcast nationwide on PBS. Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Additional support for FRONTLINE is provided by the Abrams Foundation, Park Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Heising-Simons Foundation, and the FRONTLINE Journalism Fund, with major support from Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation, and additional support from Koo and Patricia Yuen. Additional support for “Alaska’s Vanishing Native Villages” is provided by the GBH Climate and Environment Fund.