Rebuilding after 2009 Yukon flood

Joaqlin Estus
ICT

In 2009, the predominantly Han Athabascan Native Village of Eagle “looked as if a giant hand scooped up the village, shook it like dice and flung it out, then cast a storm of ice on it,” the Anchorage Daily News reported. The village in Eastern Alaska along the Canadian border was destroyed when the Yukon River flooded the Village and the nearby predominantly non-Native Eagle City.

The villagers had already started to relocate the community seven miles away to higher ground. But at least 30 villagers were left homeless. They scattered to take shelter in Fairbanks, Anchorage and other larger communities. Some to this day are still hoping to return home to Eagle Village.

Chief Karma Ulvi, who is Han Athabascan, said that’s why a $2 million Indian Community Development Block grant from the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department (HUD) is so important. She said it’s costly and difficult to build housing in rural Alaska where transportation costs are high.

“We only have a road that's open from April to October. So our building season is fairly short. And then materials, and with inflation, are extremely high. And then you have to truck everything here to rural Alaska. Then building is very expensive for, I mean, if you have a work crew that's great, but contractors and stuff. So there's so many different extra fees and extra freight and extra things that we have to pay for…. energy, electricity, and utilities is more expensive. So this is a really great, great award for the village…. so we're excited,” Ulvi said.

Ulvi said in addition to bringing people home another goal is to attract families to boost school enrollment. The money will go to build two 3-bedroom houses and a duplex.

The Eagle village grant was one of the $50.2 million in grants to 27 tribes HUD announced last week under the Indian Community Development Block Grant program.

Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Richard Monocchio in HUD’s Office of Public and Indian Housing said one of features of this grant program is it’s “flexible in the sense that you can use it for a variety of things, including housing, rehabilitation, but also infrastructure, water and sewer facilities, roads and multipurpose community centers.

“So I've actually seen a couple of these in my travels in the country. One in Arizona, the Tohono O'odom Tribe built a community center, and last week I was at the Lumbee Tribe in North Carolina where they built a beautiful boys and girls club,” said Monocchio.

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