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The moon hovers over the remote village of Inupiat Eskimo of Noorvik, Alaska, the first United States community enumerated for the 2010 census.
Carolyn Kaster / AP
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Carolyn Kaster / AP
The moon hovers over the remote village of Inupiat Eskimo of Noorvik, Alaska, the first United States community enumerated for the 2010 census.
Carolyn Kaster / AP
Since Alaska joined the Union as the 49th state in 1959, the farthest reaches of the most northerly state have taken advance on the national count.
The tradition is expected to continue with the 2020 census, which will begin January 21 in Toksook Bay, southwestern Alaska. The small village of the Bering Sea was chosen as the first community from the census, announced the Census Bureau in October at the annual convention of the Alaska Native Federation in Anchorage.
"We are looking for Carol Gore villages, a so-called" forever descendant of Alaska Aleut, "says Carol Gore, chair of the National Advisory Committee on Racial, Ethnic, and Other Populations. Census Bureau.
"When the ground will be frozen"
For most US households, the office plans to start mailing forms and letters for the next enumeration a few weeks before the 1st April 2020, the official census day.
In rural Alaska, however, the mail system may not be reliable.More than 80% of the communities in the state are not roads or highways – one of the Census's latest census innovations – an option to complete an online survey – sheds a new light on what is known as Bush Alaska, says Gore, who also directs the Co ok Inlet Housing Authority in Anchorage.
"There are many parts of Alaska that do not have a good internet connection," she says. "They can have a computer in their community, and that's in school."
For the 2010 Census, the Director of the Census Bureau took a dog sled to travel to Noorvik, Alaska.
Carolyn Kaster / AP
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Carolyn Kaster / AP
For the 2010 Census, the Director of the Census Bureau took a dog sled to travel to Noorvik, Alaska.
Carolyn Kaster / AP
To meet the constitutional requirement to count all residents, the office has learned that the key to Alaska's distance is to have snow boots on the ground. Enumerators must be deployed months before the census to knock on doors before snow and ice melt during the spring thaw.
"The best time to visit these communities is usually in the winter, when the ground is frozen [and] when you can have more transportation," says Gore. "Often, it's a mix of dog sledding or snowmobiles or a bush plane to get into a community."
"A size for all" does not apply
While Alaska is at the top of all states In terms of area, it is among the least populated with just over 710,000 inhabitants living on more than 586,000 square miles of land, according to the 2010 census. Any change in its population has a direct impact on the number of congressional seats and electoral college votes – as well as on the amount of federal funds received by the state.
His long time supporter of Capitol Hill, the late Republican Senator Ted Stevens, insisted that every Alaskan be counted, says A. Mark Neuman, Director of Congressional Affairs of the Census Bureau in the run-up to the 1990 meeting. census.
"He wanted us to understand the importance of doing things differently in Alaska," says Neuman. "The" single system "did not apply to the census in Alaska, that was the message of Senator Ted Stevens."
At the first census of the state of Alaska in 1960, the office trained teachers by mail so that they could start the census in their villages as early as the month of January. Later, the office began hiring additional local residents as enumerators, which Neuman once viewed as a unique approach.
"To ensure that the person knocking on the door for the census looks and resembles that of the person answering the door, that is how an effective enumeration, a complete enumeration is obtained. the most difficult communities to count, "he explains.
Hendy Ballot, then tribal administrator of the village of Noorvik, Alaska, led Robert Groves, who headed the US Census Bureau, to Clifton Jackson's home, the first person to count for the 2010 census.
Carolyn Kaster / AP
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Hendy Ballot, then tribal administrator of the village of Noorvik, Alaska, leads Robert Groves, who headed the US Census Bureau, to the home of Clifton Jackson, the first person to be counted for the 2010 census. [19659006] Carolyn Kaster / AP
"The Luckiest People in the World"
In Toksook Bay, this will involve the hiring of workers able to speak the local language of Alaska, Yup & Ik, says Robert Pitka, tribal administrator of the traditional Nunakauyak Council, which governs the Nunakauyarmiut tribe of Toksook Bay
Pitka says expecting an increase in the number of inhabitants of the Bay of Toksook in 2010, which was 590. This could generate more federal funds for education and other public services in the village. , which has about 130 homes.
"We have young families and, because of our growing size, the village needs more housing," he says. "Housing is very important."
Yet, regardless of the changes brought about by the 2020 census, Pitka hopes that the people of Toksook Bay will continue to perpetuate the traditions of their ancestors, who settled in the tundra of Alaska, devoid of trees and desert.
"They have survived for thousands of years, and we are here today because of them," he says. "When you look at the world and all the hungry and the suffering, I would say that the Eskimos are the luckiest in the world because we can survive from the earth."
The survival of Diana Therchik's family in Toksook Bay requires summer fishing.
"Every family fishes for herring and, once emptied, we braid it with from the grass and we hang it. dry, "says Therchick, a long-time resident of Toksook Bay," This will be one of the staple foods for all winter. "
Unlike other rural villages from Alaska, Therchik says that she and her neighbors in Toksook Bay can go fishing and hunting near their homes and that their families can not migrate. next year for enumerators who need to count residents at addresses where they usually live.
"I should be here," said Therchik, director of operations at the local clinic.
"If nothing happens to you or you , "she adds, interpreting a common farewell to Yup & # 39; ik in English," we'll meet again someday. "
And if this day is January 21, it will be at the start of the 2020 census
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