Six months ago Siikauraq Whiting applied for her dream job as superintendent for the Western Arctic Parklands, managing a nearly 9 million acre area that includes three national parks: Cape Krusenstern National Monument, Noatak National Preserve and Kobuk Valley National Park. After a lengthy process, she was selected over more than 100 nationwide applicants in early January. It was an experience she called “humbling and very exciting.”
She is Iñupiaq and a lifelong resident of the region, and says the superintendent position was something she worked toward her whole life.
“I thought about this in high school,” said Whiting. “I should work on ways to build relationships with our Indigenous people and the federal government.”
Whiting had previously served as Northwest Arctic Borough mayor and as executive director of Native Village of Kotzebue. One of her first jobs was working for the park service. In college she received her degree in natural resources land management. The job was like a culmination of her life’s work.
But then on Valentine’s Day, Whiting received the news. She had been fired along with around 30 or so other probationary Park Service employees statewide. The mass firings are an effort by the Trump Administration to slash spending by downsizing the federal government. Whiting said the news “gutted her.”
“I felt like I had the worst breakup of my life,” Whiting said. “No rhyme or reason why.”
Whiting said it took her over a week to process the news before she was able to talk about it.
“You can’t just keep going around like it’s doomsday,” said Whiting. “I think about what my parents would do, and my parents would persevere no matter what’s happening around them.”
Probationary federal workers based in Kotzebue joined thousands of other employees fired earlier this month by the Trump Administration. The American Federation of Government Employees expects at least 1,300 federal employees in Alaska with probationary status to be fired, according to reporting from the Alaska Beacon. These employees span a variety of departments including veterans affairs, military, transportation, agriculture sectors. The layoffs could also affect seasonal and part-time employees, like federal firefighters.
“I was so excited to be working under an Iñupiaq superintendent,” said Rachel Heckerman, a career seasonal employee for the Parks Service. She was fired the same day as Whiting.
“To see everything be completely dismantled in under a month was devastating,” Heckerman said “If I’m being completely honest, I was more upset about [Whiting’s] firing than my own.”
As a visual information specialist, Heckerman’s job included working on graphic projects specific to the Western Arctic National Parklands like website development, river guides for visitors, and videography. Heckerman found out she was fired by an email. The email said it was because she “failed to demonstrate qualifications.”
“It was insulting,” said Heckerman. “My recent performance review completely proves otherwise.”
Heckerman said another blow was losing her health insurance, which expires in a month. Heckerman has a chronic medical condition that requires daily medication.
In addition to doing a job she loved - which blended her passions for science and art - health care was a huge motivation when she accepted the job over three months ago.
“The craziest part about this whole thing is I thought taking this position meant that I would finally have some stability,” Heckerman said. “I am used to taking seasonal, and contract positions, switching insurance quite frequently. The irony is this turned into being one of the most unstable positions because of the firings.”
Compared to other federal employees, Heckerman says she’s fortunate; she has enough medication to last for a while and she works remotely. For many federal employees, especially federal employees who live in rural Alaska communities, losing their jobs could also mean losing housing.
“Some people moved across the country and then essentially just got fired and now have no housing,” said Heckerman. “If I had lived in Kotzebue, I would have lost my housing. And that’s really alarming.”
Heckerman is looking for another job, and might resort to freelance work. She said she’s reluctant to seek out another federal job, out of fears that funding could become frozen or eliminated.
