Despite lawsuits, court orders and a hiring push, Alaska's Division of Public Assistance is still struggling to keep up with applications.

Gilbert’s department, along with Maniilaq’s Diabetes program coordinated with SeaShare to distribute the fish. Gilbert said in total over 7,000 pounds of salmon were handed out in Kotzebue.

On Friday, the City of Kotzebue issued a health advisory for manganese levels in the community’s drinking water.

Largely self-taught, Keats walked in two worlds, combining traditional and Western medicine. She was born in a sod house on the Noatak River in 1907 and learned from anatomy books and from processing caribou and other animals. She began practicing medicine in her 20s and worked as a midwife, helping women deliver babies. A large part of her knowledge came from listening to older generations.

“It's for promoting local foods and living off the land, trying to encourage younger people and everybody just to go out and harvest and eat healthier,” Tessier said.

“It feels as though there's a never-ending stream of problems with the water supply here,” Deb Lawton said. “We are one of the richest countries on earth, and I am gobsmacked by the fact that we cannot get our collective act together to provide drinking water to people.”

According to the city officials, Kotzebue’s water treatment plant is not “reliably and consistently” removing manganese below the maximum contamination levels.

The study, published in July, was the first nationwide look at the disease's rates by region. It found that over 10% of Northwest Arctic residents over the age of 65 have Alzheimer’s.

The three-day event had been scheduled for Oct. 21-23 in Anchorage. However, AFN President Julie Kitka said in a statement Tuesday, “the high-risk factors of holding a 5,000-person indoor meeting, with delegates coming in from across Alaska, make an in-person October gathering out of the question.”

This weekend kicks off the Qaġruq Whaling Festival in Point Hope. Every year, people come from around the region for a three-day feast to celebrate the annual subsistence haul of the whaling season.