Opinion

Etta Kuzakin: Alaska Native community needs a life-saving road

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

A view of King Cove in Alaska. Photo from City Data

Etta Kuzakin, the president of the Agdaagux Tribe, calls on the Interior Department to approve a road for the village of King Cove:

Because our community has no hospital or doctor, we must travel 600 miles to Anchorage for most medical procedures, including childbirth. Our local clinic is staffed with heroes, but there is only so much the health providers can do with limited equipment.
King Cove, surrounded by volcanic mountains and water, is cut off from the rest of the world. It is a place of unmatched natural beauty and diversity, but the weather -- fog, high winds and fierce winter squalls -- can easily turn deadly.
I support efforts to protect this land for future generations. My Aleut ancestors have worshiped this land for thousands of years. Conservation is the way of my people. We cared for the land long before the existence of the United States and certainly long before parts of it were dedicated as the Izembek National Wildlife Reserve in 1980.
But the federal government gave no thought to the safety of my people when it designated the traditional land route between King Cove and Cold Bay as a wilderness area and banned all motorized travel. The people were not consulted on how their lives would be affected by losing land access to the all-weather airport built by the U.S. military in Cold Bay.

Get the Story:
Etta Kuzakin: King Cove still waits for a road to save lives (The Alaska Dispatch News 12/22)