News from Seward Peninsula, Alaska
A Nome reading teacher is off to Stanford for a Ph.D. — studying how Inuit knowledge and values can be built into what schools actually teach.

NWS Fairbanks has kept the Northern Seward Peninsula, Upper Kobuk Valleys, and Lower Koyukuk Valley under a Fire Weather Watch through Wednesday evening, while a separate Red Flag Warning for the Upper Koyukuk Valley runs until midnight July 9. Forecasters flagged uncertainty about how far north thunderstorms could push.

After nearly 20 years, work is underway to make Nome the first deepwater port in the American Arctic — a ~$600M project deep enough for Coast Guard icebreakers.

Land the gold rush claimed a century ago now belongs to Sitnasuak — permanently undevelopable, which lawyers may someday find interesting.

Graphite One, one step closer

Bering Air is seeking lease extensions at Nome and Unalakleet airports while the NTSB investigates the February 2025 crash of Flight 445 that killed 10 people, citing overweight aircraft as a major factor.

Teller residents pressed Graphite One on subsistence risks from the proposed Graphite Creek mine at a June 2026 meeting, raising concerns about caribou, fish, and marine mammal impacts. • Community members questioned spill response plans, dust and traffic in harvesting areas, and how the company would enforce hiring and revenue commitments rather than merely promise them. • The company met privately with Native entities before the public meeting, a sequencing that drew scrutiny from attendees.
Bering Straits promoted Nome shareholder Brittany Daletas to VP of operations — a step in something ANCs keep working at: growing their own shareholders into the people who run them.

A Bethel grand jury indicted a former Nome foster parent on 47 counts of sexual abuse. State troopers believe more victims exist.

Nome Common Council cut school funding by $500,000 to $2.7 million for fiscal 2027, forcing the district to eliminate positions including teachers, counselors, and a school psychologist while class sizes grow.

A dull state permit reveals something distinctly Alaskan: a Nome resident wants to taxi his plane from his own yard onto the airport — the kind of access rural life runs on.

Alaska Department of Fish and Game has established a Wednesday-to-Monday subsistence fishing schedule and 25-fish household limits for Norton Sound salmon fisheries in 2026, prioritizing escapement and subsistence needs over commercial harvest.
State Representative Neal Foster, a Democrat who has served House District 39 since 2009, filed for re-election emphasizing his seniority and work on rural energy assistance, dividend payments, and senior benefits.

Nome shipped 4,000 pounds of old electronics to the Lower 48 — because rural Alaska's unlined landfills can't safely hold the poison inside them, so the only option is to haul it out.

