The ground is swallowing homes in this Native village in Alaska. Residents have no choice but to move

The climate crisis is causing the permafrost to melt in Alaska, forcing the village of Nunapitchuk to relocate.

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Estimates show that relocating Nunapitchuk could cost about $230m, but the village has collected just a fraction of that amount. In 2022, Nunapitchuk received $2.2m to repair a police station, and in 2024, the Bureau of Indian Affairs awarded it $250,000 to design a master plan for relocation.

During his term, Joe Biden started to devote more attention to addressing climate relocation. From 2021 to 2024, the then president hosted the White House Tribal Nations Summit, where 574 tribes, including residents from Nunapitchuk, met with the administration to demand action. In 2022, the Department of the Interior created the Voluntary Community-Driven Relocation Program to bolster climate relocation and planning efforts for tribal communities.

The Biden administration earmarked more than $560m to help tribes cope with the climate crisis, including through relocation, but earlier this year, the Trump administration froze $100m earmarked to these communities before it was doled out.

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