Changing Tides

The Yup’ik people have hunted, fished, and lived on the lands surrounding the village of Newtok, Alaska, for millennia. As a result of climate change, though, Newtok is one of thirty native Alaskan communities that must relocate before its land literally disappears.

In the 1950s, a barge carrying supplies for a Bureau of Indian Affairs school landed at a convenient location in the Yukon Delta. Traditionally, the Yup’ik people followed seasons across the landscape, but the federal government decided that this marshy estuary would serve as the permanent village location. In 1958, under threat of imprisonment, the U.S. government coerced the Yup’ik community, which lived in the summer village of Kayalavik, to move to Newtok in order to educate their children.

By 1983, melting permafrost was already threatening to eliminate Newtok altogether. Funding for the relocation repeatedly fell through even as rising waters endangered the community’s drinking water and homes began toppling into the river. By 2019, the village secured enough federal aid to build new homes nine miles away for a third of the residents. Today, the Newtok Village Council continues to lobby federal and state agencies to reunite the community. These photos are part of an ongoing body of work by photographers and filmmakers Andrew Burton and Michael Kirby Smith. Their feature-length documentary film, Newtok, which they filmed over a six-year period, will be released in 2022.

By 2019, the village secured enough federal aid to build new homes across the river on solid ground for a third of the villagers. Today, the Newtok Village Council continues to lobby federal and state agencies to reunite the community.

A close-up of a man’s head in a furry winter hat. — Newtok resident Murphy John walks home in -40-degree weather. Newtok’s residents say winters are far shorter and far warmer than they used to be.

Frozen water hangs from a long pipe outside of a building. — Frozen water from Newtok’s school clings to the end of a discharge pipe. The village receives the majority of its fresh water from a local pond but had to reroute the supply pipes in 2019 because of the encroaching river.

Five children and a dog play on a snowbank. — Children play on a snowdrift outside Newtok in winter 2020. The depths of winter used to begin around Halloween, but climate change pushes that date later every year.

“It’s not just about preservation of our culture. It’s about preserving our way of life. You cannot buy your roots. You cannot buy your seasonal hunting grounds. You cannot buy the knowledge that is accumulated over a lifetime on how to survive where most people think, how can you live, how is it even possible.” Newtok Tribal Administrator Andrew John

impact of climate change

In 2021, the world searched impact of climate change more than ever before.

Plants surround a window, which looks out on a snowy landscape. — A dream catcher hangs in the kitchen of Bernice Tom, a matriarch in Newtok. Tom is an avid gardener, managing to grow houseplants and peppers inside despite the village’s frigid winters.

A woman sits in a field, picking herbs. — Albertina Charles, a Yup’ik teacher at Newtok’s school, gathers “tundra tea,” an arctic herb similar to rosemary, outside the village. The majority of Newtok residents’ diet comes from food that is fished, hunted, and gathered.

Della Carl and her son, William, in their soon-to-be- demolished home in Newtok.

Children climb onto a small boat on a river, while a second boat, loaded with belongings, is behind it. — Villagers load into boats with their belongings as they relocate from Newtok, in 2019, to the newly built village of Mertarvik, nine miles away.

A small, spindly tree blows in the wind next to a river. — A tree planted by the Tom family in Newtok before it was swallowed by the river as the shore erodes.