CLUB NEWTOK

Newtok is located on the Ninglick River, north of Nelson Island in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta Region. It is about ninety miles northwest of Bethel. Newtok encompasses about one square mile of land and is mostly surrounded by water. Temperatures range from 60ish in the summer to well below 0 in the deep winter months. Due to severe erosion, Newtok is in the process of relocating to a new site called Metarvik. The new site is approximately five miles away, on Nelson Island. Newtok is a traditional Yupik Eskimo village with an active subsistence lifestyle. Boats, four-wheelers, and snowmobiles are used for local transportation and subsistence activities. Households are not plumbed; “honey-buckets” are used instead. Water is pumped from a lake into a water treatment plant, and then hauled from a storage tank for use in homes and steam baths. About three hundred fifty people live in Newtok. The K-12 school, Ayaprun School, serves about one hundred thirty students. Enrollment in grades 6-12 is fifty-two students, twenty-nine of which are active members in our FTA Club Newtok!