Newtok, Alaska

Newtok (Central Yupik: Niugtaq) is a small village on the Ningliq River in the Bethel Census Area, Alaska, United States.

Climate change is forcing the primarily Central Yup'ik Alaska Native village to consider relocation.

In 2007, The New York Times reported that erosion made Newtok an island between the widening Ningliq River and a slough to the north, because Alaskan permafrost is melting due to climate change.

[8] The United States Army Corps of Engineers' March 2009 report estimates the highest point in the town, the high school, will be under water by the year 2017.

[9][10] The town was featured in the 2009 History Channel's TV show, Tougher in Alaska, in the episode called "Dangerous Earth.

"[11] In 2015, Newtok was one of the two towns featured in the Al Jazeera English Fault Lines documentary, When the Water Took the Land.

[18] As of 2016, although the town's roughly 400 residents voted in 2003 to relocate to higher ground nine miles away, progress has been slow.

Plans for 2019 include interior work in the community center so it can be used as a school, a generator building, and 13 more houses.

[22] In September 2022, Typhoon Merbok caused damage to fuel barrels and moved the ocean shoreline closer to the edge of the town.

Houses in the south of Newtok, 1974
Building that functioned as the Head Start school and church, 1974
New homes being constructed as part of the Mertarvik village project.
Bethel Census Area map