A Yup’ik elder born to nomadic parents in western Alaska just after the start of the Great Depression has become the first person counted in the 2020 Census.
Lizzie Chimiugak was honored during a ceremony Tuesday at the school in Toksook Bay, just off Alaska’s western coast in the Bering Sea.
The 90-year-old took the opportunity to perform with Alaska Native dancers during the ceremony.
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She also raised the alarm of climate change and what it’s doing to the fish and animals of western Alaska to other women at the ceremony.
