COST OF LIVING
Heating fuel per gallon: $6.55 a gallon
Gasoline: $6.72 a gallon
Can of evaporate milk: $2.05 a can (8 FL OZ)
Gallon of bottled water: $7.00 to $14.00
Capri sun Fruit Punch: $7.95 (10 pack)
Sunny D Fruit Punch: $3.05
Spinach Whole Leaf: $2.89 (canned)
Dasani water: $2.85 (20 oz)
Aquafina Water: $5.70 (28 oz.)
Oscar Meyer Wieners: $4.79
Pagoda Cafe Egg Rols Pork/V: $8.39
Jollly time popcorn homemade: $4.78
The Kivalina Native Store is operated by ANICA, Inc. based out of Seattle! It is owned by the Kivalina IRA Council, however, the financial part i.e. payroll is done out of Seattle. The prices are tripled from the wholesale costs.
Because of the water situation with Teck Cominco, they provided Reverse Osmosis systems that cleans water, takes out pollutants but most importantly, natural minerals. That made many people paranoid about drinking the water unless it's treated. So the store gets a lot of business with their bottled water. When Northwest Arctic Borough is coming in for meetings, they bring several cases of water with them.
SUBSISTENCE
It is getting more and more difficult to go out hunting for our foods from the ocean because of the price of gas. Success must be guaranteed because it takes at least 55 gallons of gas for one hunting trip and with the cost being $6.55 a gallon, that amounts to $360.25. Hunting for caribous is less costly but finding them is the problem. Only if they are sighted will most go out and hunt for them.
Fishing is the same but uses less gas. Berrypicking is the same but takes less gas and more trips.
Whaling camps must remain as long as they can on the ice. Gassing up 10 snowmachines by the captain can be quite costly.
FUEL COMPARISON
Anchorage gas: $3.94 average.
Kivalina gas: $6.55 average
What's wrong with the picture? Development is going to be in the Chukchi Sea, which is our garden. I wonder if we'll see lower prices. Somehow, I doubt it. :) Where is the justice in the development that threatens our resources, our mainstay? And we don't even enjoy low gas prices like Anchorage does and they are crying that it's too high.
DEVELOPMENT
We gather our major food source from the Chukchi Sea. An oil ship sank near Russia recently. The majority of the crew is still missing. Russia is only 220 miles away from Alaska. The current flows to the North, in that area lies Kivalina, Pt. Hope, Pt. Lay, Wainwright, Barrow, Nuiqsut, Atqasuk, etc. All whaling communities. It's okay, we're only Natives, right? Wrong! We fight but we've been referred to as being 'disenfranchised militants' by a Federal Government spokesperson for fighting to keep our waters clean and free of pollution. You develop your own opinion.