Alaska’s Vanishing Native Villages

April 22, 2025
7/6c: pbs.org/frontline, PBS App
10/9c: PBS stations (check local listings), YouTube
& the PBS Documentaries Prime Video Channel
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Researchers have found that parts of Alaska are warming at up to four times the rate of most of the rest of the world. That trend has left some Alaska Native villages fighting for their survival — and even facing relocation, as a new short documentary from FRONTLINE and the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at Arizona State University explores.

“Our ancestors said one day we will come upon this day,” Agatha Napoleon, climate change coordinator for the Native Village of Paimiut — a tribe that is proposing to relocate its people to higher ground — says in the documentary. “I didn’t think it would happen in my lifetime.”

Premiering on PBS and online this Earth Day, on Tuesday, April 22, Alaska’s Vanishing Native Villages examines how these remote coastal communities are navigating flooding, erosion, warming temperatures, and bureaucratic challenges. The documentary is written, produced and directed by Patty Talahongva, an award-winning journalist who is from the Hopi tribe, and produced by Lauren Mucciolo, the executive producer of the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at ASU.

Alaska’s Vanishing Native Villages follows Talahongva, who also serves as correspondent, as she makes multiple trips into the far western part of Alaska, near the Bering Sea and the Arctic Circle. She speaks to residents and local leaders about the challenges they face, tough decisions around preserving their way of life — which relies on harvesting foods from the sea and the land that aren’t sold in stores — and the prospect of relocating.

“As long as we’re able to continue to practice our traditions, tell our stories, we will always have the basic building blocks to maintain the culture and to continue to grow it,” says Estelle Thomson, president of one of the 229 federally recognized tribes in Alaska.

FRONTLINE’s two-part April 22 broadcast hour will also feature an updated presentation of Crime Scene: Bucha. This 2022 documentary from FRONTLINE, The Associated Press and SITU Research investigated the atrocities committed in the Ukrainian town of Bucha during Russia’s month-long occupation in March of that year. Crime Scene: Bucha is available to stream anytime.

Alaska’s Vanishing Native Villages will be available to watch at pbs.org/frontline and in the PBS App starting April 22, 2025, at 7/6c. It will premiere on PBS stations (check local listings) and on FRONTLINE’s YouTube channel that night at 10/9c and will also be available on the PBS Documentaries Prime Video Channel. Subscribe to FRONTLINE’s newsletter to get updates on events, podcast episodes and more related to Alaska’s Vanishing Native Villages.

Credits
Alaska’s Vanishing Native Villages is a FRONTLINE Production with Five O’Clock Films. The correspondent, writer, producer and director is Patty Talahongva. The producer is Lauren Mucciolo. The co-producer is Belén Tavares. The senior producer is Frank Koughan. The editor-in-chief and executive producer of FRONTLINE is Raney Aronson-Rath.

About FRONTLINE
FRONTLINE, U.S. television’s longest running investigative documentary series, explores the issues of our times through powerful storytelling. FRONTLINE has won an Academy Award® as well as every major journalism and broadcasting award, including 108 Emmy Awards and 34 Peabody Awards. Visit pbs.org/frontline and follow us on X, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube to learn more. FRONTLINE is produced at GBH in Boston and is broadcast nationwide on PBS. Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Additional support for FRONTLINE is provided by the Abrams Foundation, Park Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Heising-Simons Foundation, and the FRONTLINE Journalism Fund, with major support from Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation, and additional support from Koo and Patricia Yuen. Additional support for Alaska’s Vanishing Native Villages is provided by the GBH Climate and Environment Fund.

About the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at Arizona State University
The Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at Arizona State University is a ground-breaking, hands-on experience in which students learn how to produce deeply researched watchdog journalism that professional partners want to share with their audiences. The Howard Center is based at ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication and is supported by a grant from the Scripps Howard Foundation. Through the training and education it provides and the projects it produces, the Howard Center is developing the next generation of investigative reporters. Learn more at https://howardcenter.asu.edu/.

Press Contact
FRONTLINE | Anne Husted, Director of Marketing and Communications | frontlinemedia@wgbh.org | 617.300.5312

Howard Center for Investigative Journalism, inside the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University | Lauren Mucciolo, Executive Producer | howardcenter@asu.edu | Tel. 602-496-2420