Baker's win leads top 10 stories of 2011: A look back at the leading headlines of the past year

December 29th 8:38 pm | Carey Restino    

The bittersweet year 2011 was full of controversy and victory for the North Slope and Northwest region of Alaska, with contentious elections and the sweetest of wins for Kotzebue's favorite musher, Barrow basketball players, and the communities facing a raging storm predicted to pack a deadly punch. Here are a few of the stories that rose to the top this year.

1. Native Iditarod winner breaks record

"John Baker wins it, baby" the Arctic Sounder headline writer emoted March 15, 2011. "In record time!" Baker had just done what few imagined possible 35 years ago when the last Alaska Native won the race. He completed the southern route, covering 1,123 miles in 8 days, 18 hours, 46 minutes and 39 seconds.

"Running a team like this, there's nothing better," Baker told reporters after his historic finish. "This is what life is supposed to be. They don't quit, they're willing to climb any obstacle and make the most of it. I'm really proud of them."

The race was much more than a victory for the Kotzebue musher. Many along the race trail said it was a victory for Native pride, for the Inupiaq, who have never won an Iditarod, and for rural Alaska mushers, who struggle to compete with those on the road system, where food and resources are less expensive.

"I felt the spirit move me to welcome him into Inupiaq country," said Sheldon Katchatag, who donned traditional clothes and a drum to welcome Baker into Unalakleet. "I did that at 5 o'clock in the morning because I identify with him."

2. Barrow girls take state undefeated

If you are going to win, you might as well win all the way. That must have been what the Barrow girls basketball team was thinking when it capped a perfect 26-0 season with a 58-31 win over rival Kotzebue in the championship game of the Class 3A state tournament in Anchorage in March.

It was the second state championship title in school history for the Lady Whalers, and the first under rookie head coach Jordyn Danner.

"I don't even know what to say," Danner told Arctic Sounder reporter Van Williams as she wiped the tears from her face. "I'm just so excited. We have worked so hard, you know? This team has really come together. We are a family."

Dominating center Lynette Hepa led the way with 14 points, 23 rebounds and 5 blocked shots in a performance every bit as big as her 6-foot-4 frame. Teammates Melissa Gerke and Nicole Smith added 12 points apiece while Jaleen Simmonds and Julia Kim each scored nine points.

"We were determined to win it," said Smith, who also made 10 steals. "We've been working hard all season and we just wanted this to be special."

3. Brower first woman to take North Slope Borough mayor's seat

With a flurry of thanks, a pledge to serve, and a song, Charlotte Brower was sworn in to the North Slope mayor seat mid-November after election results showed her leading over candidate George Ahmaogak, Sr. by 62 votes.

Ahmaogak, however, has contested the results, saying that ballots were lost, and votes were not properly counted. The North Slope Borough assembly moved to authorize an investigation of the claims made by Ahmaogak. The investigation continues into 2012, with an independent lawyer presiding over the hearings. Allegations of vote-buying by one borough assembly member have been forwarded to Alaska State Troopers, as well.

The borough assembly also moved to certify the election results in November,, however, despite the contest, with 1,022 votes counted for Brower, 960 for Ahmaogak.

"My goal is to put together the best team available," Brower told those gathered to watch the proceedings. "I'm here to serve you."

While she said she knows some people will not agree with the decisions she makes, she asked them to remember whose interests she has in mind.

"I want each of you to always remember, the decisions I make will be those that I believe are in the best interests of the people of the North Slope Borough, including the future generations of the North Slope Borough," Brower told those gathered to observe her swearing in.

The road to the mayor's seat has been a long one for Brower, the wife of whaling captain and former borough mayor Eugene Brower. The initial election drew six candidates, including Fenton Rexford, who launched a write-in campaign that nearly beat Ahmaogak for the second slot in the election. Brower consistently led the vote counts. A runoff election followed, with an imperfect election day. Nov. 8 was an extraordinary day as a storm bore down on Western Alaska and many communities focused their energies on preparing for a potential disaster. Voter turnout was robust in communities like Barrow, but initial voter turnout counts from the smaller villages were in the single digits.

Though most of the election trail focused on the issues, the last weeks of the campaign turned contentious, as Ahmaogak and Brower and their supporters traded jabs highlighting the long and not always pretty political history of the two candidates and their families and key advisors. Ahmaogak's campaign took a hit shortly before the first election when his wife, Maggie, was charged with embezzling nearly a half-million from the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission.

4. Alaska Coast Survives 'Blizzicane'

It was compared to a Category III hurricane, stretched across an area that would have spanned from Mexico to Washington State and packed a one-two punch of destructive winds followed by a high storm surge, but for the most part, Western Alaska weathered the storm with little damage.

That's not to say that damage didn't occur. Point Hope reported flooding and lost power. Impacts to other communities in low-lying areas, such as Kivalina, were similar. While Kotzebue, which was buffered by sea ice, weathered the high winds and high seas well, other communities reported no sea ice to protect their ocean fronts from the impact of a storm surge that threatened to top seawalls.

As winds started to blow on November 9, Joe Casados, who works for the city of Point Hope, said he had clocked winds topping 50 miles per hour. Later reports from weather buoys showed winds reaching 80 miles per hour in the area.

Point Hope Mayor Steve Oomittuk said the community was prepared, but concerned. The plan going into the storm was for residents of the community of more than 700 people at sticking out into the Chukchi Sea to shelter in place until they needed to evacuate. The village school, which is built 10-12 feet above ground, was the designated shelter if people needed to leave their homes. But beyond that, the residents had few options.

"We've been fighting for years to get an evacuation route," said Oomittuk. "We have a road that goes six miles and reaches 44 feet above sea level, but we've got no buildings or shelter there."

Still, reports from Point Hope residents as the storm progressed were upbeat. Genny Lyda,, who works at the community's health clinic, reported Wednesday morning that power was out, and people were moving to the school where there was a generator to keep warm. She said while many in the community were concerned about the storm, they were prepared.

Oomittuk said the risk in his area was compounded by the lack of sea ice.

"We have open water and no sign of ice," he said. "When we have ice, you can see the ice moving, but it doesn't generate that big of a swell to do much damage."

Emergency agencies across western Alaska met with small communities like Point Hope via phone on Tuesday and Wednesday when possible, but the general plan across the state was to allow the communities to choose whether to try to evacuate or to shelter in place, said Bryan Fisher, chief of operations for the Alaska Division of Homeland Security.

"Our priority is to support these local communities with whatever they need," Fisher said. "Once the damage is assessed, we will provide the resources necessary to respond to the event."

5. Arctic openings get Coast Guard's attention

The nation's increasing interest in the Arctic led a Coast Guard admiral, several bureaucrats and a gaggle of journalists to Barrow in June.

They came aboard a Coast Guard Hercules C-130 that's specially equipped to play a role in analyzing climate change: inlet tubes on the aircraft allow equipment on board to measure greenhouse gases high above Alaska.

With melting sea ice allowing increased access to the Arctic Ocean, a global race is on to unlock the region's potential, with countries such as Russia, China and the United States jockeying for position. Ship traffic in the Arctic is on the rise. Oil companies are looking to drill the ocean floor, tourists are seeking new adventures, and shipping companies are chasing a quicker route to Asia's growing consumer market.

The Coast Guard's responsibilities are growing, too.

"There used to be ice most of the year round in the areas that are now open water," said Rear Admiral Thomas Ostebo, the new head of the Coast Guard's Alaska district.

"We ought to understand how the Coast Guard would respond now that that activity's happening, just like we would off the coast of Miami, just like we would off the coast of New England."

A highlight of the day trip included a drop-in visit to a search-and-rescue "tabletop" exercise headquartered in Ilisagvik College in Barrow.

The Coast Guard organized the exercise, which included local agencies and emergency responders.

The question: How ready is the Coast Guard to respond if, God forbid, a tourist ship goes down?

The answer: Not very.

"The Coast Guard doesn't have any publicly assigned assets (in the Arctic). None.

Zero," Ostebo said.

There's no air station. No facilities to house men. The Coast Guard owns a single, aging icebreaker that's based in Seattle and now headed to Alaska, the Healy.

"How exactly would we mitigate the damage from the mishap? How would we rescue all those people? Where would we take them?"

"If you take 100 people in a mass casualty to Barrow, then what? They obviously don't have the infrastructure to take care of that, so where would you take them for advanced medical care? How would you respond to the salvage of a vessel?"

The effort will help the Coast Guard learn what's needed, and make a case to expand its assets in the Arctic.

"This (trip) is really about education for us," said Ostebo, who'd never visited Barrow before. "Learning about the environment, understanding what the requirements are, and once we have that figured out, what are the right capabilities and where do we put them."

One of the big questions: Does the Arctic need a deepwater port? If so, where is the most "cost-effective and operationally efficient" spot to locate it?

What type of ships should the Coast Guard operate?

Answers to those questions will produce more questions, including: Who pays for what? The media were brought along in part to let the nation know about the Coast Guard's challenges in the Arctic, Ostebo said.

"There's a lot of people that think they know the Arctic and have never been there and have never really seen the challenges that we face," he said.

The tabletop exercise is a lead-in to other efforts expected to take place this summer, such as on-water drills. The Coast Guard is also thinking about creating an emergency towing system for use in the North Slope region, a massive package of towing equipment that can be launched or dropped onto a vessel to pull another ship in trouble.

6. Couple buys weeklies to revive community news

A desire to provide the same kind of friendly and local news they grew up with in rural Alaska sparked an Anchorage couple's decision to step into the struggling newspaper industry.

Jason Evans and Kiana Peacock, both 38 and from Western Alaska communities, remember the days when people passed around their community newspaper or clipped out articles of family and friends winning awards, playing basketball and serving the community.

Newspapers today are still vital in Northwest Alaska and other rural corners of the state, where the Internet is rela- tively slow to arrive and people can spend weeks at a time in the wilderness at fishing and hunting camps.

"It gave an opportunity for people in the community to shine and show off their kids accomplishments and their own accomplishments," said Peacock.

In high school, she helped design The Arctic Sounder before that work was done on computers.

"I actually worked on helping lay it out ... cutting and pasting the articles so we could get it to the printer," said Peacock.

The Sounder, covering Inupiaq communities in the Kotzebue and Barrow regions, is one of three newspapers she and her husband bought from Alaska Newspapers Inc., in an agreement announced recently. The terms of the deal weren't disclosed.

Parent company Calista Corp. announced last month it was shutting down the chain of six rural weeklies and other publications after a 19-year run, saying they weren't making enough money to cover rising transportation costs and other expenses.

7. Maggie Ahmaogak indicted for stealing $475,000 from Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission

Fresh off a campaign stop in the village of Point Hope, North Slope Borough mayoral hopeful George Ahmaogak Sr., found himself taking the long way home to Barrow. Bad weather forced him to loop through Kotzebue and continue on to Anchorage, where he had no way of knowing that an entirely different type of fall storm had just blown in.

In September, a federal grand jury indicted Maggie Ahmaogak, the wife of North Slope Borough mayoral hopeful George Ahmaogak Sr, in an embezzlement case.

George Ahmaogak, a five-time former mayor for the North Slope Borough running a strong campaign against four challengers, told reporters that the development won't derail his candidacy. And he questioned whether the timing of the indictment had more to do with him than his wife. This summer, he said, campaign opponents engaged in a whisper campaign about his wife's pending legal problems to try to discredit him.

"It is bad for me. (It's) kind of like déjà vu, like what Senator Stevens went through," George Ahmaogak said in an interview Thursday, referring to the late U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, who eight days before his November 2008 failed re-election bid was found guilty by jurors in a federal corruption case.

Prosecutors deny any political meddling.

"George is not going to be charged and this is absolutely not a politically motivated case against Maggie. Neither the case nor the timing of it has anything to do with the elec- tion," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Aunnie Steward, one of the federal prosecutors handling the case.

Maggie Ahmaogak, 61, is accused of stealing $475,000 from the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission, where she served as the group's executive director for 17 years until 2007, when she got fired after financial irregularities were uncovered. She is also the second person charged with dip- ping into the whaling commission's federal funds. In July, Teresa Judkins, who took over as executive director after Ahmaogak's departure, was indicted for taking $100,000 of the group's money for her own use.

Within hours of his wife's indictment, George Ahmaogak was doing what he could to calm voters. "These accusations are baseless," he announced in a statement swiftly posted to his campaign website. "My wife has been cooperating with federal investigators for more than nine months, and we cannot believe her cooperation has ended with a sudden indictment one week prior to the election. My wife will be entering a not-guilty plea. The George Ahmaogak, Sr. campaign is still on track."

George Ahmaogak acknowledged that he has traveled and gambled with his wife on some of their trips together, but he declined to offer details, citing the pending case and the fact that he's already answered authorities' questions. If he did gamble with Maggie, it was on their own time and with their own money, he said.

"It doesn't appear that this was in the form of stealing and I think that we can prove that," he said.

The whaling commission is a nonprofit formed in 1976 to protect Inupiat and Yupik Eskimos' relationship to bow- head whales. It conducts whale research and promotes cul- tural and hunting traditions. Largely funded by federal sources, it pulled in $2.4 million from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration between 2004 and 2007, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's office.

Maggie Ahmaogak, accused of stealing about a fifth of that amount from the whaling commission, is charged with wire fraud, two counts of theft from an organization receiving federal funds, and money laundering. She faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each count.

The indictment says Maggie Ahmoagak used the nearly half-million dollars to pay herself unauthorized bonuses, take cash and payroll advances which were never repaid, wrote checks and wired money to herself from whaling commission accounts, including about $32,000 diverted just before or during gambling sprees. She also allegedly bought groceries, meals, airline tickets, paid utility and medical bills for herself and family members, bought snow machines and put a down payment on a Hummer.

The ill-gotten Hummer may be the very vehicle George Ahmaogak used to relocate himself to Anchorage in early 2006 when he took a job with Shell Oil after leaving the North Slope Borough mayor's office a few months earlier. Ahmaogak "lit out of Barrow in mid-January in his wife's Hummer H2, bouncing for 17 hours across open, roadless tundra to Deadhorse, then down the highway to Anchorage," the Anchorage Daily News wrote at the time about Ahmaogak's job change.

This time period in George Ahmaogak's life coincides with when, according to prosecutors, Maggie's fraud scheme took place. In addition to not getting routine finan- cial audits for the whaling commission from 2003 to 2007, the move to Anchorage in 2006 allowed Maggie to move the group's operations out of Barrow and farther from view.

Once in Anchorage, Maggie failed to properly document how she was spending whaling commission money, according to the indictment.

In the years since Maggie Ahmaogak was fired from the whaling commission, the group has struggled to regain stability following discovery of the thefts. It has an entirely new staff, new auditing procedures and has cooperated with authorities, said Johnny Aiken, the whaling commission's current executive director. He was at the group's office in Barrow on Thursday, where word of Maggie Ahmaogak's indictment didn't come lightly.

"It is a very sad day for our community and for AEWC," Aiken said of learning about the indictment on the group's former longtime director. "We have been having to fight extra hard to get our funding because of this," he said.

8. Kotzebue teen gets invite to White House

Two years ago, when Tessa Baldwin began her efforts to combat the devastating Alaska Native suicide rate, the subject was all but taboo.

"No school, no student, no teacher wanted to talk about suicide," Baldwin, who comes from Kotzebue is now a senior at Mt. Edgecumbe, said. "Teachers said they really didn't want their children learning about suicide because then they might do it. That really goes to show how much things have changed."

Now, Baldwin has a steady list of requests for her presentation from schools around the state. And on Dec. 1 and 2, she presented before President Obama.

The presidential invitation came through the Native American Youth Challenge program through which young American Indian and Alaska Native leaders were asked to submit their stories of leadership and service to their communities.

"I filled it out not knowing really what I was getting myself into," Baldwin said, adding that she never could have imagined when she made her first speech about suicide awareness that she would one day be invited to the White House. "I didn't think about my campaign going national at all, or even traveling around the state."

But Baldwin's compelling story, as well as the fact that at 17, she is not another adult standing before students, may well be the impetus for a change in attitude across the state about the taboo nature of suicide.

At the age of 5, she witnessed her uncle take his life. Last year, her boyfriend did, too. And in total, Baldwin has known six people close to her who have committed suicide. That's a lot, but not an uncommon amount in Native Villages, where the number of deaths by suicide is typically twice the national average.

"The books don't tell you how to deal with suicide after it happens," Baldwin said. "It helps to communicate with each other, and take care of one and other."

Baldwin's journey as a suicide prevention speaker picked up over the last year after telling her story to the Alaska Association of Student Governments. She got a 500-person standing ovation. Now, Baldwin has founded the nonprofit Hope4Alaska, focusing on suicide prevention, and has amassed a crew of nine to help her lead the charge. Alaska Marketplace, which is funded through the Alaska Federation of Natives, recently endowed the nonprofit with $25,000 to help pay for Baldwin's traveling expenses and create a suicide awareness program for free to schools.

Baldwin said when she speaks to students, she tries to communicate to them that she understands and cares.

"I get a lot of people talking to me about how they have thought about suicide or known someone," Baldwin said. "They say it's helpful for them to hear my story, that they have never had anyone talk about suicide in their community."

What does Baldwin do when someone tells them such personal details?

"I tell them that I am there for them, that they matter to me, and I try to keep in touch with them and build a strong relationship."

Baldwin said she plans to continue her efforts to talk to as many youth as possible before leaving for college next fall. She said she hopes to encourage other youth to share their stories and continue what she has started after she leaves. The schedule is grueling, with trips scheduled each weekend, but she said the effort is worth it.

"I hope someday that no one else has to feel the way I felt going through these struggles," she said.

9. Seal deaths stump scientists

Scientists are still stumped as to what is causing ringed seals and walruses in Northwest Alaska to be afflicted with lesions, become lethargic, and in many cases, die. On Tuesday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced it had declared the die-off an "unusual mortality event," opening the door to more study and investigation into the cause.

"Alaska coastal communities depend on ringed seals for food," said Julie Speegle, a NOAA public affairs officer. "There has been a great deal of concern about this event."

Samples taken from the seals were sent off for testing to numerous laboratories last fall, but screening for 18 known pathogens has come back negative, scientists reported during a teleconference on the topic. While no reports of the affliction passing to humans or pets have been reported, hunters are being advised to use traditional and customary safe handling practices and fully cook all meat as well as wash hands and bleach equipment that may have come in contact with a diseased animal.

According to a release, testing is continuing on the animals looking at numerous factors that may be responsible for the seal affliction. Everything from stressors relating to sea ice changes to radiation exposure and immune-system diseases are being considered, the report said.

Since mid-July, some 60 dead and 75 diseased seals have been reported in Alaska. Reports continue to come in from the Bering Straight region as harvesting continues in that area. In addition, skin lesions have been seen on walruses near Point Lay, where a haul-out of some 20,000 animals was studied this fall. Scientists studying the walruses, however, reported relatively low mortality rates, despite observing many animals with the lesions.

Necropsies and lab tests have found lesions, fluid in the lungs white spots on the liver and abnormal brain growths, the release said. Some animals were found with smaller-than-usual lymph nodes, which could indicate that the animal's immune system was compromised.

The abnormal lesions do not appear to be isolated to Alaska. Seals and walruses in Canada and Russia have also been noted with similar symptoms.

"While it is not clear if the disease events are related, the timing and location of the disease suggests the possibility of transmission between the populations, or shared exposure to an environmental cause," the release said.

A working group has been formed to study the event, and last week recommend- ed to NOAA and the National Fish and Wildlife Service that the agencies declare an unusual mortality event. The Fish and Wildlife Service had not immediately made such a declaration, though one was expected, Speegle said.

10. Free dinner hard to swallow after $50,000 find

A Barrow man has proven the adage that honesty is sometimes its own reward, when he found a suitcase containing $50,000 in cash lying on the side of the road.

It's a discovery that would tempt even the most upstanding citizen, but Gilford Mongoyak Jr. handed it all over to the police. It turned out the money belonged to a local restaurant, which was overjoyed to get it back. Mongoyak's reward?

A free dinner.

Mongoyak, who makes his living carving and making other art, was cruising around Barrow in a rental truck Dec. 30 when he noticed a small, light brown suitcase on the ground by Salmon Beach.

Trucks and people passed by it without taking notice, but Mongoyak picked it up to see who it belonged to.

There was no tag or identification on the

case, so Mongoyak took it home. When he and his wife opened it up they found, wrapped in soft, white tissue paper, stacks of crisp hundred-dollar bills - lots of them.

"I started shaking a little bit, just seeing so much money," Mongoyak said.

Mongoyak figured there must be $10,000 in the case. He talked it over with his wife, and they agreed to turn the money over to the public safety department. When a corrections officer looked in the case, "he looked up at me and said, I don't believe there is $10,000, this must be $50,000."

"Even my hands were shaking to find this out," Mongoyak said.

The police officer said Osaka Restaurant had reported a missing suitcase but hadn't mentioned there was cash inside.

"Then a lady from Osaka came (to the station) and she was real happy, she was shaking, just like me," Mongoyak said. "She asked for my name and phone number and said she would call that night."

Mongoyak figured there might be a reward for returning the money, but the woman didn't call that night, or the next. Finally, he called her.

"I said, 'I'm the guy that found your suitcase, and what's in it for me?'" Mongoyak said. "All she answered me was - 'I'll buy you dinner.'"

"That kind of p'd me off, so I said, 'No thanks!'"

 

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