High fuel and food prices mean Alaskans may have to choose between the two

Americans are having a tough time stretching their dollars to cover soaring energy costs. In Alaska, some people are choosing between buying food and buying fuel to power their vehicles and heat their homes. And as the state descends into winter, residents who live in some of the nation’s most remote communities say they're scared of what may come.

“Gas is so expensive,” said Merle Custer, a Tribal Council member from Shungnak, where gasoline currently costs $26 per gallon. Custer, an elder, who was born and raised in the small Inupiaq village just north of the Arctic Circle, said he’d never seen gas prices as high as they are this year. “Everybody gotta chip in for gas to go out hunting, chip in their gas.”

More than 80% of communities in Alaska are not connected by road, so people use boats, four-wheelers, and snowmachines to get around. They rely heavily on gas for travel and on diesel to heat their homes and keep their lights on. On top of those expenses, everything from their medication to their food gets shipped in. “When we want chicken, it’s almost $50; and a little piece of steak, $57,” said Custer.

Because store-bought food is so expensive in Alaska’s rural communities, most people live a traditional subsistence lifestyle. They use the warmer months to hunt and stock up on moose, caribou, plants, berries, and especially salmon. All of it goes into their freezers, and that’s what they eat during Alaska’s long, cold winter.

In Shismaref, up on the Chukchi Sea, Vivian Obruk said she is currently paying between $7 and $8 for the gas her family needs to go out hunting for seals. “We are well-known for what we call Shishmaref gold,” she laughed. “That’s our seal oil, and that comes from the ocean, the big bearded seal they call ugruk.”

Obruk’s son, Thomas, said it takes about 55 gallons of fuel to power the boat they use to hunt seals in the spring, when they haul out on the sea ice.

Seal oil is considered a condiment in many Alaska Native communities, but it’s getting harder to come by. This year, the family went without. In recent years, a changing climate means sea ice has become unreliable. “[We’ve had ]none for the past three, four years,” said Vivian Obruk.

Obruk said her family used to get four seals a year to help feed ten people who live in her household. Now, she said, $400 that would otherwise pay to power the family’s boat is going to pay for two or three small plastic bags worth of groceries from the only store in Shishmaref.

“It costs an arm and a leg; that’s why we really rely on subsistence and gathering,” she said.

“It’s a nightmare,” said Mike Williams, Sr., Tribal Chief in Akiak, a small Yup’ik village nestled on the banks of the Kuskokwim River, about 30 river miles north of Bethel. Williams blames geopolitics playing out thousands of miles from his small community.

“It’s this war, and tariffs are creating havoc to our prices,” he said.

In the last two years, Akiak residents have gone weeks without electricity because of mechanical problems with the community’s generator. This year, the community is not only dealing with high prices, but also a fuel shortage, according to Williams.

“It’s just unbelievable,” he said. “I’m scared of the winter and to sustain our power is gonna be real challenging this winter.”

Not only could his community be left in the dark, Williams added is that the reality is people may also be forced to choose between buying fuel and buying food.