This Day in Alaskan History-March 13th, 1918
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Alaska Natives in Bering Strait Region Brace Against COVID-19
WASHINGTON – Today, the small Native Inupiaq community of Shishmaref is best known for its struggle against coastal erosion: Set on a tiny barrier island in Alaska, just south of the Arctic Circle, it is slowly being eaten up by the rising Chukchi Sea. But Shishmaref is also known as the only village […]
Village Grave Led to Virus Breakthrough
One-hundred-two years ago, a strain of influenza virus spread across the globe, eventually reaching Brevig Mission in Alaska. Five days after the flu hit the Seward Peninsula, 72 of the 80 villagers in Brevig Mission were dead. Through a series of events suited to a detective novel, researchers made a connection between Brevig Mission […]
Villager’s remains lead to 1918 flu breakthrough
The revival of the virus responsible for the 1918 Spanish flu, the killer of millions of people, was the end of a long journey for Johan Hultin. Hultin, 90, twice retrieved samples of the virus from the lungs of flu victims preserved by permafrost in an Alaska village. Molecular pathologists used the latter of those […]