Around a dozen people stood along Chief Eddie Hoffman Highway in Bethel on July 17, catching honks from passing vehicles during the midday lunch rush. Many of the signs, flags, and the faces behind them were familiar, but the small group of protesters said that the issues they were calling out have only compounded.
"We're saying no to Trump in the [Department of Government Efficiency] executive orders, cutting Medicaid, media, KYUK, we're going to lose it, the GED program. He just cut education programs, migrant ed[ucation]," organizer Beverly Hoffman said.
Hoffman has been front and center for most of the roughly half a dozen peaceful protests against the Trump administration that have fanned out from Bethel’s Yupiit Picaryarait Cultural Center in recent months.
"And then this whole [United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement] thing, masked men without identification, racial profiling and throwing people in alligator swamps and sending them to Sudan. It's, it's not democracy," Hoffman said.
On the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, many essential services are directly tied to federal dollars, and some of the issues Hoffman listed off are especially concerning for the region. Trump’s executive orders have already eliminated grants for critical infrastructure in villages. At the same time, Congress has approved reductions to food stamps and Medicaid that are likely to increase food insecurity and impact the region’s primary healthcare provider and largest employer, the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation.
Protester Ron Kaiser carried a double-sided sign, the same one he brought out to the side of the highway a couple months earlier. On one side it read “unpaid protester.” The other side labeled Trump a traitor, called Congress cowardly, and told Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan and Rep. Nick Begich III to do their jobs. Kaiser said that he wished he would have updated the sign following Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s vote to pass what he calls Trump’s “big ugly bill.”
"I should add the name Murkowski right there, actually, but a few weeks ago I wouldn't have had to add her name, but now I guess I do," Kaiser said.
While protester Shelly Andrews said that there appears to be no end in sight for the path the country is on, she said that it’s important to keep events large and small like today’s in Bethel going.
"If we don't keep our voice out here, protest and again, contacting representatives, voting, they're just going to steamroll over. What they want is fear and division," Andrews said.
For Hoffman, the theme of the national day of protest resonates with this warning.
"Never, ever be afraid to make some good noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble," Hoffman said.
Hoffman was quoting the late Georgia congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis, who advocated for nonviolent resistance, and who was honored in protests across the country on the fifth anniversary of his death on July 17.
For Alaska, July 17 was also significant because it marked the end of the main source of public radio funding in the state. Early that morning, the U.S. Senate voted to claw back roughly $1.1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Just after midnight the next day, the House approved the rescission, which included slashing roughly $7.9 billion in foreign aid funds as well.
For rural stations, the move could be devastating. According to High Country News, public radio stations in Alaska rely on federal funding for nearly 40% of their revenue on average. At KYUK, that number is 70%.
The historic attack on public media could severely hamper the ability of rural stations in Alaska to both serve and amplify the voices of the people. But if the July 17 protest was any indication, Alaskans like Hoffman, who worked as a reporter for KYUK in the mid 1970s, do not intend to keep quiet.
"I just saw a meme that, what was it? You're not gonna shut me up!" Hoffman said.
