Photographing Americans seeking refuge from a rapidly changing environment

Alaska is the fastest-warming state in the nation. For many Native communities, rising temperatures have led to thawing permafrost, aggressive erosion and flooding. In Newtok — a Yupik village of nearly 400 — the damage is beyond repair.

Clinging to the western edge of the vast Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, the village was populated after the Bureau of Indian Affairs built a school in 1958. It was as far upriver as the barge carrying building supplies could travel.