At 90, Native Alaska woman will be 1st counted in US Census

Lizzie Chimiugak has lived for 90 years in the windswept western wilds of Alaska, born to a nomadic family who lived in mud homes and followed where the good hunting and fishing led.

Her home now is an outpost on the Bering Sea, Toksook Bay, and she is about to become the most well-known woman in the tiny town, where at 90 she is considered an elder: She will be the first person counted in the US Census, taken every 10 years to apportion representation in Congress and federal money.

"Elders that were before me, if they didn't die too early, I wouldn't have been the first person counted," Lizzie Chimiugak said, speaking Yup'ik language of Yugtun, with family members serving as interpreters.

"Right now, they're considering me as an elder, and they're asking me questions I'm trying my best to give answers to, or to talk about what it means to be an elder."
"We are Yup'ik people and that the world will see that we are very strong in our culture and our traditions and that our Yup'ik language is very strong."