It was November 25, 2097. The population of an old Yupik village is now 90,057. As I grew up I watched the place change. My grandfather used to tell me that people would change and the land would change too. About a hundred years ago the village population was less than four hundred. Now the village is a small city. We all live only off the stores because all the Native food we used to eat we can't find anymore. Even what we find we can't eat because it's poisonous. Most of the population in Marshall is now made up of Koreans. Way less than half is Native. We only travel by boat and truck or car anymore because there's no more snow. In fact I haven't seen any snow for about twenty five years now. The climate sure has changed in the last fifty years. Due to global warming the weather is always warm and the Yukon never freezes anymore. A lot of the people are dying of skin cancer from all the UV-B rays that they get because the ozone layer is disappearing. The Yukon is so dry it's like a slough now. What used to be called the Kuskokwim is now only a creek. Today is a lot different than a long time ago. We are suffering just like people everywhere in the world. In many places they have to use oxygen masks on certain days because there's so little oxygen left. One of the reasons is that most of the trees are gone because corporations like Mitsubishi have wiped out most of the trees all over the world. Also, the old TAPS pipeline broke a few years ago and spilled over thirty million barrels of oil into Alaska's rivers, including the Yukon River. After the oil spill, water resources all over Alaska are now contaminated. One of my few sons last year died from drinking poisonous water. People don't seem to have learned because the population is still increasing. Last week the hospital counted twenty-one pregnant women, and only four sick people. But we've averaged about two murders per month.

There are 25 schools here in Marshall. The high school I went to a 100 years ago has only grades 9-12. It is named after of one of the oldest elders. The other six high schools are on the other side of Wilson Creek where there are houses all the way up the side of the mountain. The biggest building here is five stories high. Long ago we only had a couple of buildings that were two stories high.

I sure hope we don't have to live like that in a 100 years!

By Joel Isaac