Each year, Alaska distributes dividends from money earned from oil exploration and development to its residents. Last year, each man, woman, and child in the state received $1,540. However, the Alaska Permanent Fund, the source of these dividends, is in trouble, thanks to the downturn on Wall Street. It is possible that no checks will be sent out next year, since the Fund’s principal cannot be touched. While many Alaskans spend the dividend on nonessentials and luxury items, for others, especially in rural and indigenous communities, each check can be essential in meeting the high costs of living - in Dillingham, for example, milk sells for $6 a gallon. Indigenous Alaskans living traditional subsistence lifestyles may be hurt significantly. Though they hunt and fish to live, they must pay as much as $2.45 per gallon for gasoline in order to go hunting with the all-terrain vehicles and snowmobiles that are nearly universal in rural Alaska.
