Rural economic drivers: work abundant, jobs and cash scarce.

• Author: Stricker, Julie
• Position: NATIVE BUSINESS

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Cynthia and Dale Erickson have operated Tanana Commercial for more than 20 years. The store in the small village of Tanana on the banks of the Yukon River sells groceries, fuel and general merchandise. In the past few years, they opened a deli and provide lodging for visitors.

It seems an unlikely success story. Tanana is 130 air miles northwest of Fairbanks. There are no roads. Freight costs are high and the weather is often harsh. The village population has fallen by a third in 20 years. But the Ericksons have worked hard and know their community, which is the site of a traditional crossroads where the Tanana and Yukon rivers meet. Fishing, timber, fur and other components of a traditional subsistence lifestyle are important in the region.

The store employs four full-time and one part-time employee. Running it is a family affair.

"It's been a good way to raise the kids," Dale Erickson says. "They learned how to work."

ECONOMIC ENGINES

Small businesses, such as Tanana Commercial, are pistons in the economic engine for rural Alaska, which for hundreds of years has depended on the state's vast natural resources. Most of the economic activity outside Alaska's urban centers takes place in areas with abundant natural resources, such as timber, minerals, petroleum and fishing. On a smaller scale, Alaskans also look to the land to make a living through village woodlots and traplines.

Hubs such as Bethel, Kotzebue and Barrow provide hundreds of jobs and opportunities through health care, education and transportation. Government is the state's top source of employment, both in urban and rural areas. Tourism is second only to petroleum as a leading industry. Transportation is another key industry, providing $3.5 billion and contributing to more than 47,000 jobs statewide--10 percent of all the jobs in the state.

World-class mineral deposits form their own economies. For example, the giant Red Dog zinc and lead mine in Northwest Alaska employed 47,5 people full-time and another 80 temporary jobs for a total payroll of $48.9 million in 2007. It is the sole taxpayer in the Northwest Arctic Borough and also paid $58 million in royalties to NANA Regional Corp., 62 percent of which was shared with other Alaska Native corporations.

Although many of the workers at Red Dog are NANA shareholders from the region, that isn't necessarily the case for other resource-development operations, says Scott Goldsmith, professor of economics at the...