St. Paul revived.

• Author: Kirkwood, Charlotte L.
• Position: Alaskan island in the Bering Sea

On October 28, 1983, the people of St. Paul paraded through their streets celebrating the withdrawal of the National Marine Fisheries Service from the Pribilof Islands Project, a program designed to manage the commercial harvest of the endangered northern fur seal. In an atmosphere filled with shouts and dust, the Aleut community was preparing for a new era, one of self-governance for the first time in more than 200 years.

Cheers sounded despite the fact that come Monday morning there would be no federal jobs. Cheers sounded despite the fact that 90 percent of the work force was employed by the federal government, or in positions created by federal activity.

While the town celebrated, local management, despite fewer jobs than people, worked feverishly to recreate jobs through St. Paul's three local organizations: the city of Saint Paul, Tanadgusix Corporation, and the St. Paul Tribal Council.

Others shook their heads in disbelief.

Critics on and off this remote Bering Sea island felt the federal government's retreat would result in the community's ultimate demise. Those early critics were wrong. Very wrong.

In the early '80s, leading national experts and federal staff said St. Paul couldn't survive and thrive economically without federal jobs provided by the National Marine Fisheries Service. They said the local people, mostly Aleuts, were not capable of developing a self-sufficient economy. They said the Aleut culture would collapse and ultimately everyone would move away.

They would soon find out. In 1983, the NMFS pulled out of the community, leaving residents to plan for their own futures. To ease the transition, the federal government established a trust fund with enough money to keep the community afloat for three years, but not enough to develop an essential infrastructure; to operate poorly maintained and antiquated sewer, water, power, and dump facilities; to construct a basic harbor; or to keep each of the 124 houses heated and its occupants fed.

The state offered to help with financing of a harbor and other municipal grant programs. And the city of St. Paul used reserve funds, carefully saved by then-City Manager Chauncina Bourdukofsky, until trust funds became available months later.

The town was on its own from there.

"The city couldn't have survived without the local reserve put away by Chauncina," said John R. Merculief, current city manager. "The people of St. Paul will always be in her debt."

Fifteen years later, this...