"The Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta is a constellation of small Alaska Native communities, and nearly half the region's population - some 10,000 people - learn to speak Yugtun, the Central Yup'ik dialect, before they learn English. Farther north, approximately 3,000 people speak Iñupiaq. But when the translations came through and journalists at the local public radio station, KYUK, tried to read them, they found that the material was nonsense."
""They were Yup'ik words all right, but they were all jumbled together, and they didn't make sense," said Julia Jimmie, who is Yup'ik and works as a translator at KYUK. "It made me think that someone somewhere thought that nobody spoke or understood our language anymore." Three years later, the region is reeling from another storm: Typhoon Halong, whose remnants displaced more than 1,500 residents and killed at least one person in the village of Kwigillingok in mid-October."
"Prisma International, a Minneapolis-based company, posted an ad seeking "experienced, professional Translators and Interpreters" of Yup'ik, Iñupiaq, and other Alaska Native languageson Oct. 21, the day before the Trump administration approved a disaster declaration for the storm. The company has contracted with FEMA more than 30 times over the last few years, according to government records. Its website says that Prisma's tools "combine AI and human expertise to accelerate translation, simplify language access, and enhance communication across audiences, systems, and users.""
Historic storms in Western Alaska displaced residents and prompted FEMA to hire contractors to translate disaster aid applications. Nearly half of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta population speaks Yugtun (Central Yup'ik) before English, and about 3,000 people speak Iñupiaq farther north. Translations provided earlier were found to be jumbled and nonsensical, undermining access to assistance. Prisma International, a frequent FEMA contractor, advertised for Yup'ik and Iñupiaq translators and describes tools that combine AI and human expertise. The recurrence of severe storms and continued contractor use of AI-driven translation have raised concerns about accuracy, language access, and cultural respect.
Read at High Country News
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