Dennis Zaki is back from Emmonak and what he saw has inspired him.

Last night Dennis made his triumphant return and was greeted by the Alaska bloggers who helped to gather the donations for his trip. Celtic Diva, Progressive Alaska, Alaska Real, Mudflats, and myself were all in attendance and hung on every word as Dennis talked about his amazing and heartrending experiences in this village of 800 people.

Above you can see a picture of the children who came to see Dennis off as he boarded his plane to return to Anchorage. Dennis became very close to some of the children in the village. They followed him everywhere, were constantly full of questions, and fascinated with his video equipment and laptop computer.

Dennis was there when the five officials from the government arrived in Emmonak, and said that essentially they were a bunch of "jackasses" full of promises but no real solutions. Dennis said it was clear to him that they were only there to provide the appearance of concern and to cover for Governor Palin. (Update: I forgot to mention that these officials only gave the people of Emmonak 60 minutes notice that they would be meeting with them, and then were 40 minutes late to their own meeting. Dennis said that this is considered very disrespectful and started things off on the wrong foot for many in the village.)

Dennis also pointed out that none of the five were from Fish and Game and the main reason that Emmonak is in the situation that it is in is because they lost 40% of their revenue from fishing this year compared to last year. (Dennis just e-mailed me and said this number is more like 95%. Could you support your family if you lost 95% of your income? Damn!) If these people cannot fish they simply cannot support themselves. Without help getting more fish for the village this problem will simply not go away.

Dennis also reported that the villagers have a solution to their own problem if only the government will help them to them build a new dock and a new a fuel storage facility. These are proud people who are very ashamed to have been reduced to asking for handouts and who just want the opportunity to be self-sufficient again. But the strict rules on fishing and hunting for those living a subsistence lifestyle make it virtually impossible to live according the "old ways".

By the time that the fishing season officially opened for Emmonak the fish were all but gone, having been "fished out" by commercial fishing boats with huge nets and crews made up almost exclusively of caucasian out of state fishermen.

The number of fish was greatly reduced in 2008 for everybody, but what was left for the native fishermen was simply criminal. There was not nearly enough to feed their families or sell for money to provide fuel for the harsh winter.

In this picture above you can see Nick Tucker, the man whose letter to the Bristol Bay Times brought this horrible situation to everybody's attention.

Dennis said that Nick had received some criticism by a few of the village elders who are very embarrassed that the village had to ask for help from the government. But as Mr. Tucker has said, he simply could not stand by while babies were going to bed hungry.

Dennis wants to take this issue directly to Juneau and show them the footage that he filmed while he was in Emmonak. I have seen some of it and it has a very dramatic affect on the viewer.

Then Dennis wants to travel to Washington to meet with Mark Begich and possibly some of Barack Obama's new team.

We asked him about seeing Lisa Murkowski or Don Young, but Dennis said that they were part of the problem, not part of the solution. And by the way Dennis also said that ex-Governor Tony Knowles did not follow through on promises made to the people of this region either. So the fault cannot be strictly applied along partisan lines.

To say that Dennis is fired up about this situation would be an understatement. We are looking into ways to send him to Juneau and Washington, and in the meantime Dennis said he will put together a short video of his trip for bloggers to post which will allow all of you to see what is REALLY happening out in these remote Alaskan villages.