NOORVIK, Alaska — One down, more than 309 million to go.
U.S. Census Bureau Director Robert Groves began the 2010 count of the nation’s residents Monday in a village in Alaska’s arctic hinterlands. The first person tallied in Noorvik, an Inupiat Eskimo community of 650, was Clifton Jackson, a World War II veteran and the oldest resident.
“It’s all downhill from now,” Groves said after leaving Jackson’s house. Jackson said he was honored to be the first person counted because he thought there were other elders in town who would have been just as worthy.
Residents prepared a day of festivities with traditional dances, an Inupiat fashion show and a feast including moose and caribou.
Census workers will visit 217 other rural Alaska communities in the coming weeks.
Alaskans in rural communities such as Noorvik that are not linked by roads have been the first people counted since the 1990 census. It’s easier to get census counters to the villages before muddy conditions brought on by the spring thaw make access more difficult, said Ralph Lee, director of the bureau’s Seattle region, which oversees Alaska.
Beware
