ANCHORAGE, Alaska — With a historic visit to the Alaska Arctic, President Obama was shining a spotlight Wednesday on the plight of residents in rural Alaska, where Alaska Natives and others toil under rough-and-tumble conditions that most Americans would be hard-pressed to imagine.

Closing out his three-day tour of Alaska, Obama first dropped in on the western fishing village of Dillingham to inspect one of the biggest sockeye salmon runs in the world and underscore the need to “protect this incredible natural resource, not just for the people whose livelihoods depends on it, but for the entire country.”

While meeting with commercial and subsistence fishermen in Dillingham, Alaska, President Obama raved about the salmon jerky and stressed the need to conserve the fish.

From there, he was traveling north of the Arctic Circle to Kotzebue, a regional hub with barely more than 3,000 people.

Obama’s trip, the first by a sitting president to the Arctic, puts on rare display the ways of life and daily challenges in Alaska’s more than 200 far-flung rural villages. Outside of Kotzebue, one in five in the Alaska Arctic doesn’t have a proper kitchen, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. And even more lack complete plumbing.

The president’s goal was to showcase the havoc he says human-influenced climate change is wreaking on Alaska’s delicate landscape: entire villages sinking into the ground as permafrost thaws, protective sea ice melts and temperatures climb.

Alaska Natives have joined the president in sounding the alarm on climate change. Yet the obstacles they confront daily extend far deeper, raising questions about whether Washington has done enough to help some of the most destitute Americans.

This is a life of subsistence hunting for bowhead whales, walruses and seals, a proud tradition of dependence on the land that poses immense logistical challenges.

“The vast majority of Americans have no idea there are dozens of communities in Alaska that live like this,” Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, said. “It’s unacceptable, and we need to do more to fix it.”

Even as Obama’s travels brought him near the Bering Sea, U.S. officials reported the presence of five Chinese Navy ships participating in a military exercise with Russia.

In Dillingham, Obama inspected all aspects of the fishing operation and pronounced a sample of salmon jerky to be “outstanding.” He took it in stride when he noticed salmon spawning on his shoes, and went on to deliver an environmental message.

“Hopefully by us coming here, we’re highlighting the need for us to keep this pristine and make sure that this is there for the children and grandchildren, great-grandchildren of all these wonderful fishermen,” Obama said.

With no roads to their villages, rural Alaskans are dependent on boats, snowmobiles and bush planes – weather permitting – to ferry them to rare doctor visits or other business. Among Alaska Natives, cancer is the leading killer, with incidence rates about 16 percent higher than for white men and women in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

And at the same time, some 100,000 Alaskans live in areas vulnerable to melting permafrost, the Environmental Protection Agency estimates.

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