Front yards in Emmonak are crowded with old snowmachines, fuel tanks, and fishing gear. To keep their feet out of the mud, villagers walk from house to house on boardwalks built from scrap wood.

The Western Alaska village of Emmonak is quiet but for the four-wheelers that villagers drive up and down the dusty dirt road that parallels the Kwiguk River. In late May the sun casts long shadows out across the frozen water. About 800 people live in Emmonak, where the houses sit up high on stilts, a precaution against spring floods. Yards are crowded with old snowmachines and fishing boats, and pike caught in the river hang outside the houses, drying in the sun.

Like most of the region's villages, this Yukon Delta village is a tough place to find a job. The fishing industry pumps far less cash into Emmonak than it used to, and some fishermen ended last year's season in debt. Grumbling about state fishing restrictions is common. Many of the village's houses are home to two or three families. Apart from jobs working for the school, the city or the tribal government, opportunity for year-round work is limited.

The Wade Hampton Census Area, where Emmonak is located, is home to 16 small villages scattered across 17,000 square miles. Alaska Natives make up 90 percent of the area's population. Unemployment in Wade Hampton stands at 21 percent, more than double the statewide rate. Still, there are new businesses starting up that could be signs of hope, including a sawmill, a fur buying concern, and wind turbines.

Despite Emmonak's hardships, Dwayne Johnson is happy to be there. The 20-year-old works a saw at near the edge of the river, cutting logs towed in off the water, and he shows up early and shovels sawdust after the last board is cut. He's thankful for the work.

"It was like the best feeling I ever had," Johnson said, remembering the day he landed the sawmill job. "Made me feel like a new person just by working here."

Born in Bethel, Johnson was a young boy in Nunapitchuk when his mother was found dead in one of the sloughs that lead down to the Kuskokwim River. The official cause of death was drowning, but Johnson and his mother's family believe she was murdered.

His mother's death hit Johnson hard. As a teenager, he said, he sold drugs in Anchorage. He once ran away from a rehabilitation center. By the time he met a girl at Alaska Native Medical Center, Johnson was ready for a change. He was there caring for his father, who had colon cancer, and she was there for her mother. Johnson moved to Emmonak to be with her about a year ago. She is pregnant, and they hope to get married in July.

When Johnson moved to Emmonak, he needed a job. The sawmill, one of the few centers of economic activity in town, gave him one.

The sawmill is run by Kwik'Pak Fisheries, which is part of the Yukon Delta Fisheries Development Association. The mill first started operating in the fall of 2008 after Kwik'Pak bought the facility for $12,000. Kwik'Pak manager Jack Schultheis said the mill has paid out about $100,000 in wages since it began operating.

Dwayne Johnson, 20, feeds a log through the Kwik'Pak sawmill on the bank of the Kwiguk River.

This summer the mill will hire as many as 120 people from up and down the river to go out by boat and gather logs, according to Russ Prout, the mill's chief engineer.

"We're basically the only show in town," Prout said.