By Melanie Mcgrath for MailOnline On a freezing night last February, the body of 13-year-old Mackenzie Howard was found lying in the back porch of the church in the tiny, remote village of Kake, Alaska. She had been battered to death. In one of the world’s most hazardous natural environments, the real dangers for women living in the Arctic come not from polar bears or cracking ice but from the men they live among. Mackenzie Howard’s body lay outside the church in Kake for 11 hours after it was found. With a population of 559, Kake is just one of 75 remote Alaskan villages with no police force.
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Some 37 per cent of Alaskan women have experienced domestic violence
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Sexual violence is 12 times the US average while rape is four times
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Rapes and murders in isolated villages often go unreported and unsolved
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A University of Quebec study found that alcohol abuse is endemic
Distant: This street sign reveals just how far away the remote villages of @placeholder really are