Cross the treeless, frozen tundra of southwest Alaska, over ice-covered lakes and ponds near the Bering Sea, and you’ll find the first community in the U.S. counted for the 2020 census.

While most of the country waits to take part in the once-a-decade head count of the U.S. population, the residents of Toksook Bay, Alaska — home to members of the Nunakauyarmiut Tribe — are ahead of the national curve. Local counting, which officially started in the village the afternoon after Martin Luther King Jr. Day, wrapped up on Jan. 27.

It’s the third Alaska Native village selected by the bureau since 2000 to be the site of the first count in remote Alaska, where the census has kicked off for decades before rolling out to the rest of the country by April.

‘We Are Part Of The United States’: The 1st People Counted For The 2020 Census

Image Credit: Claire Harbage/NPR