Anchorage  — Despite its sprawling geography and often-inhospitable climate, Alaska ranks among the top US states for getting Covid-19 vaccine into the arms of its residents, and its indigenous population has played a major role in that achievement.

With a history and culture deeply shaped by deadly outbreaks of disease that have periodically ravaged remote corners of their subarctic homeland, Alaska's native tribes have aggressively led the way on inoculations against Covid-19 for the state as a whole...