Anchorage Daily News

POPULATION: 636 (2006)

LOCATION: On the right bank of the Nazuruk Channel of the Kobuk River, 33 miles northwest of Selawik and 45 miles east of Kotzebue, downriver from the 1.7 million-acre Kobuk Valley National Park.

DESCRIPTION: Primarily an Inupiat Eskimo community where 95 percent of the population is wholly or partly Alaska Native. Subsistence is the major focus of the lifestyle and economy; caribou, fish, moose, waterfowl and berries are utilized. The primary local employers are the school, the city, Maniilaq, the health clinic and two stores. Seasonal employment at the Red Dog Mine, firefighting for BLM and work in Kotzebue supplement income. During the April 2000 U.S. census, 181 residents were employed, median household income was $51,964, per capita income was $12,020, and more than seven percent of residents were living below the official U.S. poverty level. There is one school, with about 230 students.

HISTORY: Noorvik means "a place that is moved to." The village was established in the early 1900s by Kowagmuit Inupiat Eskimo fishermen and hunters from Deering. It also was settled by people from Oksik, a few miles upriver. A post office was established in 1937. The city government was incorporated in 1964.

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