Anchorage Daily News

ARCTIC VILLAGE

POPULATION: 155

LOCATION: On the east fork of the Chandalar River, 100 miles north of Fort Yukon, 290 miles north of Fairbanks.

DESCRIPTION: A Neets'aii Gwich'in community whose inhabitants, 92 percent of whom are Alaska Native, lead a subsistence lifestyle. The economy is based on the harvesting of caribou, moose, sheep, porcupine, rabbit, ptarmigan, freshwater fish, waterfowl and berries. The school (about 45 students), clinic, village council and stores are the primary employers. Seasonal jobs are found in construction, firefighting, guiding and conducting wildlife surveys for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Some residents trap animals or sell firewood for income. Air transportation provides the only year-round access.

HISTORY: The Arctic Village area may have been populated as early as 4,500 B.C. Until the 1950s, the Neets'aii Gwich'in ("residents of the north side") lived a nomadic life, using seasonal camps and semi-permanent settlements like Arctic Village, Christian, Venetie and Sheenjak in pursuit of fish and game. They traded with Eskimos on the Arctic coast. In 1863, Archdeacon McDonald observed that the Chandalar Kutchin were important providers of caribou meat for the residents of Fort Yukon. The advent of firearms in the early 1900s let family groups gather more permanently at several locations, no longer having to disperse into small groups to hunt caribou. First permanent resident at the present village site was Chief Christian in 1909. In 1943, the Venetie Indian Reservation was established to protect land for subsistence use. With the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, Venetie and Arctic Village chose title to 1.8 million acres of land in the former reservation.

ADVERTISEMENT