Anchorage Daily News

EMMONAK

POPULATION: 796 (2007)

LOCATION: At the mouth of the Yukon River, 10 miles from the Bering Sea, 120 miles northwest of Bethel and 490 miles from Anchorage.

DESCRIPTION: A Yup'ik Eskimo village and a center of commercial fishing, purchasing and processing on the lower Yukon River. Two fish-processing plants operate here, and about 100 residents hold commercial permits. Subsistence activities, trapping and public assistance support income. The majority of the community, which is almost 94 percent Alaska Native, travels to fish camps in the summer to dry salmon for winter use. Residents of Chuloonawick, a nearby fish camp, also live in Emmonak. During the 2000 U.S. Census, 217 residents were employed and 16 percent of residents were living below the official U.S. poverty level. There is one school, attended by about 225 students

HISTORY: The village was originally called "Kwiguk," a Yup'ik word meaning "big stream." Villagers call themselves "Kuigpagmuit," or "people from the Yukon River." The original settlement was 1.4 miles south of its present location and first reported by the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey in 1899. A post office was established in 1920. Later, commercial fishing became a major industry in the village, and the Northern Commercial Co. built a cannery. In 1964, the cannery was washed away by floods. That same year, the city government was incorporated. Due to increasing flooding and erosion, the village was relocated 1.4 miles north of Kwiguk in 1964-65. The new location was renamed Emmonak, which means "black fish."

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