DESCRIPTION: The last remaining settlement of the Nunamiut (inland northern Inupiat Eskimo). About seven of every eight residents are wholly or partly Alaska Native. Economic and employment opportunities are limited due to Anaktuvuk Pass's isolation, so the community depends on subsistence activities for income, hunting and trapping for the sale of skins, guiding hunters, and making traditional caribou skin masks or clothing. Some residents have seasonal employment outside the community. Caribou is the primary source of meat. There is one school, attended by about 100 students. During the April 2000 U.S. census, 100 residents were employed, median household income was $52,500 and per capita income was $15,283.

HISTORY: Nunamiut bands left the Brooks Range and scattered mainly to coastal areas due to the collapse of caribou in 1926-'27, and also because of cultural changes brought by the influx of Western civilization. In 1938, however, several Nunamiut families left the coast and returned to the mountains at Killik River and Chandler Lake. In 1949, the Chandler Lake group moved to Anaktuvuk Pass ("the place of caribou droppings"), where they were later joined by the Killik River group. This settlement attracted Nunamiut from other locations, and villagers today lead a somewhat more sedentary lifestyle than in earlier nomadic times.