Kaktovik

History

Until the late nineteenth century, Barter Island was a major trade center for the Inupiat and was especially important as a bartering place for Inupiat from Alaska and Inuit from Canada. Kaktovik was a traditional fishing place—Kaktovik means "Place to Seine Greyling Whitefish"—that has a large pond of good fresh water on high ground. It had no permanent settlers until people from other parts of Barter Island and northern Alaska moved to the area around the construction of a runway and Distant Early Warning Line station in the 1950s. The area was incorporated as the City of Kaktovik in 1971. Due to Kaktovik's isolation, the village has maintained its Inupiat Eskimo traditions. Subsistence is highly dependent upon the hunting of caribou and whale. In the early twenty-first century, Kaktovik became a tourist destination to view polar bears. This is in part due to the Inupiat, who are permitted to kill three bowhead whales per year, leaving the carcasses on the beach at the edge of town after flensing.

Geography

Kaktovik is located at (70.132832, -143.616230). Kaktovik is on the north shore of Barter Island, between the Okpilak River and Jago River on the Beaufort Sea coast. It lies in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which, of it is land and of it (21.00%) is water.

Race & ethnicity

Largest nearby schools

• Harold Kaveolook School
  Other · Kaktovik · 68 students · 8.5:1 ratio