Arctic Village

Quick Facts

  • Pronunciation (ar-TICK)
  • Current Population 178 (2012 Alaska Department of Labor Estimate)
  • Legislative Districts (link to State Legislature page):
    • Senate District T
    • House District 39
    • Judicial District 4
  • Latitude:68.1269
  • Longitude: -145.5378


Location

Arctic Village is on the east fork of the Chandalar River, 100 miles north of Fort Yukon and 290 miles north of Fairbanks.

Climate

Arctic Village has a continental subarctic climate. Winters are long and harsh, and summers are short but warm. The average high temperature range during July is 65 to 72 °F. The average low temperature during January is well below zero. Extended periods of -50 to -60 °F are common. Extreme temperatures have been measured, ranging from a low of -70 to a high of 90 °F. Precipitation averages 9 inches, and snowfall averages 52.8 inches.

History

Until the 1950s, the Neets’aii Gwichin (“residents of the north side”) lived a highly nomadic life. They traditionally used seasonal camps and semi-permanent settlements, such as Arctic Village, Christian, Venetie, and Sheenjak, in pursuit of fish and game. They traded with Inupiat Eskimos on the Arctic coast. There is archaeological evidence that the Arctic Village area was populated as early as 4,500 BC.

In 1863, Archdeacon McDonald of Fort Yukon observed that the Chandalar Kutchin were important providers of caribou meat for the residents of Ft. Yukon. Reverend Albert Tritt, a Neets’aii Gwich’in born in 1880, wrote that his people led a nomadic life, traveling to the Arctic coast, Rampart, Old Crow, the Coleen River, and Fort Yukon in the 1880s and 1890s.

With the introduction of firearms in the early 1900s, family groups began to gather more permanently at several locations; there was no longer a need to disperse into small groups to hunt caribou.

The first permanent resident at the present village site was Chief Christian in 1909. In 1943, the Venetie Indian Reservation was established, due to the efforts of several area villagers to protect their land for subsistence use. The first school was built in 1959.

When the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) was passed in 1971, Venetie and Arctic Village opted for title to the 1.8 million acres of land in the former reservation. Residents continue to use the community as a base of operations from which they pursue seasonal subsistence activities.

Culture

The Neets’aii Gwich’in of Arctic Village lead a subsistence-based lifestyle.

Community profile data provided by the State of Alaska Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development.