Alaska Natives
The Inupiaq Eskimos
The Inupiaq Eskimos of Northern Alaska live in an area that stretches from the most Northwest region of the state, across the North Slope to the northern Canadian border and beyond. Their territory also includes most of the Brooks Range. The Inupiaq village of Kaktovik is located within the borders of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Today, as in the past, the food for the Inupiaq people is determined by the region and season of the year. Their diet is based largely on active subsistence hunting and traditional use of foods such as berries, salmon, moose, caribou, whale, walrus, seal, duck, and other marine mammals to provide substantial portions of the traditional diet. Subsistence whaling, a traditional activity dating back thousands of years, provides for a large part of the Inpuiaq diet and is an activity upon which much of the Inupiaq culture is based.
Impacts from the changing climate of the Arctic, expounded by increased oil and gas activity both on and off-shore, have caused many Alaska Natives who have traditionally been supportive of oil and gas development to band together in support of protecting critical areas like the Arctic Refuge, Teshekpuk Lake, and the Arctic Ocean from further development.
