Nunamiut
 A sod house (ivrulik) in Anaktuvuk Pass, Alaska in 1957, shortly after the village was established. |
|
| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
| Inland Alaska (United States) | |
| Languages | |
| Iñupiat language, English | |
| Religion | |
| Presbyterianism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Iñupiat, Uummarmiut |
The Nunamiut or Nunatamiut "People of the Land" (Iñupiaq Nunataaġmiut) are semi-nomadic inland Iñupiat located in the northern and northwestern Alaskan interior, mostly around Anaktuvuk Pass, Alaska.
Early Nunamiut lived by hunting caribou instead of the marine mammals and fish hunted by coastal Iñupiat. After 1850 the interior became depopulated because of diseases, the decline of the caribou and the migration to the coast (including the Mackenzie Delta area in Canada, where they are called Uummarmiut) where whaling and fox trapping provided a temporarily promising alternative.
Historically they hunted caribou. When caribou numbers dwindled in the 19th century, some Nunatamiut migrated towards the Mackenzie River delta. Around 1910, with caribou continuing to be insufficient to sustain the native hunting, Nunatamiut migrated further into the Siglit area. They were spurred by increased demand for furs by the Hudson's Bay Company and the possibility of jobs within the whaling industry. The Inuvialuit of the Siglit area were unhappy with the arrival of the Nunatamiut, afraid that the Nunatamuit would deplete the Inuvialuit's Bluenose caribou herd. But the Nunatamiut, inland hunters of the Iñupiat region, were in high demand by the American whalers.
Eventually, the Nunatamiut who settled in the Siglit area became known as the Uummarmiut (people of the green trees) and intermarried with the local Inuvialuit.
In 1938, several Nunamiut families returned to the Brooks Range, around Chandler Lake and the Killik River. In 1949, the Chandler Lake Nunamiuts moved to Anaktuvuk Pass; later, the Killik River group moved there also. Anaktuvuk Pass is the only Nunamiut settlement. A federally-recognized Alaskan village is located Anaktuvuk—the Village of Anaktuvuk Pass, the Naqsragmiut Tribal Council.
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