village of wainwright

Wainwright history

Wainwright is an established subsistence village in arctic Alaska, located along a wave-eroded bluff on the coast of the Chukchi Sea. The Village is about 72 air miles southwest of Barrow. The vast majority of residents, about 90 percent, are Iñupiat Eskimos whose ancestry can be traced to the Utukamiut (people of the Utukok River) and Kukmiut (people of the Kuk River).

The Iñupiat name for this region is Ulġuniq or “Olgoonik.” Although the region around Wainwright has been inhabited by Iñupiat for thousands of years, the present Village was established in 1904, when the Alaska Native Service built a school and introduced medical and other services.