We take great pride in our Inupiat culture and continue traditions that date back thousands of years. We emphasize the importance of cooperation and promote a strong sense of community and family. Our connection to the natural environment is also central to our culture.
We are hunters both on land and at sea. We are wise stewards of all that we have been given, which is a philosophy we apply in our business approach.
The Kuukpik Corporation merges traditions from the past with future visions.
Arts
The North Slope is known for oil, but art is another precious resource. For thousands of years, Inupiaq artists have reflected their land and culture in art pieces, passing along the craft down the generations.
Artists use local resources like caribou, polar bears, arctic foxes, and marine animals like bowhead whales in their work. One of the most recognizable forms of artwork from the region is the Eskimo mask, made from caribou skin, wolverine, wolf, or caribou skin, or a combination of all three. Other prominent local crafts include model skin boats and/or model baleen boats.
Land
The people of the Kuukpik Corporation come from the Inupiat village of Nuiqsut, located on the Nigliq Channel of the Colville River Delta, approximately 35 miles from the coast of the Beaufort Sea. Nuiqsut was one of three abandoned Inupiat villages identified in the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) 1971. The provisions of ANCSA allowed Alaska Native communities with at least 25 families to form village corporations and claim entitlement to their traditional lands.
The Kuukpikmiut (“people of the big river”) formed the Kuukpik Corporation, and in April 1973, 27 families traveled from Barrow to re-establish Nuiqsut, the village of their ancestors. Today, the Kuukpikmiut continue to live off the land and sea, practicing the traditional subsistence lifestyle passed down through generations. This includes caribou, moose, birds, fish, seals, and the bowhead whale.
People
The Inupiat are the Inuit people of Alaska’s Northwest Arctic, North Slope boroughs, and the Bering Straits region. They continue to rely heavily on subsistence hunting and fishing, including whaling. One important traditional ceremony still actively participated in is the Nalukataq, or spring whaling festival. The capture of a whale benefits each community member, as the animal is butchered, and its meat and blubber are allocated according to a traditional formula. Even city-dwelling relatives thousands of miles away are entitled to a share of each whale killed by the hunters of their ancestral village.
More than 55 percent of the Nuiqsut workforce is employed in the private sector, mainly by the Kuukpik and the construction industry. The North Slope Borough employs 30 percent of the local labor force, and the School District employs another 9 percent. Some residents sell local arts and crafts, including skin masks and boats, fur mittens, parkas, and carved ivory.
Tradition
Kuukpik leadership and those living in the village remain closely connected to the traditions of their ancestors. The Kuukpikmiut continues the ancient tradition of harvesting bowhead whales each fall. The bowhead, along with other harvested fish, birds, and animals, is critical to the food security of its people. Their spiritual connection to the land and sea is what has sustained the Kuukpikmiut since time immemorial. It is also what unifies the North Slope communities as the harvests are shared beyond the villages in which they are harvested. The traditions of Eskimo dancing, Eskimo games, the blanket toss festival, and the spring and fall festivities remain a part of Kuukpikmiut culture today.