RuralAlaska2022ASTAC

Kaktovik

include an elementary and high school complex, power generation plant, water and sewage treatment facilities, a public health clinic, police station, community teleconference center, post office, and a general store, shops and a small hotel. The telecommunications facilities serving Kaktovik include a fully digital local exchange telephone service, Internet, cellular telephone, cable TV,

Just 90 miles from the U.S. & Canadian border, Kaktovik is the easternmost community on the North Slope. An active family visiting and trading pattern, underway for centuries, continues today between Kaktovik and the villages of Aklavik, Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk across the border in Canada. In addition to the ancient cultural ties, the petroleum and natural gas industry have recently brought about new activities in the northeastern Arctic of Alaska and the Mackenzie River delta of northwestern Canada. The probability of significant oil and gas reservoirs underlying the coastal zone between Kaktovik and Prudhoe Bay to the west have focused the attention of numerous interest groups on this community and its neighborhood in recent years. Kaktovik is located on Barter Island and shares its present location with one of the cold-war Distant Early Warning (DEW) sites, which are located across Alaska, Canada and Greenland. The 20 million acres of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge extend to the south and into the Brooks Range. In recent years Kaktovik has become a destination for visitors seeking hiking, river floating and camping experiences in the refuge area. The residents of Kaktovik have traditionally used the same north-south routes into the foothills and mountains of the Brooks Range for their subsistence hunting and fishing tasks. Kaktovik, which is sometimes referred to as Barter Island in the press, is an active community with modern public facilities. These

public radio broadcast and the community- access public teleconferencing center. Interconnection with the regional and global telecommunications network is via satellite circuits, which currently present a limitation to the residents needing access to higher bandwidth services. The North Slope Borough, in coordination with the NSB School District, leases private circuits and maintains a long-distance network in order to provide distance education, telehealth and support for governmental service administration in the community. Physical transportation, as is the case in the other North Slope villages, is provided by scheduled and chartered aircraft. These flights are from Utqiaġvik, Prudhoe Bay/ Deadhorse and Fairbanks. In 2020, the population counts showed 283 for the village of Kaktovik. About 88 percent are Iñupiat (Eskimos). Thirty-two percent of the working residents are employed by the North Slope Borough, and another 25 percent work for the School District. Thirty-seven percent of the work force is employed in the private sector, primarily by Native corporations and their affiliates. The subsistence hunting, fishing and whaling activities remain a significant component of the local economy. Transportation to Kaktovik is provided by scheduled airlines and air taxi service from Utqiaġvik and Fairbanks.