Far North Community: St. Lawrence Island
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St. Lawrence Island lies in the Bering Sea, 164 miles west of Nome. Savoonga on the northern coast and Gambell on the northwest cape contain the island’s population with 695 residing in Savoonga and 660 in Gambell. St. Lawrence Island has been inhabited intermittently for the past 2,000 year by Yup’ik Eskimos. Reindeer were introduced in 1900 and the heard has grown to more than 10,000 today. Reindeer harvests occur, but the herd is not managed.
St. Lawrence residents are 95.5 percent Native or part Native. The isolation of the island has helped to maintain their traditional St. Lawrence Yup’ik culture, their language and their subsistence lifestyle based upon marine mammals. Most residents are bilingual with Siberian Yup’ik still the first language. The economy is largely based on subsistence harvests from the sea including seal, walrus, fish and bowhead and gray whales. Walrus-hide boats are still used to hunt. Gambell holds a whaling festival each spring when a whale is taken. Savoonga is hailed as the “Walrus Capital of the World” and a Walrus Festival is help each spring. St. Lawrence Islanders are famous for their ivory carvings.
St. Lawrence Island hosts 2.7 million seabirds during nesting season. In early June the numbers of puffins, auklets, murres, kittiwakes, eiders, loons and many other seabirds that pass by the point either migrating to their arctic breeding grounds or local nesters on Sivaquaq mountain are astounding. At times it is estimated ten of thousands are in the air. Birding tours to Gambell are available out of Anchorage.
Details
Large walrus' posing near the water
Population: Gambell, 660; Savoonga, 695
Location: In the Bering Sea, 164 miles west of Nome and 700 miles west of Fairbanks.
Access: Scheduled and charter air service from Nome.
Accommodations: Two lodges that provide meals.
