There are no permanent settlements inside the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge itself. But the refuge is in active use by Iñupiat residents of Kaktovik on Barter Island just off the north coast, and by Gwich’in residents of Arctic Village and other communities on the south side. Both groups exercise traditional subsistence rights inside the refuge for hunting, trapping, fishing, and gathering. There are also private cabins, Native allotments, and inholdings scattered through the refuge.
Communities at the edges
Kaktovik (Iñupiat) sits on Barter Island, a small barrier island a few miles off the Beaufort Sea coast at the northern boundary of the refuge. Population around 250. The community’s traditional whale, seal, caribou, and fish harvest extends into and around the refuge.
Arctic Village (Gwich’in) sits on the East Fork of the Chandalar River on the southern boundary. Population around 150. The community is one of the most vocal and consistent voices in the long political battle over the refuge, particularly around the Porcupine Caribou Herd’s calving grounds. The Gwich’in have hunted these caribou for millennia and view the herd’s protection as an existential issue.
Other surrounding communities (Fort Yukon, Venetie, Coldfoot, Wiseman) also have residents who use the refuge for traditional purposes.
Inholdings inside the refuge
The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA, 1980) preserved existing land uses when the refuge expanded. That left private cabins, Native allotments, and inholdings inside the refuge boundary. Some are used for subsistence and traditional activities. Others are remote private property.
These aren’t tourist cabins. If you encounter a structure in the backcountry, it’s private, occupied or not. Leave it alone, don’t camp nearby, don’t enter.
Subsistence use
Subsistence hunting, fishing, and trapping are allowed in the refuge for qualified rural residents under federal subsistence regulations. This is active use. Caribou taken from the Porcupine and Central Arctic herds, fish from interior rivers, marine mammals from the coast, and small game across the refuge all support communities at the edges. The Federal Subsistence Management Program has the official regulatory framework.
For visitors this rarely affects trip planning. You may occasionally encounter people from surrounding villages out hunting or fishing. Treat them the way you’d want to be treated. Move on, give space, don’t interfere.
What we’ve seen at Kaktovik
We’ve run polar bear photography tours out of Kaktovik for many years and the village is a place I know well. Subsistence is raw and present there. We’ve watched the community bring a bowhead whale in from a hunt, harvest it on the beach, and distribute pieces around the village. Large chunks of meat and blubber going from house to house.
Most of the souvenir material in the village is locally made. Carvings on baleen, drawings, hides. I once bought a wolf hide ruff for my parka from a local who had taken the wolf himself. We used to meet with a Kaktovik elder, a woman named Mary, who would sit with our group and tell stories from the community’s oral history, sing some of the traditional songs, share craftwork she’d made, and explain what the carvings meant. That’s the village. Not a tourist destination, not a museum, an active subsistence community where the old practices are still the practices.
