Our People
More than 7,500 people call our region home. Of these, more than 85 percent of our region’s residents are Iñupiat, descendants of the people who settled the region thousands of years ago. Subsistence plays a key role in the lives of our people. For centuries, we have relied on hunting and fishing. For most families in our region, the household economy is a mix of participation in these subsistence activities and full-time or part-time employment.
Subsistence is not just economic necessity – it also plays a strong cultural and social role in our lives - and the preservation of our subsistence resources is a vital element of our cultural identity and values.
Our Region
Comprised of 11 villages, the NANA Region is a vast, beautiful 38,000 square miles located in Northwest Alaska. The borders of our lands, and those of the region’s main governing body, the Northwest Arctic Borough, are the same and cover an area of land that is roughly the size of the state of Indiana. As a corporation, we manage the surface and subsurface rights of approximately 2.2 million acres of land in the region to the benefit of our more than 13,000 Iñupiat shareholders.
Our Land
Distinct from other areas of Alaska, most of the NANA Region is located above the Arctic Circle and, does not receive much precipitation. Winter lasts nine months of the year, and temperatures often stay well below freezing during that time. Rivers wind through the landscape, and the terrain varies dramatically from mountains and sand dunes - to tundra and boreal forests. Much of the region is designated as national parkland.
