Napaimute () is an unincorporated

Alaska Native Alaska Natives (also known as Native Alaskans, Alaskan Indians, or Indigenous Alaskans) are the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous peoples of Alaska that encompass a diverse arena of cultural and linguistic groups, including the I ...

village located in the Bethel Census Area of the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

. It is classified as an Alaskan Native Village Statistical Area. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, it has a population of 2. This is up from a population of zero in 2000.

History

Englishman George Hoffman established a trading post at the location of present-day Napaimute in 1906. The village that formed around the trading post was called Hoffman's. The middle Kuskokwim Valley was seeing and influx of gold prospectors at that time and Hoffman's became an important supply and trade center. George Hoffman would soon relocated to Georgetown, and the name of the village was changed to Napaimute. In

Yup'ik language The Yupʼik or Yupiaq (sg & pl) and Yupiit or Yupiat (pl), also Central Alaskan Yupʼik, Central Yupʼik, Alaskan Yupʼik ( own name ''Yupʼik'' sg ''Yupiik'' dual ''Yupiit'' pl; Russian: Юпики центральной Аляски), are an ...

, the word Napaimute translates to "forest people". The first territorial school along the Kuskokwim River was built in 1920 at Napaimute. By 1930, the US census was reporting a Napaimute population of 111, however, the population then began to decline, and by 1969, the village's last permanent resident had left the village. With the passage of the

Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) was signed into law by U.S. President, President Richard Nixon on December 18, 1971, constituting what is still the largest land claims settlement in United States history. ANCSA was intended to reso ...

in 1971, a village corporation called Napaimute Limited was formed and in 1975, one of its members established permanent residency at the village. the village council was able to receive federal recognition as an Alaska Native Tribe in 1994, which enabled it to start receiving funding from the

Bureau of Indian Affairs The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), also known as Indian Affairs (IA), is a United States List of United States federal agencies, federal agency within the U.S. Department of the Interior, Department of the Interior. It is responsible for im ...

. Current efforts to revitalize the community are evident by the set up of a sawmill in 2001, tribal operations in 2002, and an airport feasibility study launched in 2004.

Geography

Georgetown is located at on the north bank of the upper

Kuskokwim River The Kuskokwim River or Kusko River ( Yupʼik: ''Kusquqvak''; Deg Xinag: ''Digenegh''; Upper Kuskokwim: ''Dichinanekʼ''; (''Kuskokvim'')) is a river, long, in Southwest Alaska in the United States. It is the ninth largest river in the Unit ...

28 miles east of Aniak in the Kilbuck-Kuskokwim mountains. Napaimute is accessible by boat, or snowmobile (winter).

Demographics

Napaimute first appeared on the 1880 U.S. Census as an unincorporated

Tinneh The Alaskan Athabascans, Alaskan AthapascansWilliam Simeone, ''A History of Alaskan Athapaskans'', 1982, Alaska Historical Commission or Dena () are Alaska Native peoples of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group. They are the original in ...

village of 60 residents (all Tinneh). In 1890, it returned as "Napaimiut" (all 23 residents were Native). It did not return again until 1930, this time as "Napaimut." In 1940, it returned as "Napamiute." In 1950, it returned under its 1890 census name, "Napaimiut." It did not return again until 1980, when it returned as its original 1880 name and spelling, Napaimute. It was classified as an unincorporated Alaskan Native Village Statistical Area (ANVSA) in each successive census.

References

External links

Native Village of Napaimute
{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Alaska Unincorporated communities in Bethel Census Area, Alaska Unincorporated communities in Unorganized Borough, Alaska