It’s time for the annual National Parks Club! Find out information about participating shops and more here.
Where is it located?
The Iñupiat Heritage Center is a museum in Utqiaġvik in the U.S. state of Alaska. Located on the Chukchi Sea coast, Barrow is the northernmost community in the US. Regularly-scheduled jet services provide the area’s only year-round public access.
Whose land does it reside upon?
The Iñupiat are a group of Alaska Natives whose traditional territory roughly spans northeast from Norton Sound on the Bering Sea to the northernmost part of the Canada–United States border. Their current communities include 34 villages across Iñupiat Nunaat (Iñupiaq lands), including seven Alaskan villages in the North Slope Borough, affiliated with the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation; eleven villages in Northwest Arctic Borough; and sixteen villages affiliated with the Bering Straits Regional Corporation. They often claim to be the first people of the Kauwerak.
When was it established?
February 1999.
About this park:
On the rooftop of the world, the Iñupiat Heritage Center in Barrow, Alaska, tells the story of the Iñupiat people. They have thrived for thousands of years in one of the most extreme climates on Earth, hunting the bowhead, or “Agviq.” In the 19th century, the quiet northern seas swarmed with commercial whalemen from New England, who also sought the bowhead for its valuable baleen and blubber. Dedicated in February 1999, it is an affiliated area of New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and recognizes the contributions of Alaska Natives to the history of whaling.
Why did we choose these colors?
We used images we found in this article, particularly the ones of boats on the water and whales, for our inspiration: https://www.hcn.org/issues/52-7/indigenous-affairs-climate-change-what-choice-do-we-have/
For more information:
NPS website: https://www.nps.gov/inup/index.htm
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