St. Lawrence Island

St. Lawrence

Location of St. Lawrence Island, Alaska
Geography
St. Lawrence Island (Alaska)
Location	Bering Sea
Coordinates	63°24′54.19″N 170°23′57.56″W
Area	1,791.56 square miles (4,640.1 km²)
Length	90 miles (140 km)
Width	22 miles (35 km)
Country
United States
State	Alaska
Largest city	Gambell
Demographics
Population	1292 (as of 2000)
Density	0.28 people/km2

St. Lawrence Island is located west of mainland Alaska in the Bering Sea, just south of the Bering Strait, at about 64° North 170° 1928' West. It is part of Alaska, but closer to Russia than to the Alaskan mainland. St. Lawrence Island is thought to be one of the last surviving non-submerged portions of the land bridge that once joined Asia with North America during the Pleistocene period. It is the sixth largest island in the United States and the 113th largest island in the world. Gambell itself is only 38 miles from the Siberian coastline! Only 19 miles out over the sea is also the International Date Line

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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." "Largest island in the Bering Sea, in west-central Alaska, 230 km/140 mi southwest of Nome; length about 148 km/92 mi; width 13-37 km/8-23 mi. The highest point of this volcanic, tundra-covered island is Atuk Mountain (631 m/2,070 ft). It is inhabited mainly by Inuit, with settlements at Gambell (population (2000) 649) and Savoonga (population (2000) 643) on the north coast. The International Dateline passes 56 km/35 mi to the west, and the tip of Siberia's Chukchi Peninsula lies 80 km/50 mi northwest. The Danish explorer Vitus Bering encountered and named the island on St Lawrence Day in 1728. Extensive archaeological studies of Inuit culture have been conducted here."

Geography

St. Lawrence Island lies in the northern reaches of the Bering Sea, near the Bering Strait, where North America and Asia make their closest approach. It is administered by the state of Alaska. The island is about 145 km (90 miles) long and 13–36 km (8–22 miles) wide. It has no trees, and the only woody plants are Arctic Willow, standing no more than a foot (30 cm) high.

False color NASA Landsat image of St. Lawrence Island

The island has an abundance of seabirds and marine mammals, due largely to the influence of the Anadyr Current, an ocean current which brings cold, nutrient-rich water from the deep waters of the Bering Sea shelf edge. During the nesting season 2.7 million seabirds are estimated to be found on the island. In early June thousands of auklets, eiders, kittiwakes, loons, murres,puffins, and many other seabirds either nest or pass through the island as they migrate to their arctic breeding grounds.

To the south of the island is a persistent polynya, an area of open water surrounded by sea ice. The St. Lawrence Polynya is a persistent wind-driven polynya that forms along the southern coast of the island. The prevailing winds from the north and east push ice away from the coast, opening the relatively warm (-1.8 deg. C) water to the colder (-14 deg. C) air, where it quickly refreezes into a slurry of small ice crystals known as frazil ice.

As of the 2000 census St. Lawrence Island was home to 1,292 people living in 347 households on a land area of 4,640.12 km² (1,791.56 sq mi).

Prehistory

St. Lawrence Island holds five archaeological sites near the town of Bambell which represent two thousand years of life. These sites were critical in establishing the chronology of human habitation on the island. The prehistoric cultural phases of Okvik, Old Bering Sea, Punuk, Birnirk, and Thule, described by archaeologists based on excavations at the Gambell Sites, have provided a basis for other archaeological research in the Bering Sea region.

Archaeological excavations of the five sites, named Hillside, Mayughaaq, Ayveghyaget, Old Gambell, and Seklowaghyag, began in 1927 and continued into the 1930s. They uncovered the first evidence of the prehistoric inhabitants of the island. Additional excavations at the Gambell Sites were undertaken in the late 1960s and the early 1970s.

Otto Geist and Ivar Skarland of the University of Alaska Fairbanks conducted major excavations near both Gambell and Savoonga. Collections from these excavations are curated at the University of Alaska Museum on the Fairbanks campus.

St. Lawrence Island was first occupied around 2,000 to 2,500 years ago by coastal people characterized by artifacts decorated in the Okvik (oogfik) style. Archaeological sites on the Punuk Islands, off the eastern end of St. Lawrence Island, at Kukulik, near Savoonga and on the hill slopes above Gambell have evidence of the Okvik occupation. The Okvik decorative style is zoomorphic and elaborate, executed in a sometimes crude engraving technique, with greater variation than the later Old Bering Sea and Punuk styles.

The Okvik occupation is influenced by and may have been coincident with the Old Bering Sea occupation of 2000 years ago to around 700 years ago, characterized by the simpler and more homogeneous Punuk style. Stone artifacts changed from chipped stone to ground slate; carved ivory harpoon heads are smaller and simpler in design.

Prehistoric and early historic occupations of St. Lawrence Island were never permanent, with periods of abandonment and reoccupation depending on resource availability and changes in weather patterns. Famine was common, as evidenced by Harris lines and enamel hypoplasia in human skeletons. Travel to and from the mainland was common during calm weather, so the island was used as a hunting base, and occupation sites were re-used periodically rather than permanently occupied.

History

The island was called Sivuqaq by the Yupik who lived there. It was visited by Russian/Danish explorer Vitus Bering on St. Lawrence's Day, August 10 (Old Style), 1728, and named after the day of his visit. The island was the first place in Alaska known to have been visited by European explorers.

There were about 4,000 Central Alaskan Yupik and Siberian Yupik living in several villages on the island in the mid 1800s. They subsisted by hunting walrus and whale and by fishing. A famine in 1878–1880 caused many to starve and many others to leave, decimating the island's population. Nearly all the residents remaining were Siberian Yupik.

Reindeer were introduced on the island in 1900 in an attempt to bolster the economy. The reindeer herd grew to about 10,000 animals by 1917, but has since declined. Reindeer are herded as a source of subsistence meat to this day.

Demographics

closeup of St. Lawrence, showing its only two villages

The island presently contains two villages: Savoonga and Gambell. The two villages were given title to most of the land on St. Lawrence Island by the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act in 1971. As a result of having title to the land, the Yupik are legally able to sell the fossilized ivory and other artifacts found on St. Lawrence Island.

The island is now inhabited mostly by Siberian Yupik engaged in hunting, fishing, and reindeer herding. The St. Lawrence Island Yupik people are also known for their skill in carving, mostly with materials from marine mammals (walrus ivory and whale bone).

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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.

Population: Gambell, 660; Savoonga, 695

The Inupiaq and the St. Lawrence Island Yupik People, or “Real People,” are still hunting and gathering societies. They continue to subsist on the land and sea of north and northwest Alaska. Their lives continue to evolve around the whale, walrus, seal, polar bear, caribou and fish.

Northeast Cape and PCB contamination

The former Northeast Cape Air Force Station at St. Lawrence Island

Northeast Cape Air Force Station (AFS) was a United States Air Force facility consisting of an Aircraft Control and Warning (AC&W) radar site, a United States Air Force Security Service (USAFSS) listening post and a White Alice Communications System (WACS) site constructed at Northeast Cape on St. Lawrence Island. It operated from about 1952 to about 1972. The area surrounding the Northeast Cape base site had been a traditional camp site for several Yupik families for centuries. After the base closed down in the 1970s, many of these people started to experience health problems. Even today, people who grew up at Northeast Cape have high rates of cancer and other diseases, possibly due to PCB exposure around the site. According to the State of Alaska, those elevated cancer rates have been shown to be comparable to the rates of other Alaskan and non-Alaskan arctic natives who were not exposed to a similar Air Force facility. In any event, the majority of the facility was removed in a $10.5 million dollar cleanup program in 2003. Monitoring of the site will continue into the future.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Collins, Henry B. 1937. Archaeology of St. Lawrence Island, Alaska. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. OCLC 41798661
• Geist, Otto William, and Froelich G. Rainey. 1937. Archaeological excavations at Kukulik, St. Lawrence island, Alaska. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Govt. print. off. OCLC 2175223
• Hein, Tara. 2004. Tools and Implements: St. Lawrence Island and the Bering Strait Region University of Missouri. Retrieved January 29, 2009.
• State of Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. Contaminated Sites Program, Saint Lawrence Island Retrieved January 29, 2009.
• Whitridge, P. 2000. "The Hillside Site, St. Lawrence Island, Alaska: An Examination of Collections from the 1930s, by Don E. Dumond". AMERICAN ANTIQUITY. 65: 774. OCLC 200858763

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