Youtube of Polar Bears in Katovik Alaska
Kaktovik is on the north shore of Barter Island, between the Okpilak and Jago Rivers on the Beaufort Sea coast.Until the late nineteenth century Barter Island was a major trade center for the Inupiat and was especially important as a bartering place for Inupiat from Alaska and Inuit from Canada.

Kaktovik was traditional fishing place—Kaktovik means Seining Place—that has a large pond of good fresh water on high ground. It had no permanent settlers until people from other parts of Barter Island and northern Alaska moved to the area around the construction of a runway and Distant Early Warning Line station in the 1950s. The area was incorporated as the City of Kaktovik in 1971.

Due to Kaktovik's isolation, the village has maintained its Inupiat Eskimo traditions. Subsistence is highly dependent upon the hunting of caribou and whale.

Learn More Link is to Katovik official website