Selawik () ( Iñupiaq: ''Siiḷ(i)vik'' or ''Akuliġaq''; ) is a city in

Northwest Arctic Borough, Alaska Northwest Arctic Borough is a borough located in the U.S. state of Alaska. As of the 2020 census, the population was 7,793, up from 7,523 in 2010. The borough seat is Kotzebue. The borough was formed on June 2, 1986. Geography According to ...

, United States. At the 2010 census the population was 829, up from 772 in 2000. ''Selawik'' comes from , which means "place of

sheefish ''Stenodus nelma'', known alternatively as the nelma, sheefish, siifish, inconnu or connie, is a commercial species of freshwater whitefish in the family Salmonidae. It is widespread in the Arctic rivers from the Kola Peninsula (White Sea basin) ...

" in Inupiaq.

Geography

Selawik is located at (66.597043, -160.013674). Selawik is located at the mouth of the

Selawik River The Selawik River (Iñupiaq language, Iñupiaq: ''Siiḷivium Kuuŋa''; Koyukon language, Koyukon: ''Nozaatne'') is a stream, long, in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Alaska. Originating in the Purcell Mountains (Alaska), Purcell Moun ...

where it empties into Selawik Lake, about southeast of

Kotzebue Kotzebue ( ) or Qikiqtaġruk ( , ) is a city in the Northwest Arctic Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. It is the borough's seat, by far its largest community and the economic and transportation hub of the subregion of Alaska encompassing ...

. Selawik is near the

Selawik National Wildlife Refuge Selawik National Wildlife Refuge in northwest Alaska in the Waring Mountains was officially established in 1980 with the passage of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA). This national wildlife refuge is home to mammal ...

, a breeding and resting area for migratory waterfowl. According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the city has a total area of , of which, of it is land and of it (26.24%) is water.

Demographics

Selawik first appeared on the 1880 U.S. Census as the unincorporated Inuit village of "Selawigamute." All 100 residents were Inuit. It did not appear again on the census until 1920, that time as Selawik. It has appeared on every successive census to date. It formally incorporated in 1963. As of the census of 2000, there were 772 people, 172 households, and 147 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 188 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 3.24%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 0.13%

Black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 94.82% Native American, 0.78% Asian, 0.13%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, and 0.91% from two or more races. 0.13% of the population were

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race. There were 172 households, out of which 68.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 41.9% were married couples living together, 29.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 14.5% were non-families. 12.8% of all households were made up of individuals, and 1.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 4.49 and the average family size was 4.78. In the city, the age distribution of the population shows 48.1% under the age of 18, 12.7% from 18 to 24, 23.1% from 25 to 44, 10.6% from 45 to 64, and 5.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 19 years. For every 100 females, there were 108.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 116.8 males. The median income for a household in the city was $25,625, and the median income for a family was $27,639. Males had a median income of $50,278 versus $40,417 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the city was $8,170. About 34.6% of families and 34.4% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 36.2% of those under age 18 and 22.7% of those age 65 or over.

History

A Lt.

Lavrenty Zagoskin Lavrenty Alekseyevich Zagoskin (; 21 May 1808 – 22 January 1890) was a Russian naval officer and explorer of Alaska. Zagoskin was born in 1808 in the Russian district of Penza in a village named Nikolayevka. Even though Nikolayevka was not nea ...

of the Imperial Russian Navy first reported the village in the 1840s as "Chilivik." In his census study in 1880,

Ivan Petrof Ivan Petrof (1842? - 1896) (commonly spelled "Petroff" in sources) was a Russian-born soldier, writer, and translator who for many years was regarded as a major authority on Alaska. According to historian Terrence Cole, Petrof "holds the distin ...

counted 100 "Selawigamute" people. Around 1908, the village site had a small wooden schoolhouse and church. The village now has expanded across the Selawik River onto three banks, linked by bridges.

Education

The Davis-Ramoth Memorial School, operated by the

Northwest Arctic Borough School District Northwest Arctic Borough School District (NWABSD) is a school district headquartered in Kotzebue, Alaska. In 1999 the district had 2,100 students in nine communities. Beginning circa 1999 the Anchorage company Education Resources Inc. was sched ...

, serves the community. it had about 270 students, with

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

making up the majority.Home
Davis-Ramoth Memorial School. Retrieved on March 26, 2017.

References

{{authority control Cities in Alaska Cities in Northwest Arctic Borough, Alaska Populated places of the Arctic United States