King Island 30 years after

Capt. Janie Foster

Two Evergreen pilots transported 17 Inupiat Eskimos back to their native Alaskan King Island.

King Island, Alaska, is a rock-cliff land mass about 1.6 km (1 mile) long. It rises out of the Bering Strait, 95 miles from Nome and 40 miles from Cape Wooley, and for centuries was occupied by the Inupiat Eskimos, known as 'King Islanders' or Ugiuvangmiut.

Gradually, though, the island's population started to decrease and younger members moved away. The island became the winter home of a group of about 200 Inupiat who called themselves Aseuluk. The Aseuluk spent their winters engaging in subsistence hunting on King Island and their summers engaging in similar activities on the mainland near Nome. Their name for the island was Ukiwuk. After the establishment of Nome during the 19th century gold rush, the islanders began to sell intricate carvings to residents of Nome during the summer.

In 1959, however, the Bureau of Indian Affairs decided it was too costly and too dangerous to run the island and closed the island's school, leaving the King Islanders no choice but to relocate with their children to Nome. This departure was the subject of a children's book, King Island Christmas, by Jean Rogers, illustrated by Rie Munoz, which showed the devastation the islanders felt at having...