Nelson Island (Alaska)
| Nelson Island | ||
|---|---|---|
| Waters | Bering Sea | |
| Geographical location | 60 ° 38 ′ N , 164 ° 45 ′ W | |
|
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| length | 68 km | |
| width | 56 km | |
| surface | 2183 / 4226.8 km² | |
| Residents | 1197 (2010) | |
| main place | Toksook Bay | |
Nelson Island ( Yupik language: Qaluyaaq ) is an island in southwestern Alaska . With an area of 2183 km² it is the sixth largest in the Bering Sea , the twelfth largest in Alaska and the fifteenth largest in the United States . It belongs to the Bethel Census Area .
geography
Nelson Island is 68 km long and 32 to 35 miles wide. The island is only separated from mainland Alaska by two small rivers, the Ningaluk River in the north and the Kolavinarak River in the east. The Etolin Strait separates Nelson Island from the southwestern, almost twice as large island Nunivak Island .
Localities
There are three permanently inhabited places on Nelson Island, all of which are in the southwest on the coast of the Bering Sea . These are Tununak, a census designated place in the west, the main town Toksook Bay , which also includes the district of Umkumiut southeast of Tununak, and Nightmute in the east on a river. There is a year-round road between Tununak and Toksook Bay, and a snowmobile trail connects Tununak and Nightmute in winter. Each of the three locations has its own airfield (Tununak Airport, Toksook Bay Airport and Nightmute Airport). With 590 inhabitants (2010) Toksook Bay is the largest place, the entire island population of 1197 inhabitants (2010) is distributed over these three communities. The remaining 77% of Nelson Islands are uninhabited.
Newtok on mainland Alaska, 4 km from the north of the island, is being relocated to the newly built Mertarvik on Nelson Island, 14 km from Newtok, due to severe soil erosion of the tundra in the Newtok region.
native people
The Central Alaskan Yupik (also Yup'ik or Yupiit), the indigenous people, were living on Nelson Island as early as 1878 (five Yupik and one immigrant trader) when the naturalist Edward William Nelson visited and studied the island and the residents for the Smithsonian Institution . Nelson Island was later named after him. The Yupik still make up a large part of the population and live mainly traditionally on the catches of fishing and hunting for musk ox and caribou .
Movie
Most of the 2002 film Insomnia by director Christopher Nolan , in which a police officer (Al Pacino) has to solve the murder of a girl, takes place in Nightmute on Nelson Island. However, the film was not shot here, but in Squamish , British Columbia, Canada.