Hooper Bay, AK

Hooper Bay is a coastal city in Alaska's Kusilvak Census Area on the Bering Sea side of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. It is a Yup'ik community shaped by tundra, lagoons, wind, winter ice, and the long distances between western Alaska villages. Hooper Bay School, also called Naparyarmiut Elicarviat, serves students from pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade and includes a Yup'ik immersion program in the early grades.

ATTRSeabix / CC BY-SA 4.0

A 2006 fire destroyed the old school and a large part of the surrounding city, including homes, stores, offices, and other community buildings. The rebuilt school and the local school district remain central to daily life, alongside subsistence fishing, hunting, berry picking, air travel, and seasonal work. Snow defines local timing. There is no road network tying Hooper Bay to Alaska's larger cities; planes, boats, snowmachines, and local paths carry people and goods across the delta. Hooper Bay is an Alaska city where language, school, weather, and subsistence traditions meet at the edge of the Bering Sea.