Kivalina, AK

Kivalina is an Inupiat city on the southern tip of a narrow barrier island between the Chukchi Sea and Kivalina Lagoon, at the mouth of the Kivalina River. It lies about 80 miles north of the Arctic Circle and roughly 80 miles northwest of Kotzebue. The community was first recorded as Kivualinagmut in 1847, and the island remains the physical center of village life, travel, hunting, and fishing. The McQueen School, operated by Northwest Arctic Borough School District, serves local students.

ATTRNational Centers for Coastal Ocean Science / Public domain

Kivalina's location also makes every storm a civic issue. Coastal erosion, flooding, melting permafrost, and wave damage have threatened homes, the airstrip, and roads for decades. Alaska agencies are studying airport relocation and an evacuation-and-school access road to K-Hill, while the community has considered mainland relocation options. Those plans sit alongside the daily work of an Inupiat village whose ties to the lagoon, river, sea ice, and surrounding land are cultural as well as practical. The risk is part of Kivalina's present, but the place is also a city with a school, a city government, subsistence routines, and a determined effort to keep community life connected while the shoreline changes.