Leaving King Island: The Closure Of A Bureau Of Indian Affairs School And Its Consequences

Abstract

By 1966, the King Island Inupiat had moved from their island village and lived at Nome. Little has been written about the de facto relocation of the King Islanders---and how and why it happened. What follows is an ethnohistory of the relocation based on the anthropology and history of the Bering Strait region, archival records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and interviews with King Islanders in Nome. The heart of the matter was the village's school. Based on the evidence, the BIA closed the school because of the expense and inconvenience of operating at King Island. This accomplished what the BIA had been unable for decades to do by persuasion---to move the village to the mainland. The immediate result of the closure, the resettlement of the villagers in Nome, fits within the established pattern of BIA policy over time, one that had assimilation as its ultimate goal.