Nelson Island (Alaska)


Nelson Island is an island in the Bethel Census Area of southwestern Alaska. It is 42 miles long and 20–35 miles wide. With an area of 843 square miles, it is the 15th largest island in the United States. It is separated from the Alaska mainland to its north by the Ningaluk River, to its east by the Kolavinarak River and from Nunivak Island to its southwest by the Etolin Strait.
Nelson Island has four villages, all located on the Bering Sea coast in the southwest part of the island:
A snowmobile trail connects the Tununak and Nightmute in the winter. These three communities comprise the entire population of the island at 1,065 inhabitants as of the 2000 census. The largest community is Toksook Bay. The rest of the island, over 77 percent of its area, is unpopulated.
The village of Newtok, on the mainland across the Ningaluk River north of the island, is in the process of being moved to Nelson Island, due to erosion of the water table in the area where Newtok is currently located.
The natives are Yupiit, who maintain a predominantly traditional diet, fishing and hunting musk ox and caribou.

Etymology

Nelson Island was named after Edward William Nelson, a Smithsonian Institution naturalist who studied the island and people there in 1878.

Demographics

Nelson Island reported on the 1930 and 1940 U.S. Censuses as an unincorporated area, Pngortalick, Tanunak. It has not reported as a separate entity since.