St. Lawrence Island is located west of mainland Alaska in the Bering Sea, just south of the Bering Strait, at about 64° North 170° 1928' West. It is part of Alaska, but closer to Russia than to the Alaskan mainland. St. Lawrence Island is thought to be one of the last surviving non-submerged portions of the land bridge that once joined Asia with North America during the Pleistocene period.^[1] It is the sixth largest island in the United States and the 113th largest island in the world. For other uses, see Alaska (disambiguation). ... Satellite photo of the Bering Sea Bering Sea and the North Pacific Ocean Bearing Sea with Kamchatka Peninsula and Alaska The Bering (or Imarpik) Sea is a body of water north of, and separated from, the north Pacific Ocean by the Alaska Peninsula and Aleutian Islands. ... Satellite photo of the Bering Strait Photo across the Bering Strait Nautical chart of the Bering Strait The Bering Strait (Russian: ) is a sea strait between Cape Dezhnev, Russia, the easternmost point (169°43 W) of the Asian continent and Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska, the westernmost point (168°05... Nautical chart of Bering Strait, site of former land bridge between Asia and North America The Bering land bridge, also known as Beringia, was a land bridge roughly 1,000 miles (1,600 km) north to south at its greatest extent, which joined present-day Alaska and eastern Siberia at... The Pleistocene epoch (IPA: ) on the geologic timescale is the period from 1,808,000 to 11,550 years BP. The Pleistocene epoch had been intended to cover the worlds recent period of repeated glaciations. ... Satellite image of the Big Island of Hawaii, the largest island in the United States. ... Islands by area. ...

Geography

False color NASA Landsat image of St. Lawrence Island

Closeup map of St. Lawrence Island

The United States Census Bureau defines St. Lawrence Island as Block Group 6, Census Tract 1 of Nome Census Area, Alaska. As of the 2000 census there were 1,292 people living on a land area of 4,640.12 km² (1,791.56 sq mi). ^[2] The island is about 145 km (90 miles) long and 13–36 km (8–22 miles) wide. The island has no trees, and the only woody plants are Arctic Willow, standing no more than a foot (30 cm) high. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1222x776, 355 KB) St. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1222x776, 355 KB) St. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... The United States Census Bureau (officially Bureau of the Census as defined in Title ) is a part of the United States Department of Commerce. ... A census tract, census area, or census district is a particular community defined for the purpose of taking a census. ... Nome Census Area is a census area located in the state of Alaska. ... 2000 US Census logo The Twenty-Second United States Census, known as Census 2000 and conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States on April 1, 2000, to be 281,421,906, an increase of 13. ... Binomial name Salix arctica Pall. ...

The island's abundance of seabirds and marine mammals is due largely to the influence of the Anadyr Current, an ocean current which brings cold, nutrient-rich water from the deep waters of the Bering Sea shelf edge. The Sooty Tern is highly aerial and marine and will spend years flying at sea without returning to land. ... Satellite photo of the Bering Sea Bering Sea and the North Pacific Ocean Bearing Sea with Kamchatka Peninsula and Alaska The Bering (or Imarpik) Sea is a body of water north of, and separated from, the north Pacific Ocean by the Alaska Peninsula and Aleutian Islands. ...

To the south of the island is a persistent polynya, formed when the prevailing winds from the north and east blow the migrating ice away from the coast.^[3] A polynya (pronounced pol-in-YA) is an area of open water surrounded by sea ice. ...

Prehistory

St. Lawrence Island was first occupied around 2,000 to 2,500 years ago by coastal people characterized by artifacts decorated in the Okvik (oogfik) style. Archaeological sites on the Punuk Islands, off the eastern end of St. Lawrence Island, at Kukulik, near Savoonga and on the hill slopes above Gambell have evidence of the Okivik occupation. The Okvik decorative style is zoomorphic and elaborate, executed in a sometimes crude engraving technique, with greater variation than the later Old Bering Sea and Punuk styles.

The Okivik occupation is influenced by and may have been coincident with the Old Bering Sea occupation of 2000 years ago to around 700 years ago, characterized by the simpler and more homogeneous Punuk style. Stone artifacts changed from chipped stone to ground slate; carved ivory harpoon heads are smaller and simpler in design. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... For other uses, see Harpoon (disambiguation) harpoon gun redirects here. ...

Prehistoric and early historic occupations of St. Lawrence Island were never permanent, with periods of abandonment and reoccupation depending on resource availability and changes in weather patterns. Famine was common, as evidenced by Harris lines and enamel hypoplasia in human skeletons. Travel to and from the mainland was common during calm weather, so the island was used as a hunting base, and occupation sites were re-used periodically rather than permanently occupied.

Major archaeology sites at Gambell and Savoonga (Kukulik) were excavated by Otto Geist and Ivar Skarland of the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Collections from these excavations are curated at the University of Alaska Museum on the UAF campus. For referencing in Wikipedia, see Wikipedia:Citing sources. ... The University of Alaska Fairbanks, located in Fairbanks, Alaska, USA, is the second largest campus of the University of Alaska System, and is abbreviated as UAF. UAF is a land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant institution, as well as participating in the sun-grant program through Oregon State University. ...

History

The island was called Sivuqaq by the Yupik who lived there. It was visited by Russian/Danish explorer Vitus Bering on St. Lawrence's Day, August 10 (Old Style), 1728, and named after the day of his visit. The island was the first place in Alaska known to have been visited by European explorers. A portrait attributed to Vitus Bering (according to modern data, his uncles portrait) Vitus Jonassen Bering (also, less correctly, Behring) (August 1681–December 19, 1741) was a Danish-born navigator in the service of the Russian Navy, a captain-komandor known among the Russian sailors as Ivan Ivanovich. ...

There were about 4,000 Central Alaskan Yupik and Siberian Yupik living in several villages on the island in the mid 1800s. They subsisted by hunting walrus and whale and by fishing. A famine in 1878–1880 caused many to starve and many others to leave, decimating the island's population. Nearly all the residents remaining were Siberian Yupik. This article is about Yupik peoples in general. ... Siberian Yupik are an indigenous people who reside along the coast of the Chukchi Peninsula in the far northeast of the Russian Federation and the St. ... Binomial name (Linnaeus, 1758) Distribution of Walrus Subspecies Walruses (Odobenus rosmarus) are large semi-aquatic mammals that live in the cold Arctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. ... This article is about the animal. ...

Reindeer were introduced on the island in 1900 in an attempt to bolster the economy. The reindeer herd grew to about 10,000 animals by 1917, but has since declined. Reindeer are herded as a source of subsistence meat to this day. Caribou redirects here. ...

Villages

The island presently contains two villages: Savoonga and Gambell. The two villages were given title to most of the land on St. Lawrence Island by the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act in 1971. As a result of having title to the land, the Yupik are legally able to sell the fossilized ivory and other artifacts found on St. Lawrence Island. Savoonga is a city located in Nome Census Area, Alaska, one of two on St Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea. ... Gambell is a city in Nome Census Area, Alaska, United States. ... The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act was signed into law on December 18, 1971, and the largest land claims settlement in United States history was concluded. ...

The island is now inhabited mostly by Siberian Yupik engaged in hunting, fishing, and reindeer herding. The St. Lawrence Island Yupik people are also known for their skill in carving, mostly with materials from marine mammals (walrus ivory and whale bone).

Northeast Cape and PCB contamination

The former Northeast Cape Air Force Station at St. Lawrence Island

Northeast Cape Air Force Station (AFS) was a United States Air Force facility consisting of an Aircraft Control and Warning (AC&W) radar site, a United States Air Force Security Service (USAFSS) listening post and a White Alice Communications System (WACS) site constructed at Northeast Cape on St. Lawrence Island. It operated from about 1952 to about 1972. The area surrounding the Northeast Cape base site had been a traditional camp site for several Yupik families for centuries. After the base closed down in the 1970s, many of these people started to experience health problems. Even today, people who grew up at Northeast Cape have high rates of cancer and other diseases, possibly due to PCB exposure around the site.^[4] According to the State of Alaska, those elevated cancer rates have been shown to be comparable to the rates of other Alaskan and non-Alaskan arctic natives who were not exposed to a similar Air Force facility.^[5] In any event, the majority of the facility was removed in a $10.5 million dollar cleanup program in 2003. Monitoring of the site will continue into the future.^[6] Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 467 pixelsFull resolution (1500 × 875 pixels, file size: 246 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Other versions of this file File historyClick on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 467 pixelsFull resolution (1500 × 875 pixels, file size: 246 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Other versions of this file File historyClick on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time. ... USAF redirects here. ... For other uses, see Radar (disambiguation). ... The USAFSS emblem. ... Boswell Bay, Alaska White Alice Site, Tropospheric Antenna and feeder. ... Labelling transformers containing PCBs. ... Cancer is a class of diseases or disorders characterized by uncontrolled division of cells and the ability of these to spread, either by direct growth into adjacent tissue through invasion, or by implantation into distant sites by metastasis (where cancer cells are transported through the bloodstream or lymphatic system). ...

References

Coordinates: 63°30′N, 170°30′W Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 144th day of the year (145th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 163rd day of the year (164th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 163rd day of the year (164th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 37th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 163rd day of the year (164th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Map of Earth showing lines of latitude (horizontally) and longitude (vertically), Eckert VI projection; large version (pdf, 1. ...