Kobuk River Iñupiat (Kuuvaŋmiut)

Background

The Kuuvaŋmiut are the people of the Kobuk River. Kobuk Valley National Park heads a section of its subsistence page called Kuuvaŋmiut Subsistence, and in it calls them river people for whom land mammals and fish are staples and with whom trade with coastal communities is common. The park's Alaska Native Heritage page spells the name KuvuNmiut, puts Kobuk Valley National Park on the traditional homelands of the Iñupiaq, and says the KuvuNmiut have called the area home from time immemorial. It records generations going back at least 9,000 years of Iñupiat hunting moose, caribou, bear, wolf and wolverine from wooden sleds pulled by teams of domesticated dogs, and says most people now reside in permanent villages but continue to spend time at seasonal camps.

Parks on its homelands

Kobuk Valley National Park

Land mammals and fish are staples for the Kuuvaŋmiut, the Iñupiat of the Kobuk River, though trade with coastal communities is common. For at least 9,000 years the Iñupiat have hunted moose, caribou, bear, wolf, and wolverine from wooden sleds pulled by teams of domesticated dogs, and today families still leave the villages for camps along the Kobuk River once school is out, setting nets for salmon and whitefish and picking greens and berries on the blooming tundra. Source

Sources

• https://www.nps.gov/kova/learn/historyculture/subsistence.htm
• https://www.nps.gov/locations/alaska/native-heritage-kova.htm

Checked September 2026.

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