Ecology and culture of King Island, AK

King Island (KI) rises steeply out of the Bering Straits 40 miles northwest of Nome. It is a small (1 mile x 2.5 mile) treeless island that was inhabited by King Island Inupiat for hundreds of years before a diaspora in the early 1960s related to closure of the school. Walrus hunters continue to make seasonal use of family cabins. Our project assists community members in documenting KI place names, stories, and subsistence lifeways for future generations. Because elders found such place-based recall at best difficult from communities far from KI, our project took elders and associated family members back to the island in an attempt to stimulate recovered memories. Elders have now documented >150 specific place names on KI as well as ~25 names associated with greens, berries and roots and ~60 names associated with birds. Names are most specific for those elements of the biota used for food, medicine, or material culture. Elders have also discussed a wealth of natural history information that we are translating to video and written format for the use of the King Island Native Community. In 2005-2006 we have also recorded the presence of a small number of plant and bird species north of their normal distributions and/or never before observed on KI by elders. These sightings could be related to (1) ecological changes associated with the sudden cessation of intense long-term subsistence activities, (2) range expansions in response to climate change, or (3) (in the case of birds) anomalous (e.g., storm-related) events.