Umkumiut is a seasonally occupied Yup’ik fish camp near Kangirlvar Bay, on the western shore of Nelson Island in the Bering Sea between Atrnak Point to the north and Chinigyak Cape to the south, about 118 miles (190 km) west-southwest of Bethel and 3.8 miles (6 km) southwest of Toksook Bay, Alaska. Nelson Island is volcanic in origin. Mapping in 1990 found basaltic lava flows up to 10 feet (30 m) thick, and the western shore is lined with high, rugged cliffs. The island is named for Edward William Nelson, who joined the U.S. Army Signal Corps in 1877 as a weather observer stationed at St Michael. In 1881 he sailed as naturalist aboard the USRC Thomas Corwin, recording the region’s flora and fauna. Sea ice forms on this coast in early winter and typically breaks up by early summer. Four communities share the island: Tununak, Toksook Bay, Nightmute, and Mertarvik. Mertarvik was built for residents of Newtok, whose village on the mainland was being lost to riverbank erosion. By mid-2025, public media reported that all Newtok residents had moved, though housing remains short. None of these communities is linked by road, so air and water transport are the main means of access.

For most Yup’ik households on Nelson Island, the Bering Sea remains the main source of food. Most of their protein comes from herring, salmon, and seals. Occasionally Steller sea lions, walrus, and beluga are hunted. Families move to the fish camp before ice breakup for spring seal hunting and stay until August for herring and salmon fishing and drying, although a few hunters have used the camp year-round. Umkumiut draws mainly on residents of Nightmute and Toksook Bay, and it was once Nightmute’s spring camp. Residents also gather waterfowl, freshwater fish, and edible plants from the island and the wetlands of the adjacent Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. Imported canned goods, flour, sugar, and frozen food are gradually supplanting the traditional diet, and knowledge of local plants and herbal remedies is fading with it. The name Umkumiut means “people of Umkuuk,” after the cliffs above the village. Beach ridges at the site provide high ground for dwellings. The last traditional semi-subterranean family house was abandoned in the mid-1960s. Today there are tents, yurts, and mostly wood-frame buildings with plywood exteriors.

Umkumiut has also become an important center of Yup’ik cultural education. The culture camp has run there since 2000. It was the first effort of the Calista Elders Council, which merged into Calista Education and Culture, Inc. in 2014. Each summer, middle school students from surrounding villages learn subsistence hunting and fishing, Yup’ik language, history, and values from elders, along with respect for wildlife and habitat. Organizers stress that subsistence is more than food and nutrition. It is integral to Yup’ik culture, society, and economy, and it is expressed both materially and spiritually. They argue that continued access to ocean and land resources is essential to Alaska Native subsistence, and that teaching young people traditional ways helps secure that access and their voice in decisions made by state and federal agencies. Today Umkumiut remains a seasonal camp, counted as part of Toksook Bay, and families use it mainly in spring and summer. Read more here and here. Explore more of Umkumiut and Nelson Island here: