Nunatuagnak, or Roald Amundsen Land
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Nunatuagnak, or Roald Amundsen Land
Nunatuagnak, officially known as Roald Amundsen Land until 1996, is a constituent country of the Kingdom of Norway located in the Arctic Ocean, just north of the American state of Alaska. It is notable for being the home of the Atuagnamiut, a sub-group of the Iñupiat people recorded as some of the northernmost-living indigenous people on the planet. The archipelago has also historically served as a point of contention between the Arctic territorial claims of Norway, the United States, and Russia.
The name Nunatuagnak derives from the Iñupiaq roots "nuna", meaning land or country, and "atuagnak", literally meaning a northerly wind not adjacent to the coast. The capital of Nunatuagnak is Aŋiruvik, located on the island of Kikitasugruk. The archipelago of Nunatuagnak is traditionally divided into four groups of islands: Kikitasugruk in the center, Agvikikiktat in the east, Kalupiavik in the south, and Iŋiulivik in the west. As of 2012 the population of Nunatuagnak was recorded at 4,603, of which 94.6% were indigenous Atuagnamiut, distributed across nine local settlements.
The Atuagnamiut people are primarily hunter-gatherers, subsisting on local fish, seals, walrus, beluga, and bowhead whales from the Arctic Ocean. There is also a small local population of caribou used by the local people for milk and blood but rarely slaughtered for meat. Local flora is sparse, consisting of mosses, liverworts, lichens, and arctic poppy, the only indigenous flowering plant.
Archeological evidence and local oral history suggest that Nunatuagnak has been continuously inhabited by Iñupiat people since around 100 AD and that the archipelago has since held continuous trade contact with the mainland North Slope Iñupiat, as evidenced by the continued linguistic and cultural similarity between the mainland and archipelago Iñupiat groups. However, before the twentieth century there is no firm historical record of non-indigenous contact with the Atuagnamiut, likely due to a lack of outside interest in the region.
The first confirmed European sighting of the archipelago would come in 1926, when Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen noted the archipelago's existence from aboard the airship Norge shortly after becoming the first human to fly above the North Pole. However, Amundsen would never set foot on the islands, as he would disappear on a rescue mission for the airship Italia in the Barents Sea in 1928. The Norwegian government would later send explorer Gunnar Horn to the archipelago in 1930 as part of the Braatvag Expedition, negotiating a treaty with local Atuagnamiut elders for Norwegian protection, establishing a Lutheran church in Aŋiruvik, and naming the islands Roald Amundsen Land in posthumous honor of the Norge expedition's leader.
The United States would claim Roald Amundsen Land as a part of its then-territory of Alaska in 1930, mere months after the Norwegian expedition to the islands, while the Soviet Union would lay claim to it as an extension of the Eurasian continental shelf in 1932. The Permanent Court of International Justice would hear the dispute in 1934, ruling in favor of the Norwegian claim on the basis of its negotiated settlement with local elders, however the Russian government would not officially cede its claim to the land until 1992, and continues to claim the archipelago's territorial waters as a part of the Eurasian continental shelf.
During World War Two, Norway would be invaded and occupied by Nazi Germany from 1940 to 1945, placed under the civil administration of a puppet government led by collaborator Vidkun Quisling. Fearing that Roald Amundsen Land could fall into the hands of Nazi sympathisers and provide a staging point for Axis intelligence-gathering operations in the Arctic, the United States government would send a group of forty US marines to secure the islands from German invasion in 1940, setting up a RADAR listening post in 1943 and occupying the islands for a total of five years. The marines would withdraw in 1945 and Norwegian civil control would return, but the RADAR listening post would remain in place, later becoming the site of Polaris Air Base in 1953, an important component of the Distant Early Warning Line protecting North America against possible Soviet air attacks during the Cold War.
Throughout the late twentieth century, local indigenous leaders would agitate for the implementation of home rule in Nunatuagnak, organizing frequent protests outside Polaris Air Base and across the archipelago against Norwegian direct rule and outside exploitation of the area's natural resources and environment, arguing in favor of an autonomous local government based on the wording of the original Braatvag Expedition treaty. In 1996, several years after the fall of the Soviet Union and decommissioning of the Distant Early Warning Line, the Norwegian government would enter negotiations with local leaders, resulting in the creation of Nunatuagnak as a constituent country within the Kingdom of Norway, establishing an autonomous local government under Norwegian protection.
Today, the government of Nunatuagnak is a notable proponent of Inuit and indigenous political representation, holding membership of the Inuit Circumpolar Council and funding multiple public initiatives towards the goal of Arctic environmental protection. Local leaders continue to stress the importance of rising threats to the Atuagnamiut way of life, including pollution created by the continued operation of military installations such as Polaris Air Base, the continued impact of global climate change on Arctic life, and the emergence of international tourism and shipping routes throughout the Arctic Ocean. Several initiatives to survey Nunatuagnak's territorial waters for possible oil and gas reserves have also been continually resisted by local leaders in spite of increasing corporate pressure.
