Roy "Maloney" Nageak, Sr.

Roy Maloney Akootchook Nageak, Sr. was born in 1951 at a summer camp at Oliktok Point to Rhoda and Vincent Nageak, Sr. who were living there while his father was working at the nearby Distant Early Warning Line (DEW Line) station (POW2). The family moved to Barrow, Alaska when Roy was five years old. Roy began whaling when he was about nine or ten years old under the mentorship of his uncle, Hoover Koonaloak. Vincent Nageak had a whaling crew, but was worried about having to watch over his young son and safety at the ice edge if Roy started too young. After his father passed away, Roy started his own Akootchook Crew in the mid-1980s. Roy has held a variety of positions with the North Slope Borough, in particular with the Department of Public Works. He has served on the North Slope Borough School Board for over twenty years, is a former Chairman of the Alaska Board of Education, and has served on the Board of Directors of the Barrow Utilities and Electric Cooperative (BUECI). Currently, Roy is the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) representative in Barrow, where his primary responsibility is to help the BLM better understand the unique cultural, economic and natural resource issues of Alaska’s North Slope, and to act as the BLM's liaison with local government officials, special interest groups, Alaska Native organizations on the North Slope, state government and other federal agencies. Roy Nageak, Sr. passed away in 2021.