Benjamin "Bennie" Nageak

Benjamin (Ben or Bennie) Nageak was born in 1950 to Rhoda and Vincent Nageak and grew up in Kaktovik and Barrow, Alaska. He has ten siblings. He started hunting and whaling at a young age, and learned from his father, who was a successful whaler, hunter, and trapper, and from his many uncles and older brothers. Ben attended Mt. Edgecumbe High School in Sitka, Alaska and worked for the Naval Arctic Research Laboratory (NARL) in Barrow when he was a young man. He has served as director of the North Slope Borough, Department of Wildlife Management, as a member of the North Slope Borough Assembly, as mayor of the North Slope Borough, as the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) representative in Barrow, and currently represents northern and northwestern Alaska in the Alaska House of Representatives.