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Nina "Aŋŋiaġruk" Nayukok

Nina Nayukok

Nina Koonik Nayukok (Aŋŋiaġruk) was born at Utqiaġvik (Barrow), Alaska, but traveled a great deal during her life on the coast to the east, up the Meade River, and in the Ikpikpak and Tasiqpak Rivers areas. As a young girl, she traveled to the east where people gathered to trade. The trading parties usually returned to Barrow before freeze-up. Then in the winter, Nina and her family went inland with other people in search of caribou on the Ikpikpak River and perhaps to the Meade River, as well. In 1920, Nina married Teddy Nayukok, a reindeer herder, and they stayed around the Meade River in winter with the reindeer herds.
     

After Nina had children, they spent quite a bit of time in the Imaġruaq (Imakruak Lake) are east of the Ikpikpuk River. Teddy's family lived in that area, and Peter Shugluk and his family also moved there. During the winter Teddy and Peter went inland by dog team to the Iksuġvik area to trap while Nina and Peter's wife and their children remained behind. Nina remembers these times as happy ones spent with people she liked a great deal.
     

In 1947, Nina and Teddy moved back to the Meade River where Teddy worked for the coal mine at Tikiġluk. When the coal mine was closed in the 1950's, they moved to Barrow, but returned to the Meade River in the summers. Nina continued to own a house at Atqasupiaq (old Atqasuk) where she and her husband camped. Nina Nayukok passed away in 2001. She was 97 years old.

(Biographical section from Quliaqtuat Iñupiat Nunaŋiññiñ - The Report of the Chipp-Ikpikpuk River and Upper Meade River Oral History Project. W. Arundale and W. Schneider, 1987.)

Date of Birth:
Sep 14, 1904
Date of Death:
Apr 20, 2001
Nina "Aŋŋiaġruk" Nayukok appears in the following new Jukebox projects: