Selawik Alaska Map

About Selawik, Alaska

Selawik is a locality in Northwest Arctic, Alaska, United States. It is a small community with a population of 809. The population density is 134.0 people per km². Selawik is located at 66.6039°N, 160.0069°W. It observes the Alaska Time (America/Anchorage) timezone. Selawik is an incorporated locality. ZIP code: 99770.

Selawik emerges from the expansive, moss-covered tundra like a solitary outpost defined by the quiet persistence of the subarctic landscape. It lies 366.3 miles west-northwest of College, AK (from College, AK: bearing 295°T), and is situated 73.5 miles east-southeast of Kotzebue. This vast expanse of Selawik National Wildlife Refuge holds the settlement in a wide, flat embrace where the horizon stretches indefinitely, interrupted only by the low, dark silhouettes of distant shrubbery and the occasional flicker of light across the surface of Niglaktak Lake. While the Brooks Range remains a faint, jagged memory on the far northern edge of perception, the immediate terrain is dominated by the complex, serpentine movements of the Throat River as it carves through the permafrost. The air here carries a sharp, metallic clarity, especially when the low sun casts long, indigo shadows that seem to swallow the earth, turning the world into a study of amber and deep gray.

Generations of Iñupiat people have maintained a profound connection to this land, long before the modern silhouette of the bush plane became a familiar punctuation mark in the sky. Selawik serves as a vital center of traditional knowledge, where the rhythm of life aligns with the seasonal migrations of caribou and the cycles of the interior wilderness. Economic activity remains tethered to this intimate understanding of the environment, favoring subsistence practices that have sustained families for centuries. Life in Selawik moves with a deliberate, tempered grace, favoring the patience required to navigate the inland waterways over the frantic pace of the outside world. Here, the silence is not an absence of sound, but a heavy, meaningful presence that underscores the endurance of those who call this northern interior home.

About This Selawik Map Page

This page provides an embedded street and satellite map of Selawik, Alaska. Coordinates: 66.603889, -160.006944. Live weather conditions are sourced directly from the National Weather Service. Real-time local and world news feeds keep the page current.

Detailed location data for Selawik includes the ZIP code (99770), telephone area code (907), county seat of Northwest Arctic, and school district assignment (Northwest Arctic Borough School District).

Location data is drawn from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) and cross-verified against 2020 US Census records by coordinate proximity. Population figures are sourced from the 2020 US Census.