“In the far and distant past, there was no land here at the base of the mountains.  People lived near the summit of the great Mount Irrisugssuk, southeast of Kotzebue.  This was the only land, which rose from the sea, and on it can still be found remnants of whales from the hunting camps of these men.  This was a time when men still walked on their hands, head downwards; so long ago it was.

One day the Raven, he who created the sky and earth, paddled far out to sea in his kayak, far out to sea he went, and there he saw something dark, gliding and breaching on the surface of the water.  He quietly paddled out and harpooned it.  The Raven thought it must be a whale, but then he saw that it was a huge dead mass without beginning or end so he fastened his towline to it, and towed it to the foot of the hills to the South.  Here he made it fast and on the following day when he flew down to look at it, he saw that it was solid and had turned into land.  And there among the ancient ruins of sod and whalebone houses may still be seen a strange hole in the ground; that is the spot where the Raven harpooned (Tigara) Point Hope. And that is how this land came to be."

Point Hope (Tigara) is one of the oldest archeological sites in the Americas.  The mounds and ruins are still visible and even though modern times have made changes in their lives, vigorous Eskimos have held fast to their ancient traditions and customs, struggling continually to harvest food, living in close harmony with the sea and land.