Malemiut

The Malemiut were Iñupiaq speakers associated with the country around Kotzebue Sound and the rivers flowing into it. Their routes connected coastal settlements with inland hunting and fishing places. During the first half of the nineteenth century, some families moved south toward Norton Sound, where Yup’ik-speaking Unalit communities lived. They settled in places along the coast and formed ties through marriage and exchange. Their movement joined the histories of Kotzebue Sound and Norton Sound in a landscape already connected by long-distance trade.