AlterNative

King Island, Alaska, has a relatively high place-name density of 45 place names per square
mile. King Island Inupiat elders and community members, with the help of Western scientists
(including a linguist, an anthropologist, an archaeologist and biologists), documented
163 place names over the 3.5 square mile area of King Island (Ugiuvak), Alaska. This is 1.5
times to 3500 times denser than what is reported for other communities in the literature.
This article poses factors that might contribute to high place-name density, including: (a)
length of time the island had been inhabited; (b) the fact that it is an island, bounded by
water, thus limiting mobility; (c) the relatively high (for the arctic) population density; (d)
the intense use of the island for subsistence purposes; and (e) for navigation purposes.