Amatusuk Hills

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| state = Alaska

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| settlement = Kivalina

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Amatusuk Hills is a mountain range in North Slope Borough, Alaska, in the United States.{{GNIS|1893285}}{{Cite web |title=Amatusuk Hills |url=https://alaska.guide/mountain-range/amatusuk-hills/1398175 |access-date=2023-09-27 |website=Alaska Guide |language=en}} It is part of the Brooks Range.{{Cite news |date=October 2009 |title=Red Dog Mine Extension AqqAluk Project: Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement |url=https://www.pewtrusts.org/-/media/assets/2019/09/hia-reports/red-dog-mine-extension-final-hia.pdf}}

Amatusuk is likely a name of Indigenous origin of unknown meaning.{{cite book|author=Geological Survey (U.S.)|title=Geological Survey Professional Paper|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XEIRAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA52|year=1960|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|page=52}}

History

In 1838, Amatusuk Hills was noted in A.F. Kashevarov's Coastal Explorations in Northwest Alaska as "the last elevation of note that a coastal traveller heading north will see in northwest Alaska".{{Cite journal |last1=Vanstone |first1=James W. |last2=Kraus |first2=David H. |last3=Kashevarov |first3=A. F. |date=1977 |title=A. F. Kashevarov's Coastal Explorations in Northwest Alaska, 1838 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/29782496 |journal=Fieldiana. Anthropology |volume=69 |pages=i–104 |jstor=29782496 |issn=0071-4739}}

In 1920, Archdeacon Stuck published the name as 'Amahk-too-sook'.{{Cite book |last=Orth |first=Donald J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0y48AQAAMAAJ&dq=amatusuk+hills&pg=PA70 |title=Dictionary of Alaska Place Names |date=1967 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |location=Washington |pages=70 |language=en}} It has been variously spelled as: Amahtooscok Mountain, Amatosuk Hills, Amatusak Hills, and Amooktoosuk Hills.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Rr9RAQAAMAAJ&dq=amatusuk+hills&pg=PA70 |title=Geological Survey Professional Paper |date=1967 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |language=en}}

The inland area is known for hunting, fishing, and fur trapping.{{Cite news |title=Community Profiles for North Pacific Fisheries – Alaska: Point Lay |work=NOAA-TM-AFSC-259 – Volume 4 |url=https://apps-afsc.fisheries.noaa.gov/REFM/Socioeconomics/Projects/communityprofiles/Point_Lay_Profile_2000_2010.pdf}} The Inupiat residents of Point Lay used the rivers as navigational points, but only during bad weather.{{Cite news |last=Tremont |first=John D. |date=1987 |title=Surface-Transportation Networks of the Alaskan North Slope |pages=19–20 |work=U.S. Department of the Interior Minerals Management Service |url=https://www.boem.gov/sites/default/files/boem-newsroom/Library/Publications/1987/87_0010.pdf}} The Kukpowruk River is used as a reference point to the trapping regions when the coastal area is impassable during bad weather.

References