Arctic Village

North Slope Borough, the local government based in Barrow that presides over Point Hope and other Arctic villages, depends on onshore production from the aging Prudhoe Bay fields for more than 95 percent of its revenues. Mr. Itta said that the borough had pressed Shell to improve its spill-response capabilities, to shut down its operations during the fall whale hunt, not to discharge drilling waste into the ocean and to hire local residents. In the 1840s, commercial whalers from New England and elsewhere came here and started a brutal industry from the bowheads. Perhaps more than any other village in the Arctic, Point Hope has a history of uniting against outside forces and, if not prevailing over them, at least outlasting them. Now it is divided. Mr. Tuzroyluk is chairman of the $30 million Tikigaq Corporation here, one of more than 200 native corporations in Alaska authorized by Congress.

AA