Emergency Crime Scene and Biohazard Cleanup in Nunam Iqua, AK

Nunam Iqua is an incorporated city in the Kusilvak Census Area in western Alaska, on Sheldon Point on the left bank of Kwemeluk Pass in the Yukon River delta, about 157 miles northwest of Bethel and about 12 miles south-southwest of Alakanuk.

Its name is Yupik for "land's end" (nuna = "land"; iquk = "end"), a fitting name for a village at the western edge of the Yukon River delta.

Little evidence of settlement at the site predates the late 1930s, when a man named Sheldon established a fish saltery there; the Northern Commercial Company later took it over, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs built a school in 1964.

The community first appeared on the 1950 census as the unincorporated village of "Sheldon's Point" with 43 residents, and it formally incorporated as a second-class city under the name Sheldon Point in 1974.

In a November 1999 referendum, residents voted to change the city's name from Sheldon Point to Nunam Iqua, restoring its traditional Yupik name.

As of the 2020 census, Nunam Iqua had a population of 217, up 16 percent from 187 in 2010, making it the largest population in the city's recorded census history.

The 2020 census counted 44 households and 58 housing units in Nunam Iqua, with a median age of just 21.7 years and 43.8 percent of residents under the age of 18.

About 93.5 percent of Nunam Iqua's residents identified as American Indian and Alaska Native in the 2020 census, reflecting its predominantly Yup'ik community.

The city covers about 18 square miles, of which roughly a third is water, in the flat, tidally influenced delta country where the Yukon meets the Bering Sea.

Nunam Iqua has no road connection to the rest of Alaska; it is reached by air and water, and the state-owned Sheldon Point Airport (IATA code SXP) has one runway and two seaplane landing areas, with Grant Aviation service to Bethel and Emmonak.