Explore Inupiaq Heritage At The New Bering Land Bridge Heritage Center In Nome, Alaska

Published on September 6, 2025

NOME, Alaska connected September 5, 2025, nan Bering Land Bridge National Preserve celebrated nan expansive opening of its authorities of nan creation Bering Land Bridge Heritage Center. This marque caller installation immerses visitors successful nan vibrant taste practice of nan area, showcasing nan past and ongoing traditions of nan Inupiaq communities.

The Heritage Center welcoming visitors opening September 6 stems from a imaginative business among nan Inupiaq people, including tribal leaders and residents of Shishmaref, Wales, and Deering. Serving arsenic a surviving library, nan halfway is dedicated to safeguarding and sharing nan songs, stories, and ancestral contented of nan Inupiat, who person called this rugged onshore location for thousands of years.

Exhibits and Features astatine nan Heritage Center

The Bering Land Bridge Heritage Center boasts respective unsocial exhibits that attraction connected nan region’s earthy history and Indigenous taste heritage. Visitors tin explore:

• Inupiaq Language Learning: Interactive displays that induce guests to study and prosecute pinch nan Inupiaq language, which is presently endangered. These features let visitors to read, listen, and believe nan language, helping to sphere it for early generations.
• Authentic Fish Rack: Constructed by section artisan Jared Miller, this food rack is made from Sitnasuaq (Nome) driftwood. It reflects accepted subsistence practices of nan Inupiat, wherever food were dried and preserved for sustenance passim nan year. The rack stands arsenic a testament to nan resilience and resourcefulness of nan region’s people.
• Niġipiaq Table: This show offers visitors a chance to sample and position replica foods integral to nan region’s culinary traditions. The Niġipiaq Table is simply a vibrant showcase of Inupiaq subsistence foods, reflecting nan diverseness and richness of nan section diet.
• Regional Artwork: Curated successful collaboration pinch nan Sitnasuak Native Corporation Elders Committee, nan Heritage Center features stunning artwork that celebrates nan history and civilization of nan Inupiat people. This postulation includes useful from section artists that research nan heavy taste connections to nan onshore and sea.
• Animated Display of Landscape Changes: A short animated movie presents nan move changes that person taken spot successful nan Beringia region complete thousands of years. The movie offers a ocular knowing of really nan onshore has transformed since nan past Ice Age, linking past events to present-day landscapes.
• Cultural Videos: A action of films supply a deeper knowing of nan region’s taste significance. These videos show nan communicative of Inupiaq life, focusing connected subsistence activities, seasonal practices, and nan community’s relationship to nan land.
• Animal Silhouettes: Bright and engaging animal silhouettes shake hands visitors astatine nan center’s entrance. These life-sized figures are adorned pinch vibrant artwork created by younker artists from Shishmaref, Wales, Deering, and Nome, adding a youthful touch to nan taste celebration.

A Partnership for nan Future

The Heritage Center is not conscionable a abstraction to study astir nan past but besides a spot for nan organization to travel together and observe its ongoing taste legacy. The halfway was developed done a beardown business pinch nan Sitnasuak Native Corporation and was made imaginable by nan generous support of nan National Park Foundation and The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust.

Jeanette Koelsch, Superintendent of Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, expressed pridefulness successful nan Heritage Center’s opening. The caller practice halfway is simply a monumental measurement successful honoring nan knowledge and traditions of our section communities, is said. It offers a abstraction wherever visitors, whether section aliases from afar, tin link to nan civilization and history of nan region, enriching their knowing of nan preserve’s significance.

Jeff Reinbold, president and CEO of nan National Park Foundation, highlighted nan value of preserving taste stories. The halfway represents nan surviving history of our nationalist parks. It provides a spot for group to study astir nan resilience of nan landscapes and communities that person shaped our country’s story.

Visitor Information

The Bering Land Bridge Heritage Center is located successful nan Sitnasuak Building astatine 214 Front Street successful Nome, Alaska. It will beryllium unfastened to visitors starting September 6, 2025. The halfway offers a wealthiness of accusation astir nan section Inupiaq civilization and nan region’s unsocial landscape, making it an basal extremity for anyone visiting nan area.

For much specifications astir nan Heritage Center’s hours of cognition aliases to study much astir its exhibits, interaction Katie Cullen astatine [email protected] aliases telephone 907-759-8020. Additional accusation tin besides beryllium recovered connected nan official National Park Service website.

A Window into nan Past

The Bering Land Bridge National Preserve is location to a important information of nan onshore span that connected Asia and North America complete 10,000 years ago. The sphere offers visitors a uncommon opportunity to research nan region’s immense Arctic and coastal ecosystems, which proceed to beryllium nan homeland of nan Inupiat people. The Heritage Center is conscionable 1 portion of a broader effort to sphere and stock nan surviving history of this unthinkable landscape.

Travel Guide for Visitors to Nome

Visitors readying to research nan Heritage Center should return statement of nan following:

• Location: The Heritage Center is located astatine 214 Front Street successful Nome, Alaska, accessible by car and ft from astir cardinal locations successful nan city.
• Best Time to Visit: Fall (September-November) offers a awesome chance to witnesser nan beauty of nan Arctic arsenic nan scenery shifts pinch nan changing seasons.
• What to Expect: Visitors tin expect a operation of interactive exhibits, taste displays, and an opportunity to link pinch nan traditions of nan Inupiaq people.

Whether you emotion breathtaking stories from nan past, are fascinated by beautiful landscapes, aliases you recreation to soak up different cultures, nan Bering Land Bridge Heritage Center is nan spot to go. You’ll observe really nan typical folks of this area person lived and thrived for hundreds of years.