Editing Nightmute, Alaska (section)

== History ==

{{lang|esu|Negtemiut}} literally means ‘the people of the pressed-down place’.<ref>{{cite book|last=Fienup-Riordan|first=Ann|title=The Nelson Island Eskimo|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fXPjAAAAMAAJ|year=1983|publisher=Alaska Pacific University Press|isbn=978-0-935094-09-1|page=39|quote= Nightmute ({{lang|esu|Negtemiut}}, lit. people of the pressed down place)}}</ref> The first element is {{lang|esu|negte-}} ‘to press down on’. The suffix is {{lang|esu|-miut}} ‘people’.<ref>{{cite book|last=Bright|first=William|title=Native American Placenames of the United States|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5XfxzCm1qa4C&pg=PA326|year=2004|publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|isbn=978-0-8061-3598-4|page=326|quote= From Yupik (Eskimo) {{lang|esu|negtemiut}}, perhaps containing {{lang|esu|negte-}} 'to press down on'; the suffix {{lang|esu|-miut}} means 'people' (Jacobson 1984).}}</ref>

It first appeared on the 1940 U.S. Census as the unincorporated native village of "Nigtmuit". In 1950 and 1960, it was spelled "Nigtmute". In 1970, the spelling used was "Nightmute". It formally incorporated in 1974.

In 1964, many of its residents relocated by dogsled and founded the bayside community of [[Toksook Bay]] about {{convert|15|mi|km}} downriver.<ref name=Negta/><ref>{{cite book|title=Theata|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OVPzAAAAMAAJ|year=1979|publisher=University of Alaska|page=45|quote=Sixty dogs in a team, doesn't that sound like enough of a team? Well, that's the way many people moved their houses from the village in Nightmute to Toksook Bay, which is about 18 miles. In the spring of 1964, around March, the majority of the people of Nightmute decided to move to Toksook and voted [...]}}</ref> The relocation was to avoid the yearly spring-winter migration to and from [[Umkumiut]] and Nightmute.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Ann Fienup-Riordan |display-authors=etal |title=Yup'ik Words of Wisdom|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=905__N5hw9YC&pg=PR13|year=2005|publisher=U. of Nebraska Press|isbn=0-8032-6917-X|page=13|quote= In 1964, Paul led a number of families to found the village of Toksook Bay to avoid the arduous annual move between the winter village of Nightmute and spring camp at [[Umkumiut]].}}</ref>