Editing Point Hope, Alaska (section)

==History==
[[File:PtHpe Bns.JPG|thumb|left|A pile of whale bones in Point Hope, at the spot where celebrations are held at the conclusion of the whaling season.]]
Before any modern settlement, the [[Ipiutak]] lived here.

The descriptive [[Inuit]] name of the place, "Tikarakh" or "[[Tikigaq|Tikiġaq]]", commonly spelled "Tiagara", means "forefinger". It was recorded as "Tiekagagmiut" in 1861 by P. Tikhmeniev Wich of the [[Imperial Russian Navy|Russian Hydrographic Department]] and on Russian Chart 1495{{citation needed|date=December 2017}} it became "Tiekaga". This ancient village site was advantageous, because the protrusion of Point Hope into the sea brought the whales close to the shore. At Tikigaq, they built semi-subterranean houses using mainly whalebone and driftwood.  Point Hope is one of the oldest continually occupied sites in North America. While some of the earlier dwellings have been lost to erosion as the point shrinks, it still provides valuable information to archaeologists on how early Eskimos survived in their harsh environment. The Tikigaq site according to Helge Larsen is, "by far the most extensive and complete one-period site yet discovered and described in the entire circumpolar region."<ref>The Firecracker Boys, O'Neill</ref>

The first recorded Europeans to sight this cape were [[Russians|Russian]] explorers [[Ensign Mikhail Vasiliev|Mikhail Vasiliev]] and [[Gleb Shishmaryov]] of the [[Imperial Russian Navy]] on the ships ''Otkrietie'' and ''Blagonamierennie''. Vasiliev and Shishmaryov named this landhead Mys Golovnina, after Vice Admiral [[Vasily Golovnin]] (1776–1831).

The cape at Point Hope was renamed by Captain [[Frederick William Beechey]] of the [[Royal Navy]], who wrote on August 2, 1826: ''"I named it Point Hope in compliment to Sir [[William Johnstone Hope]]".'' According to [[Hudson Stuck|Archdeacon Stuck]]<ref>1920, p.&nbsp;96</ref> Hope was from a "well-known house long connected with the sea".<ref>[http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=108:3:7904351601948579158::NO::P3_FID:1408109 USGS]</ref> [[Noel Wien]] made the first flight here in August 1927.<ref name="Ira">{{cite book |last1=Harkey |first1=Ira |title=Pioneer Bush Pilot |date=1991 |publisher=Bantam Books |isbn=0553289195 |page=204}}</ref>

Point Hope residents successfully opposed [[Project Chariot]] in 1962. The project would have involved buried thermonuclear detonations some {{Convert|30|mi}} from the village to create a deep-water artificial harbor, which would only have been usable about three months out of the year.