Valdez

- Valdez is located at the east end of Port Valdez on the Valdez arm of the Prince William Sound.

- Historically, Valdez was used as a trading center between the Ahtna Athabaskan people and the Alutiiq people.

- Valdez is 115 air miles east of Anchorage and 45 miles northwest of Cordova.

- Culture is passed down by means of subsistence. The Valdez Native Tribe is the only tribe in the region which currently administers its own 93-638 Indian Health Service contract.

- Travel to Valdez is most efficiently done by airplane.

- Valdez is the community where the Native population represents the smallest percentage of the population.

- Native cultures from around the State are represented. Valdez is dominated by the nearby terminus of the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline, where many in the Alaska Native community work. In the time since the Exxon Valdez oil spill, Natives have also come to Valdez to work with oil spill response vehicles.

- The Valdez Native Tribal Council, composed of seven members, is currently seeking federal recognition.

- Although Valdez is on the road system, it is 300 miles away from Anchorage by road and only 115 by air.