Eben Hopson

Hopson served as the first mayor of Utqiaġvik, then known as Barrow. He was first elected to the position in 1972, and was reelected in 1975.

In 1977, Hopson founded the Inuit Circumpolar Council, an organization dedicated for the unification of Inuit voices throughout Alaska, Canada, and Greenland.^[6] The conference formally recognized Hopson as their founder in 1980.^[7]

In 1979, Hopson represented the Inuit in a court case suing the US Secretary of Commerce Juanita Kreps on the grounds that the International Whaling Commission had no standing to regulate subsistence whaling for native peoples.^[8] The case was initially ruled against Hopson by the Alaska district court, but was subsequently overturned in 1980 by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Hopson was hospitalized in Utqiaġvik on June 16 and died from cancer on June 28, 1980. He was survived by his wife Rebecca and 12 children.^[9]

International Inuit Day, a celebration of the Inuit culture, has occurred on November 7 since 2006, in honor of Hopson's legacy.^[10]

The middle school serving Utqiaġvik is named after Hopson.