Southwest Alaska is home to approximately one-tenth of Alaska’s population, the majority being Alaska Native. Bethel and Dillingham are the largest communities with just over 6,000 and 2,300 residents, respectively.

Since time immemorial, salmon have provided the foundation for human habitation of this region. The Native people of Southwest Alaska are mainly Central Yup’ik in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta and Bristol Bay areas, Alutiiq on the eastern Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak Island, Aleut in the Aleutians, Pribilofs, and the western Alaska Peninsula, and Dena’ina Athabaskan near the western shore of Cook Inlet and around Lake Clark and Lake Iliamna.