The Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge is a United States National Wildlife Refuge covering about 19.16 million acres (77,500 km2) in southwestern Alaska and is administered from offices in Bethel, Alaska. It is the second-largest National Wildlife Refuge in the country, only slightly smaller than the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. These wetlands are a coastal plain extending to the Bering Sea, covering the delta created by both the Yukon River and the Kuskokwim River. The delta includes extensive wetlands near sea level that are often inundated by Bering Sea tides. It is bordered on the east by Wood-Tikchik State Park, which is the largest state park in the United States.

U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt was first to set aside parts of southwestern Alaska as refuge lands in 1909. Other lands were added through the years until December 2, 1980, when President Jimmy Carter signed the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) into law, and which created the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Reserve by consolidating existing refuges and adding additional lands, including the large islands Nelson and Nunivak as part of the refuge.

Also part of the wildlife refuge is the Andreafsky Wilderness, which is a wilderness area covering about 1,300,000 acres (2046 spuare miles or 5,300 square kilometers) of the NWR. This wilderness area was designated by the United States Congress in 1980. Both the Andreafsky River and its East Fork, in the northern section of the NWR, flow southwest along parallel paths and merge into the Yukon River.

The National Wildlife Refuge s home to some 35 villages, which has a population for about 25,000 people. Most all of these people are indigenous peoples who are of Yup′ik Eskimo origin and live in their traditions manner and life a subsistence lifestyle. This lifestyle is a way of living where individuals and families produce their own food and necessities, rather than buying them. This can involve strategies like hunting, fishing, foraging, and subsistence agriculture, and is often tied to a culture′s specific traditions and worldview. This lifestyle is the core of the life in rural Alaska.

Living a true subsistence lifestyle is not easy, and is not done out of desperation. It involves dedicated time and skill, as well as financial investment in equipment and fuel. Also required is a lot of dedicated time for harvesting, processing, distributing, and preserving food. Subsistence provides pride in what one does, why that one does it, and for whom it is done for.