The ancient village of Chenega Bay sits 100 feet above the waters of Crab Bay in Evans Island, 42 miles southeast of Whittier in the Prince William Sound. It is 104 air miles southeast of Anchorage and has a population of around 94.

The name of this Alutiiq village was first reported by Ivan Petroff in the 1880 census. On March 27, 1964, the original Chenega Village site on Southern Chenega Island was destroyed by a tsunami (tidal wave) resulting from Alaska’s 1964 great earthquake. Approximately one-third of all Chenega Bay residents perished in the tsunami, constituting the Earthquake’s single largest death site. For twenty years, members of the Chenega Village lived uprooted from their homeland, until the new Village of Chenega Bay was established on Evan’s Island in 1984.

On Good Friday, March 24, 1989, the oil tanker Exxon Valdez hit a reef off Bligh Island spilling millions of gallons of oil into Prince William Sound. The newly established Village quickly found its beaches awash with oil and the Village inundated with clean-up activities and associated personnel. The people of Chenega are still feeling the devastation created by the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

Chenega (meaning “along the side") Bay is a Native community practicing a subsistence lifestyle with commercial fishing and an oyster farming operation. Chenega has a small boat harbor and dock. A new 3,000 foot gravel runway and float plane landing area are available. Scheduled and chartered flights depart from Cordova, Valdez, Anchorage and Seward.