[citation needed] Administratively this island belongs to the Nome Census Area, Alaska.
The island is part of the Bering Sea unit of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge.
"[2] Martin Sauer, the secretary of the 1791 Russian expedition who sailed under orders from Catherine II of Russia, claimed in 1802 that the Inuit name of this island is "Ayak."
Captain Frederick Beechey observed: "It is singular that this island, which was named Sledge Island by Captain Cook, from the circumstances of one of these implements being found upon it, should be called by a word signifying the same thing in Esquimaux language.
[4] Sledge Island first appeared in the U.S. Census in 1880 as the unincorporated Inuit village of Aziak.