Point Hope (Tikeraq) peninsula is one of the oldest continuously occupied Inupiat Eskimo areas in Alaska. Several settlements have existed on the peninsula over the past 2,500 years, including Old and New Tigara, Ipiutak, Jabbertown, and present Point Hope. The peninsula offers good access to marine mammals, and ice conditions allow easy boat launchings into open leads early in the spring whaling season. The people were traditionally aggressive and exercised dominance over an extensive area, from the Utukok to Kivalina Rivers, and far inland. By 1848, commercial whaling activities brought an influx of Westerners, many of whom employed Point Hope villagers. By the late 1880s, the whalers established shore-based whaling stations, such as Jabbertown. These disappeared with the demise of whaling in the early 1900s.

In the early 1970s the village moved to a new site just east of the old village because of erosion and periodic storm-surge flooding. Most of the housing was moved on runners to the new site. New houses were constructed by the Borough and individuals.