The Selawik River is a river

River

A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also be called by several other names, including...

 in northwestern Alaska

Alaska

Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

. It is about 140 miles (225 km) long. It runs from its origin in the Purcell Mountains (Alaska) through the Selawik National Wildlife Refuge

Selawik National Wildlife Refuge

Selawik National Wildlife Refuge in northwest Alaska in the Waring Mountains was officially established in 1980 with the passage of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act ....

 and empties into Selawik Lake

Selawik Lake

Selawik Lake is a lake located southwest of Selawik, Alaska. It is long. It is adjacent to the Selawik National Wildlife Refuge and the Baldwin Peninsula, feeding into the Hotham Inlet and Kotzebue Sound....

, which empties into the Kotzebue Sound

Kotzebue Sound

Kotzebue Sound is an arm of the Chukchi Sea in the western region of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is on the north side of the Seward Peninsula and bounded the east by the Baldwin Peninsula. It is long and wide....

 in the Chukchi Sea

Chukchi Sea

Chukchi Sea is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is bounded on the west by the De Long Strait, off Wrangel Island, and in the east by Point Barrow, Alaska, beyond which lies the Beaufort Sea. The Bering Strait forms its southernmost limit and connects it to the Bering Sea and the Pacific...

. The river is approximately at the latitude of the Arctic Circle

Arctic Circle

The Arctic Circle is one of the five major circles of latitude that mark maps of the Earth. For Epoch 2011, it is the parallel of latitude that runs north of the Equator....

.

The village of Selawik

Selawik, Alaska

Selawik is a city in Northwest Arctic Borough, Alaska, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 772.Selawik comes from "siilvik" which means "place of sheefish" in Inupiaq.-Geography:Selawik is located at ....

is on the river. The river is used for subsistence fishing by residents and for rafting and sport fishing by tourists.