Kaktovik is a city in North Slope Borough, Alaska, United States. The population was 283 at the 2020 census. Until the late nineteenth cent…Kaktovik is a city in North Slope Borough, Alaska, United States. The population was 283 at the 2020 census. Until the late nineteenth century, Barter Island was a major trade center for the Inupiat and was especially important as a bartering place for Inupiat from Alaska and Inuit from Canada.