Teller is located on a spit between Port Clarence and Grantley Harbor, 75 miles northwest of Nome. Many ancestors of Teller's Inupiat people originated from villages of Wales, St. Mary Igloo, Little Diomede and King Island. Teller is considered a traditional Inupiat village and was formerly called Nook before it existed as a white man's boom town at the turn of the 20th century. The Bluestone placer mine was discovered nearby which resulted in a great population increase from an influx of Caucasian miners and their associates. In 1918, the Native population of Teller was decimated due to the ravages of the pandemic outbreak of Spanish influenza. Inupiat and other indigenous peoples of the North encountered disaster with the introduction of this and other diseases by western contact because they lacked immunity. It should be noted that the epidemic, which struck Teller and other villages along the Seward Peninsula, gave impetus to the development of a new mission and orphanage at Pilgrim Springs which had been established by Fr. Bellarmine Lafortune, S.J., in 1918. Pilgrim Springs is still owned by the Diocese and has not been a mission for years, having been leased to a private individual.

Catholic presence in Teller began in 1902 with Fr. Rogatien Camille, S.J., who came to visit Teller from Nome. Fr. Hubert Post, S.J., came after Fr. Camille in 1909 and established a semi-permanent residence when he built “Saint Ann's Catholic Church Youth Center.” Paradoxically, Teller Mission of the early 1940's was then known as “Saint Emma.” Records are unclear when the mission changed names from Saint Emma to Saint Ann.

For most of its history, the Teller Catholic community has been served by the clergy from Nome. At other times it was served from places such as Pilgrims Springs, Little Diomede and King Island. Beginning in 1965, Fr. Robert Dunn, a diocesan priest, was in residence at Teller. Fr. Lawrence Nevue, S.J., another who ministered to the Teller Catholic community, bought a building in 1962 to serve as Saint Ann's parish church. The priest from Nome visits Teller duirng the summer months. A lay presider leads worship through most of the fall, winter and spring.

On the morning of July 12, a fire ripped through the heart of downtown Teller destroying the St Ann Youth Center building and 6 other nearby structures.