Public Testimony to Protect the Arctic Refuge
There's still time to give testimony at the BLM public hearings for the Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement on oil and gas development on the coastal planes of the Arctic Refuge. Today (Sep 15th) at 6PM and tomorrow at 1PM and 6PM.
Public Testimony by Nauri Toler
Native Movement Environmental Justice Community Organizer
Sept 14, 2021
I am Iñupiaq from Nuiqsut and Utqiagvik, I currently live in Eagle River on the homelands of the Dena’ina. Thank you for hosting these meetings. I'm glad to have an opportunity to look further into the impacts of development of oil and gas on the coastal plain.
First I want to highlight the difference between indigenous voices before and against this project. While it's not 100% true, my experience is that those that speak for the development stand to gain financially, and I'm not saying anything bad about that. But in contrast we who speak against development have a lot to lose. It's not measured in dollar amounts, but in culture, tradition, mental health etc. We speak about protecting our land for children and future generations, and those of the people we want to protect. Extractive development may provide a short-term financial gain, but with many immeasurable negative consequences. Our people have had so much taken from us within the last few generations, I feel it is owed to us to evaluate these kinds of projects with our health and wellness being the priority.
Consider things like violence against indigenous women and children increase with extracted development projects nearby. Consider impacts to mental health, sense of identity and how that may worsen with already significant problems with suicides within our communities, especially with our youth. Consider the cumulative impacts of our health and subsistence, our communities rely on subsistence not just for food but to practice together our traditions, to take pride in our way of life. This is important in this sensitive area where caribou calving happens.
Development not only creates reliance on financial income that will only last decades, it threatens subsistence practices we have relied on since time immemorial. It impacts our part of the world more so than other areas. I'm asking that our people, health, culture and traditions are given a priority after historically being an afterthought or considered a barrier.
We deserve justice and acknowledgment at some point. I am asking the BLM to lead in this an example of the powerful entity to be an ally to Indigenous people of Alaska and take our well-being as not just a consideration, but a priority in this evaluation. Thank you.