Native Movement Blog
Art, Celebration and Community: Reflections from our trip to Kotzebue with Protect the Kobuk
May 20, 2024 | Written By: Jessica Thornton, Trinity Villalobos and Brihannala Morgan
The end of April, 2024, was a momentous time for those fighting to stop the Ambler Road - firstly the Bureau of Land Management’s recommendation of the No Action Alternative to the Ambler Road, and secondly the selection of the Kobuk River as one of America’s most endangered rivers of 2024.
This news was met with excitement and celebration by the Alaska Native communities and allied activists who had been leading the fight against the Ambler road across northern Alaska. Three Native Movement staff – Jessica Thornton (Arts in Action lead), Trinity Villalobos (Interior Organizing Fellow) and Brihannala Morgan (Campaign Development Lead) – had the honor of traveling to Kotzebue to join Protect the Kobuk, a grassroots organization of Northwest Arctic residents that gathered over 700 signatures from local people against the road, in their celebration.
The evening was filled with joy; Protect the Kobuk hosted a Kobuk River foods potluck with speeches expressing gratitude to everyone who had been organizing for so long and had made these two victories a reality. As Native Movement, we brought screen printing supplies and together with the community printed 50 shirts and over 20 patches (including a set for sled dogs racing in the Kobuk 440!). Jessica taught community members how to screenprint, and we left screen printing supplies so that Protect the Kobuk can continue printing on their own in the future.
“This event was a good reminder of how important it is to take the time and the effort to celebrate the wins that we have with our communities and partners! Connecting with others over our shared visions for the future, making art together, sharing appreciations and food with each other, and creating joyful spaces are such an important part of our work. It makes our movements sustainable for the long run. We always have more work to do and the Ambler Road project might not be gone forever, but the connections we made will make us stronger for the next round. I’m so deeply grateful to all the organizers across Alaska who have been fighting this fight for so long, and thank you to everyone in Kotzebue who made this trip an unforgettable experience.”
- Jessica Thornton, Arts & Action Lead, Native Movement
“ This trip was a good reminder of how much my passion for this work is rooted in a connection with the land and with the people whose fight to protect it. While the event itself was really successful, and it felt great to be able to share Native Movement’s resources with screen printing, training, and supplies, it was the times that we spent with Ruth, Stacey, Susan, Chad, and others and hearing about their lives at camp, about how the river and land had provided for them that I will remember the most deeply. It was an honor and a joy to share a meal, hear stories, and celebrate together.”
- Brihannala Morgan, Environmental Justice Campaign Development Lead, Native Movement
“I’m so amazed that my job is getting to learn firsthand about community organizing by supporting incredible organizers, advocates, and community groups who do awesome things. My main role during this project was supporting logistics. I booked hotels and flights, worked with the City Parks and Recreation on booking and setting up the venue, helped facilitate meetings and our travel itinerary to help organize the trip, and did on-the-ground support for the day of the art build. I don’t have a lot of experience with trips like this, so it was a series of many firsts for me! It felt incredible to be hosted and welcomed into a new community. I hold so much gratitude for our hosts who toured us around the town, helped out with transporting supplies, and let me borrow proper boots when I came with ones that wouldn’t work. Thank you to Ruth and her family, Stacey, and Susan who really did so much for us to have a great time.”
- Trinity Villalobos, Interior Organizing Fellow, Native Movement
HJR 22 is a Threat To Our Subsistence Ways of Life
May 1, 2024 | Written By: Dorothy Shockley and Rebecca Noblin
In a time not so long ago Indigenous people, or “first people,” in Alaska were free to hunt and fish to feed ourselves. Alaska Native peoples developed complex cultures and traditions around living off the land. Times weren’t always easy, but our ancestors respected the land, animals, and fish, believing they gave of themselves so that the people could survive. In return, the people did not take more than they needed in order for the animals and fish to multiply and thrive. Today, these practices and traditions are referred to as “subsistence.”
Then came statehood–January 3, 1959, to be exact. The first state legislature established the Department of Fish & Game (“the department”). In January 1960 the Commissioner of Fish and Game was vested with great authority to manage Alaska’s fish and game.
In the 64 years since the department was established, it has successfully depleted multiple stocks of fish and game to the point that the first people cannot feed ourselves nor hold traditional practices that were established around hunting, fishing, and trapping. During those same 64 years, the department consistently refused to consult with the first people who stewarded the land and fish and game from time immemorial.
Now the legislature has introduced House Joint Resolution 22 (HJR 22), which would enable the department to take over subsistence management on federal lands. This is a BAD idea in so many ways. So far the department has not shown that it can sustainably manage wildlife. More importantly, subsistence is not a priority for the department. Today there is no one in the state subsistence office. The department has disregarded the first people and our thousands of years of knowledge, as well as the federal government's recognition of Tribal governments. Despite federal law to the contrary, the department will not give subsistence priority when the fish and game are scarce.
HELP RESTORE THE EKLUTNA RIVER
February 6, 2024 | Written By: Lila Hobbs
The Eklutna River is home to one of the oldest villages in Southcentral Alaska, the Dena’ina Village of Eklutna, which was founded on the banks of the Eklutna River because of its historic runs of Chinook, coho, and sockeye salmon. The Eklutna Dena’ina peoples have relied on and carefully stewarded the Eklutna River’s rich salmon runs since time immemorial.
The Eklutna Hydroelectric Project, built in 1955, has dried up and cut off the entire Eklutna River from the lake and upper tributaries. With dams being built from the project, the Eklutna River has not been allowed to flow out of the lake, cutting off historic salmon runs and impacting local people.
The proposed Eklutna Hydro Plan is inadequate to protect salmon and the Eklutna Dena’ina peoples. Native Movement therefore supportʻs the Community Alternative put forth by the Native Village of Eklutna. This alternative respects the Native Village of Eklutna’s stewardship and addresses decades of cultural and environmental neglect. It would restore the natural flow of the Eklutna River and its salmon habitat, allowing the salmon to return to their spawning grounds. It would also save ratepayers money and allow for the transition to new renewable energy projects.
To learn more, check out these FAQs compiled by the Eklutna River Restoration Coalition.
Additionally, Native Movement supports the Anchorage Assembly’s recent resolution AR 2024-40 that passed unanimously and seeks a two-year extension of the 1991 agreement. This extension would provide an opportunity for more meaningful consultation between the Native Village of Eklutna and the Eklutna Hydroelectric project owners (Chugach Electric Association, Matanuska Electric Association, and the Municipality of Anchorage).
HOW TO TAKE ACTION:
Eklutna Hydro is currently taking public comments until February 19th. Sign onto our letter below to make your voice heard and help restore the Eklutna River!
Protect D-1 Lands
Since the 1970s, over 150 million acres of land across Alaska have been protected from fossil fuel and mining leasing and extraction – protecting our lands and waters, caribou and salmon, and the Indigenous communities who depend on these intact life-giving ecosystems
This “D-1 land” – known as such because it was withdrawn pursuant to article 17(d)(1) of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act – is now under threat. The Bureau of Land Management is considering opening nearly 28 million acres of D-1 lands across the state to leasing, which could expand industrialization on lands important to the health of ecosystems, animals, recreational areas, and local communities.
At least 78 Alaska Native Tribes have spoken out against removing the D-1 protections, stating in a letter to U.S. Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland, that: “BLM-managed lands support important subsistence resources and serve as the breadbasket for thousands of Athabaskan, Aleut, Denaʼina, Inupiat, Yup’ik, and Tlingit peoples. For Alaska Native communities off the road system, over 80% of food consumed comes directly from the surrounding lands and waters.”
Photo by: Jeff Chen, Native Movement
#ProtectWhatYouLove
The BLM has produced a draft environmental impact assessment and is now seeking comment on that assessment through February 14, 2024.
It’s time for us to show our love for Alaska’s wild lands, and the people and animals that call it home. Together, we demand that the BLM choose the “no action alternative” to continue protecting these vital places. Click HERE to get involved TODAY!
Salmon crisis prompts Senate committee hearing in Bethel
November 21, 2024 | Written By: Jeff Chen
Declining salmon populations along Alaska’s Arctic, Yukon, and Kuskokwim Rivers, pose a significant threat to the cultural and traditional livelihoods of Alaska Native communities.
On November 10th, 2023, Senator Lisa Murkowski visited Bethel to participate in a United States Senate Committee on Indian Affairs public hearing and listening session, where the concerns surrounding salmon declines and its impacts on the health, culture, and well being of indigenous communities were discussed.
The turnout at the public hearing in Bethel was substantial, numerous individuals and community representatives testified their concerns with a broad range of topics which included climate change, excessive catch limits for ocean fisheries practicing trawling, and bycatch while our subsistence living communities face harsh restrictions, and concerns brought on by the proposed Donlin Gold development.
In order for all of our voices to be heard, it’s important that you know the public has until this Friday, Nov. 24, 2023, to submit comments via email for inclusion in the hearing’s public record. Concerned citizens and stakeholders: please take a few moments of your time to contribute your perspectives on this critical issue. Your comments and concerns can be submitted via email to: mailto: testimony@indian.senate.gov
Tribes from the Yukon-Kuskokwim region interested in amplifying their sovereign voices of opposition to the Donlin Gold mine are encouraged to join the Mother Kuskokwim Tribal Coalition. If your tribe is looking for additional information or a draft resolution, please reach out to Anaan’arar Sophie Swope by phone at tel: 545-4764 or via email at mailto: sophie@motherkuskokwim.org, using the subject line “Joining Mother Kuskokwim.”
Protect Tribal consultation and public process on Wetland Development
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is seeking public feedback on a rule that will affect the permitting process for harmful projects in Alaska’s precious wetlands. For years, the Dunleavy Administration has been pushing for the State of Alaska to take over wetland development permitting from the federal government. If the Alaska legislature approves funding, it would initiate a process whereby the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) would assume “primacy” from the federal Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) over permitting development activities that affect wetlands protected under section 404 of the Clean Water Act. This action would waste precious state money and erode vital Tribal consultation and environmental protections for wetlands.
Right now the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is accepting comments on a proposed rule governing state assumption of wetlands permitting. Alaskans have a unique opportunity to tell the EPA that state-run wetlands permitting would be catastrophic for Alaska’s wetlands. Click here to tell EPA to protect Tribal consultation and public process in decisions affecting Alaska’s wetlands.
If Alaska were to take over wetlands permitting, there would be myriad harmful consequences for Tribes, the public, and the environment, including:
Less Tribal consultation. Well-functioning and intact wetlands are critical to the protection of salmon, especially in their early stages of life. Wetlands and peatlands also serve a climate-protecting function, a major force in earthly carbon sequestration. Alaska Native peoples have been lovingly tending Alaska’s wetlands since time immemorial. Currently, with federal primacy, the federal government must conduct government-to-government consultation with Alaska Native Tribes regarding wetland permit decisions to seek input and mitigate impacts to the land and water on which Tribal members rely. While Alaska is maintaining that it does and will consult with Tribes, the experience of Tribes who have been repeatedly requesting consultation and having those requests rejected belies this contention.
Less analysis and public participation. When the federal government permits a project, it is legally required to elicit public participation and analyze the environmental, cultural, and subsistence impacts of projects under several federal laws, including the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA). The NEPA analysis will no longer be required for wetlands if the state takes over permitting, which would remove an essential avenue for Tribal and public participation. It is not clear how NHPA and ANILCA analysis will occur under a state permitting regime.
Reduced ability to litigate bad decisions. In Alaska we have a loser pays rule for litigation. That means that in certain cases if a citizen brings a lawsuit in state court and loses on their claims, regardless how valid those claims are, the citizen will have to pay the attorneys’ fees of the other side. This rule significantly chills legitimate public interest litigation, including any potential litigation challenging unlawful wetlands permits.
Easier to push through unpopular development. The State of Alaska and mine promoters want state primacy over wetland permitting to streamline the industrialization of areas like the Bristol Bay watershed. Unable to prevail in the court of public opinion or with the EPA, Alaska will attempt an end-run around both to permit the Pebble Mine.
Pledge to Defend the Sacred & Protect the Arctic
On September 28th, 2023 Gwich’in leaders once again voiced opposition to oil and gas development in the Arctic Refuge. Watch Arctic Village First Chief, Galen Gilber, share his story to #ProtectTheArctic
🚨 CURRENT THREAT TO THE 🚨
ARCTIC REFUGE
In late 2017 Congress passed a law requiring the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to hold oil and gas lease sales in the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (Arctic Refuge). The second of these lease sales must be held by the end of 2024. BLM recently released a draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) analyzing the impacts of the leasing program and seeking comments from the public.
The impacts of drilling in the Arctic Refuge are a human rights issue; it would significantly impact Gwich'in and Iñupiaq way of life. Drilling for oil and gas in the Coastal Plain of the Arctic Refuge would disrupt and terrorize the birthing grounds of the Porcupine Caribou Herd, an essential part of both Indigenous nations’ way of life.
Council on Environmental Quality seeks comments from Indigenous People & Tribes on updating NEPA regulations
The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) is accepting comments on proposed revisions to the rules implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The deadline for comments is fast approaching - Friday, September 29th.
Why is NEPA important to Tribes & Indigenous People? Over 80 federal agencies (BIA, EPA, US Fish and Wildlife Service, to name just a few) must comply with NEPA and so the regulations matter when it comes to the priorities of Indian Country: broadband, fee-to-trust applications, water infrastructure, cultural resources, and treaty rights, are just some of the many areas that have the potential to be affected.
NEPA’s main goals are to ensure that federal agencies fully study and disclose the environmental and health effects of proposed projects and inform and involve impacted communities in federal decision- making.
NEPA may affect Tribal interests and priorities in both positive and negative ways depending on the type of project proposed and other factors. The NEPA process helps ensure that issues important to Tribes are disclosed and that Tribal perspectives are considered in agency decision-making which has at times resulted in the improvement or even defeat of damaging projects. At other times, however, the NEPA process has hindered Tribal sovereignty, treaty rights and self-determination.
CEQ is looking for input on how NEPA impacts Tribes and Indigenous People, and how the rule can be improved. Some areas to consider include:
Do Tribes have adequate resources to respond to the requirements of NEPA and how does the federal government propose to alleviate any burden placed upon Tribes?
How can the process for meaningfully involving Tribes be improved?
Is NEPA’s “cumulative impacts” analysis sufficiently meaningful and does it look far enough into the future to protect culture and the well-being of future generations?
CEQ also seeks Indigenous input on whether and how to define Indigenous Knowledge and on other issues specific to Tribal interests (see rulemaking highlights below).
Some key provisions in the proposed rule that may be of interest to Tribal Nations and Indigenous communities include:
Tribal Sovereignty.
Excludes from the definition of “major federal action” – and therefore the requirement to complete an environmental review process – activities or projects approved by a Tribal Nation that occur on or involve Indigenous lands when the activities involve no federal funding or other federal involvement.
Clarifies that Tribal agencies may serve as joint lead agencies.
Ensures that federal agencies respect and account for, as determined appropriate by Tribal Nations, the unique knowledge that Tribal governments bring to the environmental review process, by codifying that the “special expertise” provided by cooperating agencies includes Indigenous Knowledge
Environmental Justice.
Requires that environmental review documents include environmental justice analysis and that agencies mitigate impacts so that government decisions avoid undue and adverse effects on communities with environmental justice concerns.
Requires agencies to identify and assess alternatives to proposed projects which address adverse health and environmental effects that disproportionately affect communities with environmental justice concerns.
Threshold Determinations.
Restore, with some modification the process that federal agencies have long used to evaluate the significance of a proposed action’s effects, which in turn informs the appropriate level of analysis. For example, the proposal would confirm that agencies should consider, among other things, an action’s proximity to unique or sensitive resources or to vulnerable communities.
CEQ would expand the considerations guiding an agency’s analysis of an effect’s significance to include the degree to which the action may have disproportionate and adverse effects on communities with environmental justice concerns and whether an action may impact reserved tribal treaty rights.
Willow Project Statement
Written by Enei Begaye, Executive Director
The continued approval of ConocoPhillips’ Willow Project is an outrageous slandering of Indigenous rights, Tribal sovereignty, and the millions of Americans, including Alaskans, who voted for strong national actions to address the climate crisis.
A few weeks ago the Biden Administration made the shameful choice to approve the Willow Project, a massive oil and gas expansion on the north slope of Alaska. Recently a US District Court Judge struck down requests to halt construction due to community concerns and impacts to the lands and water. Native Movement is deeply disappointed with these decisions, which will result in significant human rights violations – globally and locally. These decisions are a complete disregard for United Nations Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the community right to free, prior, and informed consent.
Native Movement continues to uphold local community concerns for their safety and wellbeing. We underscore the demand from Alaskans to end new oil and gas development and transition to more diverse, sustainable, and regenerative economies. Native Movement is an Alaska-based non-profit organization that represents grassroots organizing led by Indigenous peoples throughout the north.
Not all Alaskans want more massive oil and gas development, despite what Alaskan congressional leaders say. The local governments closest to the proposed development area – the City of Nuiqsut and the Native Village Nuiqsut – clearly oppose the Willow project. Native Movement remains in solidarity with the community leaders who for years have worked to protect their community from the toxic oil and gas development that surrounds them and threatens their health and their culture. We stand with local Indigenous leaders fighting to protect the Teshekpuk Caribou herd with whom their ancestors have been in sacred relationship for thousands of years.
The Biden Administration has chosen corporate profits and greed over the well-being of Nuiqsut, a community who depends on the land for clean food and water. Last year alone, ConocoPhillips made a record $1.4 billion in Alaska – which is more money than the local and state governments are estimated to gain from Willow over the next 30 years. The Native Village of Nuiqsut has received only an average of $600,000 from drilling in the Western Arctic over the past decade – which is equivalent to what ConocoPhillips made in Alaska last summer in just two hours.
While all eyes are on Willow now, it is notably only the tip of the iceberg in the corporate conquest to sacrifice Alaska’s lands, waters, and people to industrial extraction projects. As federal and state subsidized industries seek technological fixes for the climate crisis, Alaska faces mounting threats from increased mining, port expansions, and false climate solutions like carbon capture. Collective public outrage regarding Willow must continue and join us also in demanding that Alaska not be the resource warehouse to the rest of the world.
We are grateful for the millions of people who opposed the Willow Project and we are grateful for the many young people and community leaders who are still on street corners and in the legislative halls voicing opposition to this project. If you have stood with us against Willow, please continue to stand with Alaskan communities as we are fighting numerous other extractive development projects. The proposed Ambler Road would be a massive “road to resources” state project that would cut through Alaska Native hunting & gathering grounds, opening up vast regions to mining projects. The proposed Donlin gold mine would be one of the largest open-pit mines in the world, destroying Alaska Native fishing culture, the land, and waters. Oil and gas drilling in the Cook Inlet off the coast of southern Alaska is a threat to ocean life and global climate health. Alaska has been touted as a “resource warehouse” to the rest of this country – please join us in declaring that Alaska is not a sacrifice zone and our lands are NOT for sale to the highest bidder.
As Alaskans work to stop extractive projects across the state, we are also deeply committed to building the future we want to see. We remember the wisdom of our ancestors who lived in right relationship with each other and the earth since time immemorial. We bring this wisdom to bear on today’s problems as we shape just and equitable transitions to regenerative, non-extractive economies. Alaskans are already building these solutions; we are developing sustainable farming practices, installing community-controlled renewable energy projects, rematriating land to Indigenous stewards, and bringing equitable broadband access to rural communities. At the Alaska Just Transition Summits we gathered to share our work, our solutions, our vision, and our joy.
We invite everyone outraged about Willow to join us. The Willow approval is disappointing, but it’s not the end of the story. We won’t stop our work to build communities of reciprocity and joy and to create a legacy of physical, mental, and spiritual health for the next generations.
Photo by Keri Oberly • Nuiqsuit, AK
Mother Kuskokwim Tribal Coalition Stands with Tribes to Stop Donlin Gold
Mother Kuskokwim Tribal Coalition Stands with Tribes that Filed Lawsuit to Stop Donlin Gold
Tribal leaders cite lack of climate analysis, incomplete human health impacts study, fisheries collapse and inadequate Tribal consultation as basis for appeal.
MAMTERILLEQ, ALASKA – The Mother Kuskokwim Tribal Coalition applauded today’s filing of a federal lawsuit by three Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta tribes that seeks to fix critical flaws in the environmental review process used to support the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ 2018 wetlands (404) permit for the proposed Donlin open-pit gold mine. If developed, Donlin, located in the headwaters of the Kuskokwim River system, would be the largest open pit gold mine in North America.
“As Tribal nations we have been calling on the Army Corps to put in place the protections that we know the majority of Yukon-Kuskokwim residents want, and to protect our ways of life by rejecting this ill-conceived, outdated mine proposal,” said Anaan’arar Sophie Swope, Director of the Mother Kuskokwim Tribal Coalition. “The Army Corps environmental impact statement process lacked climate analysis, relied on an incomplete human health impacts study, did not take into account the now occurring fisheries collapse in the Kuskokwim River, and contained wholly inadequate Tribal consultation. Under the law, inadequate consultation alone should compel the Corps to conduct a new analysis.”
The legal challenge seeks to overturn the Final Environmental Impact Statement for the mine and the 2018 joint record of decision approving the project signed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and the U.S. Department of the Interior.
“Everyone who depends on our YK Delta food resources need to fully understand the risks of this mine and I’m grateful that more tribes are joining the fight. Barrick Gold’s history around the world makes clear they care little about environmental impacts and the people who live where they mine. I encourage all tribes to do their own research,” said Beverly Hoffman, a founder of the Mother Kuskokwim Coalition. “Our Mother Kuskokwim Tribal Coalition is committed to defending our way of life — which means fighting the placement of the largest open mine in the world along our river. Too often, human error in large extraction projects causing irreversible harm to the land, water and air. The Kuskokwim River is far too important to our ways of life to allow that to happen.”
Specifically, Tribes are asking that the federal agencies be required to study impacts to downstream waters and villages from a potentially catastrophic tailings dam failure, which the agencies refused to do in the Environmental Impact Statement despite multiple requests from downstream communities. The Tribes also want federal agencies to consider and prevent predicted impacts to Kuskokwim River rainbow smelt. Propeller wash from Donlin’s barges could kill or injure rainbow smelt, which are an important subsistence food source for people in the region and are a key prey species for salmon. Finally, the Tribes are asking the court to require the federal agencies to address serious human health concerns identified by the Alaska Department of Health but ignored in the Environmental Impact Statement.
This is the first federal lawsuit filed against the mine.
Background
The Donlin Gold project is expected to extract 556 million tons of ore to produce about 30 million ounces of gold over the 27-year life of the mine – and would generate 2.5 billion tons of waste rock, some of which would generate acid drainage. The waste rock pile would be up to 1,115 feet tall and would span 2,500 acres, some of which is currently important salmon habitat.
The full list of Tribes formally opposed to Donlin Gold by adoption of resolution includes: Orutsararmiut Native Council, Native Village of Eek, Kasigluk Traditional Council, Native Village of Kwigillingok, Chuloonawick Native Village, Native Village of Kongiganak, Native Village of Tununak, Chevak Native Village, Native Village of Napakiak, Chefornak Traditional Council, Nightmute Traditional Council, Native Village of Nunapitchuk, Kwinhagak Tribal Council, Tuluksak Tribal Council, Organized Village of Kwethluk, Aniak Traditional Council
More information can be found at www.nodonlingold.org
Contact
Sophie Swope, Director of Mother Kuskokwim Tribal Coalition: 907.545.4764
Mother Kuskowim Tribal Coalition is a Community Affiliate of Native Movement
###
Take Action to Stop the Willow Project
The ConocoPhillips Willow Project, which received its final EIS from BLM on February 1st, and is awaiting a final Record of Decision from the administration, expected sometime in early March. Now, there is a new resolution in the Alaska State Legislature calling for unanimous support for the Willow Project: https://www.akleg.gov/basis/Bill/Detail/33?Root=hjr6
Send a letter below to Secretary Deb Haaland, Senator Lisa Murkowski, House Rep. Mary Peltola and President Joe Biden to urge “No Action” on the proposed Willow Project >>>>>>>
Both the City of Nuiqsut and the Native Village of Nuiqsut have continuously and clearly voiced opposition to the Willow Project. In their joint letter, they cite numerous concerns they have with the project, including: the horrendous lack of adequate consultation, the significant impact on the health of Nuiqsut residents, and the imminent detrimental loss of access to food/subsistence resources.
Learn more on our Willow Project page here
Nuiqsut City and Tribe oppose the Willow project
To read the full letter, click through to the PDF: Letter from the Native Village of Nuiqsut and City of Nuiqsut stating opposition to the Willow project and dissatisfaction with the outcome of the process.
Cover photo by Keri Oberly.
Don’t make Indigenous people pay Willow’s price
Written by Rosemary Ahtuangaruak
Mayor of Nuiqsut, Alaska and Advisory Board Member to Native Movement
For Indigenous people, defending our rights to clean air and water, continuing to live off the land, and protecting the sacredness of Mother Earth is the fight of our lives. Unfortunately, communities like mine continue to be ignored at every turn and are left to fend for ourselves as the devastating effects of our current energy policies destroy our way of life.
That’s exactly what’s happening now as President Biden barrels towards approving ConocoPhillips’ Willow project in Alaska, just a stone’s throw away from home. The Biden administration is moving forward with a massive oil and gas project that is a climate disaster waiting to happen while refusing to listen to the voices of my constituents and community, who will bear the burden of this project with our health and our livelihoods.
Make no mistake, Willow will be the largest new oil extraction project on federal lands and will do irreversible damage to the sensitive Arctic landscape. The proposed development will include the construction of up to 250 oil wells, 37 miles of gravel roads, 386 miles of pipelines, airstrips, and processing facilities.
My hometown, Nuiqsut, is the closest town to the proposed Willow Project, and we have the most to lose. Our people feed their families with traditional subsistence activities like fishing and hunting caribou, moose, birds, and more. The Willow project’s massive infrastructure would bulldoze straight through these crucial habitats, redirecting the animal’s migratory paths, moving them away from nearby villages, and endangering the food security of local people. That’s not to mention the damage from exposure to air and water pollution that we face.
Recent studies have shown that the Arctic is warming four times faster than the rest of the world. As oil is exported and sent around the globe, our communities in the Arctic are left to contend with the health impacts of pollution as well as the devastation that comes from dramatic changes to the land we live on like sea ice melt, permafrost thaw, and coastal erosion. Approval of additional oil and gas projects in the Arctic will only add more threats to our way of life.
Our communities deserved a say. In Nuiqsut, we urged the Department of the Interior (DOI) to schedule the public input portion of the supplemental environmental review process for the project around our hunting season and subsistence activities, knowing many of those opposed to or concerned about the project would be away at hunting camp.
There’s no time to read documents, submit comments, or organize in opposition when our people are at hunting camp. Not hunting for our subsistence is not an option – the food our communities are harvesting now will help get us through the winter.
The Secretary of the Interior – who is an Indigenous person herself – knows these things. And for a moment, it seemed like her department did too. Unfortunately, after feigning concern and promising to extend the comment period through September, the department went back on its word and squeezed in the shortest comment period allowed by law during the worst time possible for the region. All of this happened after the draft supplemental environmental impact statement was released on a summer Friday night, which is what the government does when they want to hide bad news.
It’s time for the Biden administration to wake up and see the Willow Project for what it is: a choice between a transition to a greener future while protecting all communities or extending our unsurvivable addiction to fossil fuels while perpetrating yet another grave injustice to Indigenous communities. If the administration chooses the wrong fork of the road, our families will struggle to put food on the table. We will have to leave our history and culture behind. And Indigenous people will continue to suffer and die from respiratory diseases at a disproportionate rate.
From food security and chronic illness to physical and mental health to culture and traditions, there’s a lot on the line for Nuiqsut and our neighbors. It’s past time that we – and Indigenous people everywhere – have a say in our energy policy.
Rosemary Ahtuangaruak is the mayor of Nuiqsut, Alaska.
Op-Ed Originally published at TheHill.com
Proposed Ambler Road 2022 Recap
As 2022 wraps up we at Native Movement want to say baasee’/quyanaqvaa/thank you to everyone who has engaged with the work around stopping the proposed Ambler Road & mine and who has helped to raise community awareness on this important issue.
To recap what has been happening with the project over the last few years:
2020: The US Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Land Management approved the road.
2020: Permits for the road were issued and were quickly followed by two lawsuits, one led by Tanana Chiefs Conference along with several local tribes, and another by conservation groups.
Feb. 2022: The Biden Administration acknowledged the flaws in the permitting process that was conducted under the Trump Administration and the court ordered the agencies to revisit their environmental impacts statement (EIS) and to conduct adequate consultation with the communities closest to the proposed road.
September-November 2022: A scoping period was held by the Bureau of Land Management for a supplemental environmental impacts statement (SEIS).
2023: A draft SEIS will be released and the public commenting period will open, after all comments have been addressed a final record of decision will be made.
It is important to note that the road has not been approved, permits for the associated Ambler mining district have also not been approved. 2023 will be a critical year for public engagement in the process and to let the administration, our local leaders and corporations know that we do not want this massively destructive and economically unviable road to be built on public lands with state money. Native Movement will be holding more community meetings in 2023 to continue to raise awareness on this project as well as to build up a collective community voice to let decision makers know why this road will not be a good investment for current and future generations.
If you have any questions or would like to become involved in the work to stop the proposed Ambler road and mine please reach out to our lead organizer, Tukni Holstrom at tukni@nativemovement.org
Demilitarization Is Climate Justice
written by Pangaanga Laura Ikaanuq Pangawyi, Indigenous Environmental Network
Foreword
In November 2022, leaders from countries and civil societies gathered in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt for COP27, the United Nations Climate Change Conference. While this year’s conference distinctly lacked adequate representation of Indigenous communities, womxn, and frontline communities for several reasons, at Grassroots Global Justice Alliance’s Demilitarization and Climate Reparations Rally, Pangaanga Laura Ikaanuq Pangawyi (St. Lawrence Island Yupik) of Indigenous Environmental Network spoke out about the connections between climate change, militarization, and violence against Indigenous womxn.
Grassroots Global Justice Alliance
Militarization caused missing and murdered Indigenous women. During the beginning stages of colonization, it was a military tactic to rape and murder Indigenous women. This colonial tradition continues through capitalism and colonial infrastructure in our communities: man camps for mining, fossil fuels, and other extractive industries.
Militarization is the avenue through which Indigenous peoples are dehumanized through experimentation. We saw this in the Pacific Islands with thermonuclear tests; we saw this in the Arctic tundra where they injected people with radioactive iodine and spread radiation onto the tundra to see how our bodies would be impacted. And now even false solutions to climate change are being tested on our bodies, through projects like the Arctic Ice Project, which operated out of a former naval base spreading experimental materials in the Arctic without our free, prior, and informed consent.
History has shown us that the US military is the number one polluter and is not held accountable. Where I am from [Sivungaq], the military base intentionally spilled heavy metal solvents, fuel and waste onto the tundra. Countries do not have to count their military emissions.
The military protects capitalism and colonialism; capitalism and colonialism cause climate change. Militarization is a symbol of inequitable power, colonialism and capitalism.
We must dismantle capitalism if we are to thrive as human beings on Earth. The imbalance of power among humans is reflected through our arrogance with Mother Earth. As we continue trying to conquer the mother, she continues protecting herself through pandemics and climate change. Indigenous mothers hold the answers to correct imbalance.
Until our values lead the charge and military values are eradicated, we will continue killing ourselves.
We demand demilitarization.
We demand climate reparations and justice.
We demand corporations balance power back into the fold of Indigenous mothers and Indigenous peoples. Give climate reparations through land back and peace.”
When the fish go, a river runs quiet
The Tanana River is unusually quiet this summer due to low salmon returns for the third year in a row. Photo by Jeff Chen/Native Movement.
When the fish go, a river runs quiet
By: Jeff Chen
Elder Vernell Titus remembers the Nenana shores of the Tanana River as a lively place when summer would arrive each year – fish wheels churning, noisy birds all around, and boats zooming up and down.
“Usually there’s thousands and thousands of seagulls just making all kinds of noise – wanna get to that fish,” she says, gesturing to a modest fish rack drying nearby. “Right now with all that fish hanging there, you don't see not one seagull. It's strange – very very strange.”
Fish returns on the Tanana River have been abysmal since 2020 – both chum and king salmon numbers so low that Alaska Department of Fish & Game (ADF&G) closed the river to subsistence fishing for the third year in a row (2021-2022 summer chum salmon closure and 2020-2022 fall chum salmon closure). Meanwhile, commercial fishing in the South Alaska Peninsula remained open, harvesting a sizable portion of salmon bound for western and interior Alaska rivers.
A handful of community members nearby cut, dry, and smoke salmon. This year and last year’s salmon were donated from North Soul Salmon in Bristol Bay through a program called Fish for Families.
When the fish don’t come back, Titus says everything changes. On a recent trip to Lake Minto, she observed that only one lone swan drifted by, where normally a whole ecosystem thrives. As she teaches students how to sew birch bark, Titus repeats to them what her elders predicted, “The world is coming to a big change.”
Despite a quiet river, a group of roughly 50 people showed up each day for two weeks in July at a culture camp along the shore, put on by the Nenana Native Council. Most days, parents dropped off their kids to an intergenerational crew of elders, culture bearers, and advocates to share skills and knowledge of the Lower Tanana Dene – beading, crafting with birch bark, learning songs and dance, and studying plants.
The camp came alive in recent years as cultural advocates like tribal member Eva Burk and Nenana Native Council First Chief Caroline Ketzler sought funding and in-kind donations for the community to coalesce around culture.
On a sunny afternoon, Ketzler visits with camp organizers and helps with potlatch preparations. From cutting meat, preparing gifts, and serving elders, Ketzler expects a sense of community to emerge, something she says has wavered this last decade. “I'm really happy to see all of our hard work coming together and people getting that sense of community back, and just realizing that everybody is a person, an individual themselves. And even though we may not agree with each other, we can all come together and celebrate together.”
Families begin to arrive at the potlatch and get seated along the shore, just down the road from a former church mission, which eventually washed away with the river. “This land held significance before it was mission land. If you look at the pictures of our traditional chiefs in this area, you'll see them take photos right in front of that hill.”
At the same time that cultural revitalization is steadfast, subsistence opportunities have conversely dwindled. Hunters at camp who went to look for moose came back without any luck. Nenana residents talk about how their family’s traditional hunting areas aren’t the same as they used to be.
And now, the State’s nearby effort to sell 140,000 acres of land – the Nenana Totchaket Agricultural Project – threatens those traditional hunting grounds. The State has been looking to sell the land west of Nenana for decades, and this summer, the bidding began.
A range of views on the development exist, but Ketzler says industrialized agriculture activity will disturb the land, create runoff, and likely impact the adjacent land owned by the Toghotthele Corporation and also the waterways.
She believes the State has the development project already planned, and says the State sent consultation paperwork to Nenana Native Council during Christmas, when nobody was in the office.
Even as soil studies have yet to be completed, the State’s first auction for 27 parcels closed on October 4, 2022. “To buy that amount of land on that large of a scale, you have to have significant money,” Ketzler says.
A Nenana food sovereignty project called The Tlaa Deneldel Community Group was formed recently to make a bid on some of the land in order to build local tribal agricultural projects on.
Back at camp, 14 year old North Pole High School student Michael Burk and a friend help carry a couple boxes of frozen salmon to the cutting table. “It’s peaceful down here next to the river, and you get to talk to people,” Burk says. “We're just around the city most often. And once you come down here in Nenana, you honestly get to experience firsthand how to do things by hand.”
As the potlatch begins, elder Virgil Titus of Minto, stands up, beaming with pride. He’d just arrived from the Doyon 50th anniversary potlatch in Fairbanks. To the gathering, he speaks. “You’re holding your Alaska together. We love you for that, and we’ll never forget you. That’s all what we’re trying to pull our young people together for,” Titus says. “Believe me, this is the best camp I ever seen for a long time.”
The State of Alaska is currently auctioning off traditional subsistence lands for industrial agriculture. Donate today to support the Tlaa Deneldel Community Group, a Nenana food sovereignty project. www.NativeMovement.org/Landback.
This week, Native Movement and Always Indigenous Media brings you The Trickster Times . You can pick-up a print version at the Elders & Youth and Alaska Federation of Natives conventions. Some stories are more newsy, some are more commentary, and all are written from the heart and for our community. We welcome you to join us as we build people power, rooted in an Indigenized worldview, toward healthy, sustainable, & just communities for ALL.
Never Alone, Reflections from a Circumpolar North Indigenous Youth Leadership Workshop
David Clark speaking alongside Indigenous leaders and Norwegian dignitaries on a panel regarding circumpolar Arctic cooperation, geopolitics and climate change. Photo courtesy of David Clark/Native Movement.
Never Alone
Reflections from a Circumpolar North Indigenous Youth Leadership Workshop
By David Clark
I stepped out onto the deck of the large houseboat that we had all settled into mere hours earlier, and took a deep breath of crisp, southern Norwegian air. The harbor in Arendal, Norway, was ornamented with houses that reflected the golden morning sunlight under ribbons of muted baby blue sky and wispy clouds. After soaking in the sight, I stumbled back into the boat for coffee and a light breakfast with my roommate, whom I had met only hours before.
The day prior, Indigenous youth had all traveled to Arendal from across the circumpolar North to participate in a weeklong intensive leadership training, designed to empower young Indigenous people with the leadership skills and connections necessary to become the next generation of climate action leaders for their communities. All of us – from Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Sweden, Finland, and Norway – woke up blurry-eyed, parched and exhausted from the multiple borders and timezones we crossed to reach our destination. Slowly, as we sipped our coffee and ate our breakfasts, we began conversations that would spark lifelong connections with one another.
I sat down with my roommate, who is Sámi, at the breakfast table. Our conversation started out light; laughter was shared as we exchanged stories of our lives back home and how we had met the night before in a state of dazed exhaustion. I got to learn a little bit about how Sámi families manage their reindeer herds. I got to share about the time I ate freshly-caught seal on Nuchek Island, how it tasted like the salt water I was learning to be in relationship with, and what it was like visiting Prince William Sound.
The more commonalities we drew in that initial conversation eventually led us to more in-depth topics, not all of them happy ones. I learned about fornorskning – the official policy of the Norwegian government that targeted Sámi and Kven peoples in northern Norway for total assimilation. I learned that Sámi children were also forcibly removed from their communities and forced into boarding schools; oftentimes, they would not return home, feeling a deep sense of shame and believing that they were honestly better off having become Norwegian. I shared how that same colonial strategy at the hands of the U.S. government is something that Alaska Native peoples continue to grapple with, as well; how some of us (like myself) have grown up disconnected from those roots as a result of that policy, and how so many of us yearn to return but can’t, because it’s not that simple.
It was clear from that initial conversation that we both experience intergenerational trauma in the same ways, and that the hurt we experience in ourselves and our families is just the same, and that those experiences aren’t isolated. As the week wore on, almost all of the students in our international cohort would share personal stories and anecdotes to the same effect.
Naming the harmful effects of western colonialism and how it affects us was an important bonding experience that made our worlds much smaller and brought us a sense of healing and community. It would also set the tone for the week ahead, as we’d learn conflict negotiation and crisis management skills when dealing with imminent threats to socio-ecological welfare.
Norway is a world leader in development of renewable energy, or the “green shift” - which is ironic, seeing how petroleum accounts for around 40% of their annual exports and over 10% of their GDP. What most may not consider, though, is that producing renewable energy often involves extraction of critical minerals to produce machinery such as windmills, solar panels, and rechargeable batteries. Mining for these minerals, which already disrupts local ecosystems, also produces tailings – which are powdered byproducts that are extremely toxic to the environment, and are often disposed of by simply dumping them into open landfills or adjacent bodies of water.
Because of the severe public health risks that mining presents, mining projects in Norway are rarely slated close to populated cities and towns, but rather, sparsely populated areas that constitute the birthing grounds of reindeer herds – thus, the heart of Sápmi—Sámi homelands across Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. (Sound familiar?...)
Norway has a long history, dating back to as early as 1974, of violating Sapmi’s inherent sovereignty in favor of extracting resources and minerals with little in reparation to the Sámi people. This means that, over the last few decades, reindeer herds have shrunk dramatically, there is much less access to wild salmon fishing, and the government has a vested interest in allowing development to continue.
As Norway continues with its “green transition,” threats to Sámi communities and lifeways persist. Their fight continues today with some success; within the past decade alone, the Norwegian Supreme Court sided with the Sámi Parliament to halt operations of two wind farms in the Fuson region central Norway, citing violation of international conventions on Indigenous cultural rights, as well as provide Sámi in the Fosen region USD $10 million in damages caused to local reindeer herds as a result of windfarms. Other fights are more unclear; as of today, the Nussir Mine case in Kvalsund has been halted indefinitely, thanks to the large turnout in 2021 of Sámi and environmental activists across the country to stop mining. However, permitting for the project – which proposes marine disposal of copper tailings directly into the fjord – has not been rescinded, and the project continues to be the subject of ongoing litigation.
Had it not been for that initial conversation that I had with my roommate over breakfast on the first day, then it surely was learning about threats to Sámi sovereignty and life ways that cemented my understanding of commonalities in colonialism and state violence against Indigenous peoples, not only in Alaska but across the circumpolar North.
I found myself reflecting on controversial projects like Pebble Mine and drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. I thought about how contentious it is to come up with equitable solutions, yet so easy under western capitalism to bypass that process. I lamented on how money speaks more to power, rather than deep, intimate knowledge and relationship to the land. I found myself thinking about how deeply ironic it is that the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act – which granted corporations (not tribes) title to around 10% of Alaska’s total land area as settlement for future land claims. ANCSA robbed Alaska Native tribes of the right to exercise land-based sovereignty, and created deep divisions between Alaska Native tribes and Alaska Native corporations. I found myself seething yet again at how we live under a system where money overrides morality, and where decisions are often made by the moneyed elite, with a shortsighted gain in mind rather than the future wellness of the collective. I found myself hurt that the same western colonialism, that spurred the intergenerational trauma I’ve experienced within my own family, is continuing to harm our planet.
Our last hope lies within a Just Transition, whose central principle is that a “healthy economy and healthy environment can and should coexist” through recognizing that “Indigenous Peoples have an inherent right to clean air, water, land, and food in their workplaces, homes and environment.” In the development of fair, just and equitable policies, it is necessary that frontline communities that stand to be most affected by pollution, ecological damage and economic restructuring play a critical role where negotiations are held and decisions are made (For more about Just Transition concepts, visit jtalliance.org).
In Alaska, this would call for accountability on the part of Alaska Native corporations and the state of Alaska to look beyond short-sighted economic gains from oil and gas development, and more toward positively impacting environmental sustainability and the communities in which they serve. It would require them to eschew values of western capitalism that have allowed them to grow to be very successful, at the expense of the Indigenous Peoples they purportedly serve, and start considering projects and decisions with long-term sustainability and community health in mind. It would require the U.S. government to not only treat Alaska Native communities as equal decision makers in terms of climate and energy policy and environmental remediation, but seeking radical and affirmative consent. It would require the government to also radically reconsider what they value in building out the economic and environmental future of the U.S., and whether or not status quo corporate liberalism—where decisions are made among corporate and governmental elitists—is worth sacrificing sustainable communities, habitable climates, and the 500 Indigenous tribes to which they have a trust responsibility, within Alaska and across the country.
Those demands are not unique to Alaska alone. As I’ve learned through my own research and spending time with Indigenous youth from the circumpolar North, we ALL need a Just Transition. Just as we’ve all suffered intergenerationally at the hands of state-sponsored colonial terrorism, we all continue to suffer from an Arctic that is warming four times faster than the global average rate, and governmental administrations that continue to charge forth with policymaking, with little-to-no inclusion of the first stewards of those lands.
A Just Transition is undoubtedly going to take time, as it is unrealistic to expect Alaska Native corporations alone to radically change the way they engage in economic development and still remain among the top economic performers in our state, in an economic climate that rewards extraction.
Together, we must imagine and work towards a future that considers the seven generations ahead, and the world we leave for them. Creating such a world must begin at the grassroots level—aligning ourselves, our families and kinship groups, and our communities with our traditional values, and creating communities and lifestyles that reflect those values. As we continue as a community to grow and unite under Just Transition values, we continue to build the power base necessary to expand the Just Transition movement to more structural levels.
In our off-time in Norway, you could find our cohort spending quality time together. Our afternoons and evenings were filled with laughter as we ate Sámi food together, explored the small but beautiful town of Arendal, sang karaoke and shared stories of “back home.” These moments throughout the week reminded me of an important lesson that I’m learning through my work in community organizing and movement-building: no matter how urgent the fight may be, we are still inherently worthy of laughter, joy, and rest.
Perhaps this is another important component of Just Transition that again applies all across the circumpolar North; if we seek long-term environmental sustainability and healthy communities for our kids to enjoy, should we not reach out and claim for ourselves some of the joy and continuity that we seek to build for the next seven generations?
This week, Native Movement and Always Indigenous Media brings you The Trickster Times online . You can pick-up a print version at the Elders & Youth and Alaska Federation of Natives conventions. Some stories are more newsy, some are more commentary, and all are written from the heart and for our community. We welcome you to join us as we build people power, rooted in an Indigenized worldview, toward healthy, sustainable, & just communities for ALL.
Growing Beyond our Indoctrinated Histories of Extraction
Canoes landing at Auke Bay in Juneau, Alaska for Celebration 2022. Photo by Lyndsey Brollini/Native Movement.
Growing Beyond our Indoctrinated Histories of Extraction
By: Lyndsey Brollini and Anaan’arar Sophie Irene Swope
For thousands of years Alaska has been stewarded by Alaska Native peoples. People with rich knowledge systems who for centuries have navigated these lands from a culture of sharing, of regeneration with little to no waste, using each item as a sacred gift of the Earth.
With the first European explorers began the practice of extracting and exploiting Alaska’s natural resources.
Russian and then French explorers came to Alaska bringing with them diseases which caused near population collapse. The resilient few were placed into a society of forced labor, where the Russian extraction around furs began a critical shift in the natural world as a commodity to capitalize on for wealth garnering.
The Russian contact significantly diminished the animal populations of Alaska and brought new systems of belief and the ideology of money to Alaska Native people.
During the United States’ Western expansion, the U.S. illegally purchased Alaska in 1867 for the tactics of war, bringing leverage on the Pacific front. As time passed and settlers explored, it led to the 1896 discovery of gold.
This discovery brought a stampede of 100,000 prospecting miners to Alaska during the “Klondike Gold Rush” from 1897- 1898.
Alaska Native lands continued to be prospected by outside influences. Alaska became a state in 1959, and seven years later in 1966 the Alaska Federation of Natives organized for the first time. That same year, a “land freeze” was imposed to protect Native occupancy and use of Alaska lands. This all changed in 1968 when oil was discovered in Prudhoe Bay.
Discovering oil in the Arctic triggered fervor within the state economy. With oil in mind and no existing settlement over land, the 1968 “Alaska Land Claims Task Force” began Alaska's Indiginous journey to settlement.
In 1971, Congress signed the Alaska Native Claim Settlement Act (ANCSA) into law. It mandated the creation of 13 regional corporations and hundreds of village corporations that represent Alaska Native people in a foreign economic system. ANCSA extinguished Alaska Native claims to 90% of their lands in the development of Alaska Native Corporations (ANCs).Which extinguished indigenous hunting and fishing rights, and laid the foundation for undercutting Tribal governance and self-determination in Alaska
Alaska Native people, as always resilient and adaptive, navigated the foreign system, attempting to negotiate the system to meet their needs of survival and change it to be more aligned with their values and traditional ways of life.
But the colonial and capitalist systems ANCSA put in place have become embedded in Alaska Native communities today, and are a major reason why our communities are so deeply divided.
This is most literally shown through the ongoing debate about blood quantum. When ANCSA originally passed into law, a 1/4 blood quantum requirement was in place with the colonial goal of eliminating our Nations. That, despite our continued growth of our populations, the legal recognition of "tribal blood" would in fact lessen.
That requirement was removed in later amendments to ANCSA, but many regional and village corporations still use that requirement – keeping future generations from having a say in what happens to the land their ancestors stewarded for thousands of years. Tribal Governments who are federally recognized as sovereign entities and policy makers, are completely separate from the ANCs, and yet even Tribes adopted blood quantum requirements.
It is unnecessary to hold onto an outdated and counterproductive policy. If we look to our values, we love children and the expansion of our families and communities. The growth of the communities does not mean we must enforce a shrinking system.
ANCs and Native Tribes: Are They Benefitting Equally?
ANCs started extracting from their lands through oil drilling, mining and clear-cutting old-growth forests for timber. These are non-renewable industries that hold impacts that will remain for all of time.
The Exxon Valdez oil spill was a particularly devastating demonstration of this. In 1989, a 987-foot oil tanker struck rock while transporting 53 million gallons of North Slope crude oil. This incident brought total collapse of the local marine population, which is the core sustenance to many, if not all, Alaska Native populations. This was a detrimental time to the Alaska Native people of the area.
Despite the fact that oil and minerals are already running dry and have caused irreparable harm in the past, ANCs are still pursuing non-renewable resource projects.
These projects have a possibility of short-term gains but come at a huge cost to the Earth and our ways of life. Our coastal villages are being threatened more often by severe storms, and the long sustained ways of life are dwindling and as weather patterns are becoming more unpredictable.
It is possible to return to our teachings of being in harmony with the land. Some ANCs are starting to move away from extracting from their land and aligning business more with Native values.
While some ANCs are slowly incorporating more socially conscious entrepreneurial practices, wealth inequality is still prevalent, a strong departure from a history of sharing and cultural “mutual aid”.
The leaders who fought for ANCSA did the best that they could with the resources they had – which was hardly any resources at all in the beginning.
ANCSA was the biggest land claims settlement in the history of the U.S.. ANCs provide jobs for their shareholders and fund culture camps and language revitalization. It is important to acknowledge that it has been an important vehicle in economic development that is unprecedented in other parts of “Indian Country”.
But still, it wasn’t quite a win either. Most Alaska Native lands were taken and with many Tribes having little or no legal land claims currently.
Furthermore, hunting and fishing rights were extinguished with the passage of ANCSA Instead the Alaska Department of Fish & Game (ADF&G) has failed to protect “subsistence” hunting and fishing. ADF&G has continually opted to side with commercial fishing interests.
A transition must be made away from extractive business-as-usual practices, we must look to our history of thousands of years of successful earth stewardship as we build forward.
So What DOES a Just and Equitable Transition Look Like in Alaska?
In May 2022, hundreds of Alaskans gathered at the Nughelnik Just Transition summit to talk about all the ways regenerative economies are already being shaped in the state.
Just Transition is a framework that the International Labour Organization describes as “maximizing social and economic opportunities of climate action, while minimizing and carefully managing any challenges – including through effective social dialogue among all groups impacted.”
Many organizations that participated in this year’s summit are building food distribution systems and utilities that center community care over individual gains, and have engaged in mutual aid since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020.
In 2021, the Alaska Native Heritage Center organized a fish drop, giving 25 pounds of salmon to families during the pandemic. Community farms and greenhouses funded by community organizations and Tribes are emerging all across the state. And the network of reciprocity displayed every year during herring egg season is an impressive model for how communities can share resources with relatives across the state.
Tribes are also building their own broadband internet access systems. The Akiak tribe started their own broadband network, and Wrangell is a starting point for the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska to build their own broadband service to communities in Southeast Alaska.
Alaska also has a lot of opportunity to invest in renewable energy – a field that harnesses infinite forms of energy – instead of investing money and technology in extracting hard-to-find deposits of oil and gas.
A transition to renewable energy is not just possible, it is necessary. Alaska Native communities are at the forefront of the devastating effects of climate change. Extreme weather patterns that caused the deadly landslide in Haines in 2020 and the storm that tore through Western Alaska in September 2022 are becoming more common as the ocean warms.
Some Alaska communities already demonstrate that it’s possible to rely on renewable energy. Juneau’s electricity is already almost entirely renewable, relying on hydroelectric power supplemented by diesel fuel. Since 2014, Kodiak Island Borough has successfully gotten over 99% of their energy from wind and hydropower resources immediately available to them.
People may not be able to envision a future without an extractive economy, but the roots of it are already here. Alaska Native knowledge has created systems of care for the community and environment for thousands of years.
Alaska Natives and countless ancestors were the true stewards of the land for time immemorial and are the inventors of the only system that worked in preserving fish populations. It needs to be known that we are not economically depressed; we have every resource necessary to thrive.
Being self-sustained by switching to renewable energy and growing food on our immensely fertile soil creates lifetimes of jobs and provides food security. That is more rich than a 30 year mining project that provides only for a single generation, while also destroying the lands and foods they already provide.
We must recognize when our current systems are not working or leaving many people out, and we deserve better. When corporations become truly accountable to Tribes and our tribal communities, then perhaps we can lead all of Alaska with traditional values that embrace communities of care for each other and for Mother Earth then a better future is guaranteed for everyone.
This week, Native Movement and Always Indigenous Media brings you The Trickster Times online . You can pick-up a print version at the Elders & Youth and Alaska Federation of Natives conventions. Some stories are more newsy, some are more commentary, and all are written from the heart and for our community. We welcome you to join us as we build people power, rooted in an Indigenized worldview, toward healthy, sustainable, & just communities for ALL.
Oil and Gas Companies Exit from Arctic Refuge Leases
Shared from Gwich’in Steering Committee Press Release • OurArcticRefuge.org
Fairbanks, AK – The Gwich’in Steering Committee applauds the exit of major oil and gas companies from their leases on sacred land in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Regenerate Alaska, owned by parent company 88 Energy, has requested a refund from the Bureau of Land Management of its leases acquired in the government-mandated sale in January 2021.
And this past weekend, the Anchorage Daily News reported that Chevron and Hilcorp quietly paid $10 million to Arctic Slope Regional Corp. to exit their legacy leases, which allowed for testing for oil and gas deposits in the Arctic Refuge in the 1980s (the results of which were never fully made public).
These exits clearly demonstrate that international companies recognize what we have known all along: drilling in the Arctic Refuge is not worth the economic risk and liability that results from development on sacred lands without the consent of Indigenous Peoples.
The Gwich’in are united against any development of the Coastal Plain of the Arctic Refuge. This land, which we call Iizhik Gwats’an Gwandaii Goodlit (The Sacred Place where Life Begins), is vitally important to the Porcupine Caribou herd, which has sustained our communities for millennia. The Gwich’in Steering Committee has advocated for protection of this land since the 1980s, and in recent years, has been joined by international allies who have raised their voices to stand with us.
The results speak for themselves. A majority of Americans support protecting the Coastal Plain of the Arctic Refuge; twenty-nine global banks now have a policy to decline underwriting oil and gas projects in the Refuge; and fourteen international insurers have also made such commitments. The Biden administration temporarily halted lease activity due to concerns raised by a fast-tracked environmental review by the previous administration, and the United Nations has three times sounded alarms about the harm and human rights violations to the Gwich’in from proposed oil and gas development in the sacred Coastal Plain.
While we gladly welcome the news of these exits, it is a reminder of how much more work is necessary to protect this sacred land, our animals, and our people. Now, the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA) – a public corporation of the State of Alaska – is the only remaining major holder of oil and gas leases in the Arctic Refuge.
“AIDEA must show respect to the Indigenous communities they have been overlooking in Alaska projects,” said Bernadette Demientieff, Executive Director of the Gwich’in Steering Committee. “We are spiritually and culturally connected to the land, water and animals. The Gwich’in people and our allies will never stop fighting to protect Iizhik Gwats’an Gwandaii Goodlit.”