Posted on: Tuesday, September 11, 2001
Alaska Natives seek allies against Arctic drilling
By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Science Writer
Two Native Americans of the Gwich'in tribe are visiting the Islands to call on Native Hawaiians and the local environmental community to join their fight against oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Norma Kassi of Old Iron, Canada, and Faith Gemmill of Arctic Village, Alaska, hope Hawai'i residents will persuade U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka to change his position on the drilling. They are on a speaking tour of several islands to make their point, and will appear at a rally from noon to 2 p.m. Friday at the Federal Building in Honolulu.
Akaka, D-Hawai'i, a member of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, has taken the position that drilling is permissible as long as proper environmental precautions are taken, said his press secretary, Paul Cardus.
The Bush administration has proposed allowing drilling for oil in the refuge, and Akaka's committee is expected to vote on the issue this month. Bush says the nation needs the oil under the refuge and can drill for it without seriously compromising the environment of the reserve.
Kassi and Gemmill said the Gwich'in feel no drilling in the refuge is acceptable, since the northern part of the region is the primary calving ground of a vital caribou herd.
"The caribou is very sensitive at the time of nursing. They won't give birth where there are people. If there is drilling there, the migration pattern of the herd will change, and our villages are located on the migration route," Gemmill said.
Cardus said that in nearby oil-drilling areas, pumping activities have been halted during the calving season, and Akaka would demand similar conditions on anything occurring within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
The Gwich'in are an Indian tribe related to the Navajo. They are sometimes known as the Caribou People, since they depend on the animals for food, medicine, clothing, shelter and tools.
"There are moose, sheep, fish, ducks, rabbits and small game, but the caribou is our main staple. Arctic Village is 110 miles above the Arctic Circle. There are no salmon in our rivers," Gemmill said.
The roughly 7,000 Gwich'in live in 17 small villages in northern Alaska and Canada, most of which are without road access. Most live subsistence lifestyles. They do not live on the coastal plain near the northeastern corner of Alaska, the portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge where most of the caribou give birth. Rather, they live on the migration routes the caribou take each year between the northern calving grounds and their winter grounds to the south.
The Gwich'in argument is made more difficult because another native people of northern Alaska, the Inupiat Eskimos, have come out in favor of drilling. Some of their lands are included in the reserve, and they would benefit financially from oil development in the region.
Kassi said the Inupiat are already a rich people from oil revenues, and the Arctic has been sufficiently tapped for oil.
"The people have to understand that 95 percent of the Arctic is under siege right now for oil and gas development. This is the last 5 percent. I don't know why there's so much pressure to get in there," she said.
"Our people's lives depend on what Senator Akaka's going to do."
