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Nick Mott: This series was supported by

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Nick Mott: the Pulitzer Center.

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Bernadette Demientieff: I'm really happy

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Bernadette Demientieff: to be Gwich'in.

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Bernadette Demientieff: I'm proud to be a Gwich'in.

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Bernadette Demientieff: My people are

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Bernadette Demientieff: some of the most amazing

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Bernadette Demientieff: humans that ever walked this

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Bernadette Demientieff: planet. They survived

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Bernadette Demientieff: some of the harshest, coldest

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Bernadette Demientieff: winters migrating.

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Bernadette Demientieff: And, you know, they fought

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Bernadette Demientieff: to survive so that I can be

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Bernadette Demientieff: here.

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Amy Martin: This is Bernadette Demientieff,

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Amy Martin: the executive director of the

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Amy Martin: Gwich'in Steering Committee.

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Bernadette Demientieff: I'm actually

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Bernadette Demientieff: Gwichyaa Zhee Gwich'in- there's

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Bernadette Demientieff: different tribes

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Bernadette Demientieff: that we all speak

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Bernadette Demientieff: united against any

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Bernadette Demientieff: development in the Arctic

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Bernadette Demientieff: Refuge coastal plain.

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Amy Martin: Welcome to Threshold, I'm Amy

Speaker: 00:00:46

Amy Martin: Martin, and this is the fourth

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Amy Martin: episode in our series about the

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Amy Martin: future of the Arctic National

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Amy Martin: Wildlife Refuge.

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Amy Martin: And it's another two-parter, by

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Amy Martin: the way.

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Amy Martin: This time we're focusing on

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Amy Martin: Gwich'in voices.

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Amy Martin: The Gwich'in are part of the

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Amy Martin: Athabaskan family of tribes.

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Amy Martin: Their territory spans a huge

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Amy Martin: region of northeast Alaska and

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Amy Martin: northwest Canada.

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Amy Martin: Today, there are 15 small

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Amy Martin: villages scattered across this

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Amy Martin: area.

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Amy Martin: But historically, the Gwich'in

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Amy Martin: didn't live in permanent

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Amy Martin: settlements.

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Amy Martin: They were semi-nomadic.

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Amy Martin: They based their lives on the

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Amy Martin: movements of the caribou herds.

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Amy Martin: Bernadette pulls out a map to

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Amy Martin: show me the shape of the

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Amy Martin: Gwich'in homelands.

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Bernadette Demientieff: As you can see, there's a line

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Bernadette Demientieff: right here. That's the border.

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Bernadette Demientieff: So they stuck the

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Bernadette Demientieff: border right in the middle of

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Bernadette Demientieff: our ancestral homelands.

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Bernadette Demientieff: So half of us are Canadian,

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Bernadette Demientieff: half of us are

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Bernadette Demientieff: American.

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Amy Martin: Bernadette grew up in Fort

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Amy Martin: Yukon, Alaska, one of those

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Amy Martin: 15 Gwich'in villages,

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Amy Martin: and she now lives in Fairbanks.

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Amy Martin: The organization she leads, the

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Amy Martin: Gwich'in Steering Committee,

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Amy Martin: has been working to protect the

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Amy Martin: coastal plain since the 1980s.

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Amy Martin: And the relationship between

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Amy Martin: the Gwich'in and the caribou

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Amy Martin: is the foundation of their

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Amy Martin: opposition to drilling.

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Bernadette Demientieff: All our songs, all our

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Bernadette Demientieff: stories, everything is based

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Bernadette Demientieff: on the caribou herd.

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Bernadette Demientieff: I mean, we have a culture, a

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Bernadette Demientieff: spiritual connection to these

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Bernadette Demientieff: animals.

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Amy Martin: Bernadette says drilling on the

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Amy Martin: coastal plain is a threat to

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Amy Martin: the Gwich'in because it's a

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Amy Martin: threat to the Porcupine caribou

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Amy Martin: herd.

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Amy Martin: The 1002 area where drilling

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Amy Martin: has been approved is one of

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Amy Martin: the places the herd depends on

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Amy Martin: to raise their newborn calves.

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Bernadette Demientieff: That's sacred to my

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Bernadette Demientieff: people. It's called lizhik

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Bernadette Demientieff: gwats'an gwandaii goodlit.

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Bernadette Demientieff: And that's, "sacred place where

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Bernadette Demientieff: life begins."

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Bernadette Demientieff: Every Gwich'in protects the

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Bernadette Demientieff: Arctic refuge coastal plain.

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Bernadette Demientieff: That's our identity.

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Bernadette Demientieff: Without that place, we would

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Bernadette Demientieff: cease to exist.

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Bernadette Demientieff: That is how strong

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Bernadette Demientieff: the message is to us.

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Amy Martin: I'm always uneasy seeing all

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Amy Martin: people of any group think

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Amy Martin: or feel a certain way,

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Amy Martin: especially a group that I'm not

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Amy Martin: a part of.

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Amy Martin: But I can tell you that it's

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Amy Martin: really hard to find Gwich'in

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Amy Martin: people who are supportive of

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Amy Martin: oil development on the coastal

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Amy Martin: plain.

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Amy Martin: I think it's fair to say that

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Amy Martin: they're very united.

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Amy Martin: So this episode is

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Amy Martin: not about diving into the pro

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Amy Martin: versus anti oil tension.

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Amy Martin: That's not really what's going

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Amy Martin: on here.

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Amy Martin: Instead, we're going to be

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Amy Martin: exploring the back story.

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Amy Martin: Who are the Gwich'in?

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Amy Martin: What is it like to have such a

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Amy Martin: strong connection to a wild

Speaker: 00:03:15

Amy Martin: animal?

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Amy Martin: What do we know about how oil

Speaker: 00:03:18

Amy Martin: development on the coastal

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Amy Martin: plain would affect the caribou?

Speaker: 00:03:21

Amy Martin: And how are the Gwich'in

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Amy Martin: responding, now that oil

Speaker: 00:03:24

Amy Martin: development has been approved.

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Bernadette Demientieff: We have to stand up

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Bernadette Demientieff: against any more destruction

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Bernadette Demientieff: to our homelands.

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Bernadette Demientieff: This is our home.

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Speaker 4: This, Mr. President is

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Speaker 4: what energy dominance is all

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Speaker 4: about.

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Speaker 4: So let's go.

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Speaker 5: Do you think that's that's

Speaker: 00:03:46

Speaker 5: progress? That's not progress.

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Speaker 4: They all like to eat caribou.

Speaker: 00:03:51

Amy Martin: That's kind of the connecting

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Amy Martin: thread

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Speaker 4: That's connecting thread,

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Speaker 4: the caribou.

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Speaker 1: Every single

Speaker: 00:03:57

Speaker 1: herd of caribou in

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Speaker 1: Canada is in major decline.

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Speaker 4: We are the caribou people.

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Speaker 4: If it wasn't for the caribou,

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Speaker 4: we won't be here today.

Speaker: 00:04:10

Amy Martin: It's rainy and cold outside,

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Amy Martin: but I'm in a very snug log

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Amy Martin: cabin.

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Amy Martin: This is Arctic Village.

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Amy Martin: And when I look

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Amy Martin: out the window here, I'm just

Speaker: 00:04:20

Amy Martin: looking out over vast

Speaker: 00:04:22

Amy Martin: wilderness.

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Amy Martin: We're going to spend most of

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Amy Martin: this episode in Arctic Village,

Speaker: 00:04:26

Amy Martin: a Gwich'in community of around

Speaker: 00:04:28

Amy Martin: 150 people in northeast

Speaker: 00:04:30

Amy Martin: Alaska.

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Amy Martin: Snuggle in.

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Amy Martin: That's a woodstove you can hear

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Amy Martin: in the background.

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Amy Martin: There are no roads into the

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Amy Martin: village. You have to fly in

Speaker: 00:04:37

Amy Martin: and the airport is a small

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Amy Martin: patch of gravel.

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Amy Martin: So far in this series, we've

Speaker: 00:04:42

Amy Martin: been up on the northern edge of

Speaker: 00:04:43

Amy Martin: the Arctic National Wildlife

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Amy Martin: Refuge.

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Amy Martin: Now we've hopped over the

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Amy Martin: Brooks Range, the mountains

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Amy Martin: that bisect the refuge, and

Speaker: 00:04:50

Amy Martin: we're on the southern boundary.

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Amy Martin: The refuge officially begins

Speaker: 00:04:53

Amy Martin: just across the river from

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Amy Martin: Arctic Village.

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Amy Martin: When I was there in August of

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Amy Martin: 2017, the Porcupine

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Amy Martin: caribou herd was moving through

Speaker: 00:05:00

Amy Martin: the mountains outside of town.

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Amy Martin: I'm on the border of

Speaker: 00:05:04

Amy Martin: the Arctic National Wildlife

Speaker: 00:05:05

Amy Martin: Refuge and well above the

Speaker: 00:05:07

Amy Martin: Arctic Circle.

Speaker: 00:05:08

Amy Martin: There are people out hunting

Speaker: 00:05:09

Amy Martin: caribou all around me.

Speaker: 00:05:12

Amy Martin: It's pretty cool.

Speaker: 00:05:17

Amy Martin: Alaska is home to 32 different

Speaker: 00:05:18

Amy Martin: caribou herds and had over

Speaker: 00:05:20

Amy Martin: 200,000 animals.

Speaker: 00:05:21

Amy Martin: The Porcupine herd is one of

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Amy Martin: the biggest.

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Amy Martin: Their name comes from the

Speaker: 00:05:25

Amy Martin: Porcupine River, a tributary

Speaker: 00:05:27

Amy Martin: of the Yukon, which winds

Speaker: 00:05:28

Amy Martin: through their territory.

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Amy Martin: And they have the longest land

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Amy Martin: migration route of any mammal

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Amy Martin: on the planet.

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Amy Martin: It can be more than 1500

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Amy Martin: miles roundtrip.

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Amy Martin: In the early summer, they

Speaker: 00:05:39

Amy Martin: nurture their young calves on

Speaker: 00:05:40

Amy Martin: the northern side of the Brooks

Speaker: 00:05:41

Amy Martin: Range, close to the coast.

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Amy Martin: By mid-July, they've usually

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Amy Martin: begun the trek back over to the

Speaker: 00:05:46

Amy Martin: southern side.

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Amy Martin: If you haven't done so yet, you

Speaker: 00:05:49

Amy Martin: might want to listen to the

Speaker: 00:05:50

Amy Martin: short intermission we posted in

Speaker: 00:05:51

Amy Martin: between episodes three and four

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Amy Martin: to hear about what that journey

Speaker: 00:05:55

Amy Martin: looks and feels like.

Speaker: 00:05:57

Amy Martin: It really is remarkably

Speaker: 00:05:59

Amy Martin: beautiful.

Speaker: 00:06:00

Amy Martin: Looking up into the mountains

Speaker: 00:06:02

Amy Martin: on the edge of the wildlife

Speaker: 00:06:03

Amy Martin: refuge.

Speaker: 00:06:05

Amy Martin: If this were in the lower 48,

Speaker: 00:06:08

Amy Martin: this would be a major tourist

Speaker: 00:06:09

Amy Martin: destination.

Speaker: 00:06:12

Amy Martin: Walking through Arctic Village

Speaker: 00:06:13

Amy Martin: feels more like walking on a

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Amy Martin: country road than walking

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Amy Martin: through town.

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Amy Martin: Other than the main drag where

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Amy Martin: you can find the store, a

Speaker: 00:06:20

Amy Martin: church, and the school,

Speaker: 00:06:21

Amy Martin: the houses are pretty spread

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Amy Martin: out and it's obvious

Speaker: 00:06:24

Amy Martin: that people here still rely

Speaker: 00:06:26

Amy Martin: heavily on the animals of this

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Amy Martin: region to sustain themselves.

Speaker: 00:06:30

Amy Martin: Fish are laid out on drying

Speaker: 00:06:31

Amy Martin: racks next to people's homes.

Speaker: 00:06:33

Amy Martin: Entryways are decorated with

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Amy Martin: antlers, and children have

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Amy Martin: painted tributes to caribou all

Speaker: 00:06:38

Amy Martin: over the outside wall of the

Speaker: 00:06:39

Amy Martin: store.

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Amy Martin: And everywhere I went, I found

Speaker: 00:06:42

Amy Martin: tiny bits of bone and teeth

Speaker: 00:06:44

Amy Martin: scattered on the ground.

Speaker: 00:06:46

Amy Martin: This place is so defined

Speaker: 00:06:48

Amy Martin: by hunting that the bodies

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Amy Martin: of animals have become part of

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Amy Martin: the soil itself.

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Amy Martin: And it's also a place defined

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Amy Martin: by quiet.

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Amy Martin: This is Arctic Village on

Speaker: 00:07:00

Amy Martin: Saturday afternoon.

Speaker: 00:07:04

Amy Martin: And that's exactly how Sarah

Speaker: 00:07:06

Amy Martin: James likes it.

Speaker: 00:07:08

Sarah James: My name is Sarah James

Speaker: 00:07:09

Sarah James: and I live in Arctic

Speaker: 00:07:11

Sarah James: Village, Alaska.

Speaker: 00:07:13

Sarah James: And it's called

Speaker: 00:07:15

Sarah James: vashraii k'oo.

Speaker: 00:07:16

Sarah James: That means "a creek with

Speaker: 00:07:18

Sarah James: a high bank."

Speaker: 00:07:19

Amy Martin: Sarah is in her mid-70s and she wears her long gray hair in a ponytail down her back. As she leads me into her house,

Speaker: 00:07:19

Amy Martin: we walk by buckets on her porch, holding thick bones that were clearly part of a living animal

Speaker: 00:07:19

Amy Martin: not too long ago.

Speaker: 00:07:32

Sarah James: I've been cutting meat.

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Amy Martin: The bones are stripped clean,

Speaker: 00:07:35

Amy Martin: but still stained red with

Speaker: 00:07:37

Amy Martin: fresh blood.

Speaker: 00:07:38

Amy Martin: She says they came from a moose

Speaker: 00:07:40

Amy Martin: recently shot by a young man in

Speaker: 00:07:41

Amy Martin: the village.

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Sarah James: And he shot his

Speaker: 00:07:44

Sarah James: first bull moose.

Speaker: 00:07:46

Sarah James: So he gets

Speaker: 00:07:48

Sarah James: to distribute.

Speaker: 00:07:50

Amy Martin: Following tradition, she says,

Speaker: 00:07:52

Amy Martin: he first gave some meat to

Speaker: 00:07:53

Amy Martin: everyone who helped him in the

Speaker: 00:07:54

Amy Martin: hunt.

Speaker: 00:07:55

Amy Martin: Then word went out around the

Speaker: 00:07:57

Amy Martin: village for everyone to come

Speaker: 00:07:58

Amy Martin: and get a portion.

Speaker: 00:08:00

Amy Martin: But the sharing didn't stop

Speaker: 00:08:01

Amy Martin: there.

Speaker: 00:08:02

Amy Martin: Sarah divided the meat she'd

Speaker: 00:08:03

Amy Martin: been given into smaller

Speaker: 00:08:04

Amy Martin: portions so she could hand more

Speaker: 00:08:06

Amy Martin: out to others.

Speaker: 00:08:07

Amy Martin: The first portion went to a

Speaker: 00:08:09

Amy Martin: visitor to the village.

Speaker: 00:08:10

Sarah James: And then I'm sending one to

Speaker: 00:08:12

Sarah James: my friend.

Speaker: 00:08:12

Sarah James: She's not doing good with

Speaker: 00:08:14

Sarah James: cancer, and

Speaker: 00:08:17

Sarah James: I'm sending one to her.

Speaker: 00:08:19

Sarah James: And then I send

Speaker: 00:08:21

Sarah James: one to that one elder down

Speaker: 00:08:22

Sarah James: here for me.

Speaker: 00:08:23

Sarah James: They were not getting any kind

Speaker: 00:08:25

Sarah James: of meat, so I send that down.

Speaker: 00:08:27

Amy Martin: As we sit down to talk, all

Speaker: 00:08:29

Amy Martin: of Sarah's tools from this work

Speaker: 00:08:30

Amy Martin: are still out.

Speaker: 00:08:32

Amy Martin: Knives, bowls, a bloodstained

Speaker: 00:08:34

Amy Martin: piece of cardboard laid on top

Speaker: 00:08:35

Amy Martin: of a low table and

Speaker: 00:08:37

Amy Martin: a big rock, which she says

Speaker: 00:08:39

Amy Martin: she uses to break the bones.

Speaker: 00:08:41

Amy Martin: Using part of the earth for

Speaker: 00:08:42

Amy Martin: cleaning the animals they hunt

Speaker: 00:08:44

Amy Martin: is a Gwich'in value, she says.

Speaker: 00:08:46

Sarah James: And there's some other respect

Speaker: 00:08:49

Sarah James: for our food.

Speaker: 00:08:50

Amy Martin: Sarah has led a fascinating

Speaker: 00:08:52

Amy Martin: life in the same room

Speaker: 00:08:54

Amy Martin: where she's been processing the

Speaker: 00:08:55

Amy Martin: moose meat, there's a

Speaker: 00:08:56

Amy Martin: photograph hanging on the wall

Speaker: 00:08:57

Amy Martin: of her shaking hands with

Speaker: 00:08:59

Amy Martin: President Clinton.

Speaker: 00:09:00

Amy Martin: She offers me a cup of tea made

Speaker: 00:09:02

Amy Martin: from berries she's collected.

Speaker: 00:09:04

Amy Martin: And as the water heats up, she

Speaker: 00:09:05

Amy Martin: shows me a whole shelf full of

Speaker: 00:09:07

Amy Martin: books in the back of her house

Speaker: 00:09:08

Amy Martin: that feature her and her work.

Speaker: 00:09:10

Amy Martin: As I got to know Sarah, part of

Speaker: 00:09:12

Amy Martin: me wanted to drop everything

Speaker: 00:09:13

Amy Martin: and make a whole podcast season

Speaker: 00:09:15

Amy Martin: just about her if she would let

Speaker: 00:09:16

Amy Martin: me.

Speaker: 00:09:17

Amy Martin: I'm not doing that, but I am

Speaker: 00:09:19

Amy Martin: going to devote the whole first

Speaker: 00:09:20

Amy Martin: part of this episode to her

Speaker: 00:09:21

Amy Martin: story.

Speaker: 00:09:24

Amy Martin: Sarah was born in 1944,

Speaker: 00:09:26

Amy Martin: the youngest of nine children,

Speaker: 00:09:28

Amy Martin: and she spent her early

Speaker: 00:09:29

Amy Martin: childhood living way out in

Speaker: 00:09:31

Amy Martin: the wilderness, often wearing

Speaker: 00:09:32

Amy Martin: clothes her mother made for her

Speaker: 00:09:34

Amy Martin: out of caribou hide.

Speaker: 00:09:35

Sarah James: I was wearing caribou

Speaker: 00:09:37

Sarah James: from head to toe.

Speaker: 00:09:39

Sarah James: That's just us family out there

Speaker: 00:09:41

Sarah James: 50 miles from the nearest

Speaker: 00:09:43

Sarah James: neighbor all around.

Speaker: 00:09:46

Sarah James: Just our family.

Speaker: 00:09:47

Sarah James: But I never lonesome or bored

Speaker: 00:09:50

Sarah James: that I know of.

Speaker: 00:09:51

Sarah James: Yeah.

Speaker: 00:09:52

Amy Martin: 15 miles from your nearest

Speaker: 00:09:53

Amy Martin: neighbor would be a long ways,

Speaker: 00:09:55

Amy Martin: even if you lived on a road.

Speaker: 00:09:57

Amy Martin: But this was roadless

Speaker: 00:09:58

Amy Martin: wilderness with bears and

Speaker: 00:10:00

Amy Martin: wolves and foxes and wolverines

Speaker: 00:10:02

Amy Martin: all around.

Speaker: 00:10:03

Amy Martin: Sarah says she was warm,

Speaker: 00:10:05

Amy Martin: well-fed and loved,

Speaker: 00:10:07

Amy Martin: and she and her siblings had

Speaker: 00:10:08

Amy Martin: a lot of fun adventures.

Speaker: 00:10:10

Sarah James: We live our life on the land

Speaker: 00:10:12

Sarah James: and I grew up off the land,

Speaker: 00:10:14

Sarah James: and I learned more about

Speaker: 00:10:15

Sarah James: respect and

Speaker: 00:10:16

Sarah James: how each animal lives

Speaker: 00:10:18

Sarah James: and how to respect

Speaker: 00:10:20

Sarah James: them and all

Speaker: 00:10:21

Sarah James: that.

Speaker: 00:10:22

Amy Martin: It wasn't like they were

Speaker: 00:10:23

Amy Martin: completely cut off from the

Speaker: 00:10:25

Amy Martin: rest of the world.

Speaker: 00:10:26

Amy Martin: Sarah says sometimes her dad

Speaker: 00:10:27

Amy Martin: would trade some furs for

Speaker: 00:10:28

Amy Martin: Western clothes for the kids,

Speaker: 00:10:30

Amy Martin: for instance.

Speaker: 00:10:31

Amy Martin: But however they could, her

Speaker: 00:10:33

Amy Martin: parents were trying to keep the

Speaker: 00:10:34

Amy Martin: family immersed in Gwich'in

Speaker: 00:10:35

Amy Martin: ways.

Speaker: 00:10:37

Sarah James: You know, I grew up

Speaker: 00:10:38

Sarah James: in a good way, and I

Speaker: 00:10:40

Sarah James: know what's ours and

Speaker: 00:10:42

Sarah James: what's not.

Speaker: 00:10:43

Sarah James: But I got taught very well

Speaker: 00:10:45

Sarah James: by my

Speaker: 00:10:47

Sarah James: family, my parents,

Speaker: 00:10:49

Sarah James: my grandparents

Speaker: 00:10:50

Sarah James: and my sister and

Speaker: 00:10:52

Sarah James: brothers.

Speaker: 00:10:53

Amy Martin: And she says she didn't

Speaker: 00:10:54

Amy Martin: experience any sense of lacking

Speaker: 00:10:56

Amy Martin: anything in her young

Speaker: 00:10:57

Amy Martin: childhood.

Speaker: 00:10:58

Amy Martin: At least most of the year.

Speaker: 00:11:00

Sarah James: The only time

Speaker: 00:11:02

Sarah James: I got really hungry

Speaker: 00:11:04

Sarah James: is during the birthing time

Speaker: 00:11:06

Sarah James: and nursing time and training

Speaker: 00:11:08

Sarah James: time for animal that's

Speaker: 00:11:10

Sarah James: starting maybe

Speaker: 00:11:12

Sarah James: first week of June until

Speaker: 00:11:14

Sarah James: 15th of July

Speaker: 00:11:16

Sarah James: because I remember my mom say

Speaker: 00:11:19

Sarah James: on 15th July we

Speaker: 00:11:21

Sarah James: could trap for a ground

Speaker: 00:11:22

Sarah James: squirrel.

Speaker: 00:11:23

Sarah James: And around that time

Speaker: 00:11:25

Sarah James: we just don't have

Speaker: 00:11:26

Sarah James: anything to eat

Speaker: 00:11:28

Sarah James: because we don't have anything

Speaker: 00:11:30

Sarah James: in between that time because

Speaker: 00:11:32

Sarah James: there's birthing and

Speaker: 00:11:34

Sarah James: nursing and training time.

Speaker: 00:11:36

Amy Martin: Sarah says she feels really

Speaker: 00:11:38

Amy Martin: lucky to have been raised out

Speaker: 00:11:39

Amy Martin: on the land this way,

Speaker: 00:11:40

Amy Martin: especially because so much was

Speaker: 00:11:42

Amy Martin: changing all around the family.

Speaker: 00:11:44

Amy Martin: When her parents were young,

Speaker: 00:11:45

Amy Martin: diseases like flu,

Speaker: 00:11:47

Amy Martin: chickenpox and TB

Speaker: 00:11:49

Amy Martin: brought into the area by

Speaker: 00:11:50

Amy Martin: Europeans had swept

Speaker: 00:11:52

Amy Martin: through the community and

Speaker: 00:11:53

Amy Martin: killed many, which in people

Speaker: 00:11:55

Amy Martin: and many other forms of

Speaker: 00:11:56

Amy Martin: colonization had begun to

Speaker: 00:11:57

Amy Martin: intrude as well.

Speaker: 00:11:59

Amy Martin: Western religion and education

Speaker: 00:12:01

Amy Martin: and increasing pressure on the

Speaker: 00:12:02

Amy Martin: Gwich'in to stop following

Speaker: 00:12:04

Amy Martin: the caribou herds and instead

Speaker: 00:12:06

Amy Martin: settle into permanent villages.

Speaker: 00:12:08

Amy Martin: But this concept of living all

Speaker: 00:12:10

Amy Martin: year round in one place

Speaker: 00:12:12

Amy Martin: seemed really strange.

Speaker: 00:12:13

Sarah James: What we know is hunting and

Speaker: 00:12:15

Sarah James: fishing, and we had to be out

Speaker: 00:12:17

Sarah James: there to do it.

Speaker: 00:12:18

Sarah James: And it's hard

Speaker: 00:12:20

Sarah James: to stay in one place.

Speaker: 00:12:22

Amy Martin: But that was definitely the

Speaker: 00:12:23

Amy Martin: agenda of the U.S.

Speaker: 00:12:24

Amy Martin: government.

Speaker: 00:12:25

Amy Martin: At some point in Sarah's

Speaker: 00:12:26

Amy Martin: childhood.

Speaker: 00:12:27

Amy Martin: The Bureau of Indian Affairs

Speaker: 00:12:28

Amy Martin: began to threaten her parents

Speaker: 00:12:30

Amy Martin: that their children would be

Speaker: 00:12:31

Amy Martin: taken away if they didn't send

Speaker: 00:12:33

Amy Martin: them to school.

Speaker: 00:12:34

Amy Martin: So when she was 13,

Speaker: 00:12:36

Amy Martin: Sarah was shipped off to

Speaker: 00:12:37

Amy Martin: boarding school in Oregon.

Speaker: 00:12:39

Sarah James: And that was strange.

Speaker: 00:12:42

Sarah James: I heard my parents I mean, they

Speaker: 00:12:43

Sarah James: have to let us go to get

Speaker: 00:12:45

Sarah James: education.

Speaker: 00:12:46

Sarah James: That was pound into

Speaker: 00:12:47

Sarah James: their head. So

Speaker: 00:12:50

Sarah James: they're glad that we were

Speaker: 00:12:51

Sarah James: in school, but they need

Speaker: 00:12:53

Sarah James: our help at home, too.

Speaker: 00:12:55

Sarah James: And they miss us too.

Speaker: 00:12:56

Sarah James: I heard it used to be a very

Speaker: 00:12:58

Sarah James: sad sight in Christmastime.

Speaker: 00:13:01

Sarah James: And when all their kids are not

Speaker: 00:13:03

Sarah James: there, you know, I

Speaker: 00:13:05

Sarah James: couldn't imagine how it

Speaker: 00:13:07

Sarah James: is because I only

Speaker: 00:13:08

Sarah James: have one one boy and

Speaker: 00:13:10

Sarah James: he's about 44 right

Speaker: 00:13:12

Sarah James: now. But,

Speaker: 00:13:14

Sarah James: you know, I go crazy just

Speaker: 00:13:16

Sarah James: when I don't know

Speaker: 00:13:18

Sarah James: if he's okay or not, you

Speaker: 00:13:19

Sarah James: know.

Speaker: 00:13:21

Amy Martin: Sarah graduated from high

Speaker: 00:13:23

Amy Martin: school, but she says she

Speaker: 00:13:24

Amy Martin: received her most valuable

Speaker: 00:13:26

Amy Martin: education at home.

Speaker: 00:13:27

Sarah James: I feel that I learned more

Speaker: 00:13:29

Sarah James: from living off the land.

Speaker: 00:13:31

Sarah James: At least I learned

Speaker: 00:13:33

Sarah James: respect.

Speaker: 00:13:34

Sarah James: And I learn who I am

Speaker: 00:13:36

Sarah James: and what's

Speaker: 00:13:38

Sarah James: out there and how

Speaker: 00:13:39

Sarah James: to share, how to preserve,

Speaker: 00:13:41

Sarah James: how to interaction

Speaker: 00:13:44

Sarah James: stuff.

Speaker: 00:13:45

Sarah James: And I think that's why

Speaker: 00:13:47

Sarah James: even today, I,

Speaker: 00:13:49

Sarah James: I kind of survive with

Speaker: 00:13:51

Sarah James: what I got.

Speaker: 00:13:52

Sarah James: And I'm thankful,

Speaker: 00:13:54

Sarah James: you know, I don't have very

Speaker: 00:13:55

Sarah James: much, but I'm thankful for

Speaker: 00:13:57

Sarah James: it.

Speaker: 00:13:58

Amy Martin: After high school, Sarah's

Speaker: 00:13:59

Amy Martin: parents wanted her to get more

Speaker: 00:14:01

Amy Martin: formal education,

Speaker: 00:14:03

Amy Martin: but she was nervous because it

Speaker: 00:14:04

Amy Martin: seemed like she was going to

Speaker: 00:14:05

Amy Martin: have to transform herself into

Speaker: 00:14:07

Amy Martin: a completely different person,

Speaker: 00:14:09

Amy Martin: starting with her clothes.

Speaker: 00:14:11

Sarah James: Usually these small

Speaker: 00:14:13

Sarah James: college are in

Speaker: 00:14:15

Sarah James: the white

Speaker: 00:14:17

Sarah James: community and

Speaker: 00:14:19

Sarah James: nice community like

Speaker: 00:14:21

Sarah James: nice dress.

Speaker: 00:14:22

Sarah James: And I don't I don't have money

Speaker: 00:14:24

Sarah James: for clothing.

Speaker: 00:14:26

Sarah James: So I kind of feel but I would

Speaker: 00:14:28

Sarah James: never make it there.

Speaker: 00:14:29

Sarah James: I never had nylons

Speaker: 00:14:31

Sarah James: and I hate nylons.

Speaker: 00:14:33

Amy Martin: Me too.

Speaker: 00:14:35

Sarah James: So

Speaker: 00:14:36

Sarah James: and then I had to be among a

Speaker: 00:14:38

Sarah James: totally different group

Speaker: 00:14:40

Sarah James: of people.

Speaker: 00:14:41

Sarah James: Yeah.

Speaker: 00:14:42

Sarah James: Different community, all

Speaker: 00:14:44

Sarah James: that.

Speaker: 00:14:44

Sarah James: It's just. I just couldn't do

Speaker: 00:14:46

Sarah James: it.

Speaker: 00:14:46

Amy Martin: But Sarah heard about another

Speaker: 00:14:48

Amy Martin: program called relocation.

Speaker: 00:14:50

Amy Martin: Several years before, Congress

Speaker: 00:14:52

Amy Martin: had passed a law called the

Speaker: 00:14:53

Amy Martin: Indian Relocation Act.

Speaker: 00:14:55

Amy Martin: This was one piece of an

Speaker: 00:14:56

Amy Martin: overall assimilation agenda

Speaker: 00:14:58

Amy Martin: which was ascendant in the

Speaker: 00:14:59

Amy Martin: 1950s and 60s.

Speaker: 00:15:01

Amy Martin: Sarah was told the federal

Speaker: 00:15:03

Amy Martin: government would pay for some

Speaker: 00:15:04

Amy Martin: vocational training and later

Speaker: 00:15:06

Amy Martin: help her get a job if

Speaker: 00:15:08

Amy Martin: she was willing to move to a

Speaker: 00:15:09

Amy Martin: city.

Speaker: 00:15:10

Amy Martin: This was the express purpose of

Speaker: 00:15:12

Amy Martin: the law to urbanize the

Speaker: 00:15:13

Amy Martin: American Indian.

Speaker: 00:15:15

Amy Martin: Sarah looked over her options

Speaker: 00:15:17

Amy Martin: and one place leapt out.

Speaker: 00:15:18

Sarah James: And that was San

Speaker: 00:15:20

Sarah James: Francisco.

Speaker: 00:15:22

Sarah James: I saw San Francisco that

Speaker: 00:15:24

Sarah James: the hippie movement,

Speaker: 00:15:25

Sarah James: they were anything

Speaker: 00:15:27

Sarah James: but. They have to would pay

Speaker: 00:15:28

Sarah James: attention to my clothing.

Speaker: 00:15:31

Sarah James: I could just the way I want to.

Speaker: 00:15:33

Sarah James: And that peace and love and

Speaker: 00:15:35

Sarah James: flower and all of that sounds

Speaker: 00:15:37

Sarah James: good.

Speaker: 00:15:38

Sarah James: So I said San Francisco.

Speaker: 00:15:42

Amy Martin: I love it.

Speaker: 00:15:43

Sarah James: And I was scared to death.

Speaker: 00:15:45

Sarah James: Too big man!

Speaker: 00:15:47

Amy Martin: She enrolled in Business

Speaker: 00:15:48

Amy Martin: College where she would learn

Speaker: 00:15:49

Amy Martin: typing, data entry and

Speaker: 00:15:51

Amy Martin: other clerical skills.

Speaker: 00:15:52

Amy Martin: And she arrived in San

Speaker: 00:15:53

Amy Martin: Francisco in 1967.

Speaker: 00:16:01

Music: If you're going to

Speaker: 00:16:05

Music: San Francisco,

Speaker: 00:16:08

Music: be sure to wear some flowers in your hair..

Speaker: 00:16:16

Amy Martin: The summer of 1967

Speaker: 00:16:18

Amy Martin: was dubbed The Summer of Love.

Speaker: 00:16:21

Amy Martin: Tens of thousands of young

Speaker: 00:16:22

Amy Martin: people journeyed to San

Speaker: 00:16:23

Amy Martin: Francisco that year, heeding

Speaker: 00:16:25

Amy Martin: Timothy Leary's call to turn

Speaker: 00:16:27

Amy Martin: on, tune in and drop

Speaker: 00:16:29

Amy Martin: out.

Speaker: 00:16:30

Amy Martin: John Phillips of The Mamas and

Speaker: 00:16:31

Amy Martin: the Papas wrote this song for

Speaker: 00:16:33

Amy Martin: his friend Scott McKenzie,

Speaker: 00:16:35

Amy Martin: which became an anthem of

Speaker: 00:16:36

Amy Martin: the Times.

Speaker: 00:16:42

Music: All those who come to San

Speaker: 00:16:43

Music: Francisco, summertime will be a love-in there.

Speaker: 00:16:54

Amy Martin: Looking at pictures from the

Speaker: 00:16:55

Amy Martin: Haight-Ashbury neighborhood at

Speaker: 00:16:57

Amy Martin: this time or other places

Speaker: 00:16:58

Amy Martin: where the hippies were

Speaker: 00:16:59

Amy Martin: gathering, it's clear

Speaker: 00:17:01

Amy Martin: that the young white people

Speaker: 00:17:02

Amy Martin: were appropriating elements of

Speaker: 00:17:04

Amy Martin: Native American culture or

Speaker: 00:17:05

Amy Martin: their ideas of native culture.

Speaker: 00:17:07

Amy Martin: They were putting on headbands,

Speaker: 00:17:09

Amy Martin: painting their faces, even

Speaker: 00:17:11

Amy Martin: wearing buckskin.

Speaker: 00:17:12

Amy Martin: And here was Sarah James, who

Speaker: 00:17:14

Amy Martin: actually grew up wearing

Speaker: 00:17:15

Amy Martin: clothing made out of caribou

Speaker: 00:17:17

Amy Martin: hide.

Speaker: 00:17:17

Amy Martin: Did you spend a lot of time on

Speaker: 00:17:19

Amy Martin: Haight-Ashbury then?

Speaker: 00:17:20

Sarah James: I went down there to hang out,

Speaker: 00:17:22

Sarah James: yeah.

Speaker: 00:17:23

Sarah James: Because you feel comfortable

Speaker: 00:17:25

Sarah James: there, yeah.

Speaker: 00:17:26

Amy Martin: At least there were no nylons

Speaker: 00:17:28

Amy Martin: required.

Speaker: 00:17:29

Amy Martin: Sarah met up with a friend from

Speaker: 00:17:30

Amy Martin: boarding school who was in the

Speaker: 00:17:32

Amy Martin: area training to be a nurse.

Speaker: 00:17:33

Amy Martin: And they began to navigate this

Speaker: 00:17:35

Amy Martin: new world together.

Speaker: 00:17:37

Amy Martin: And there was a lot more going

Speaker: 00:17:38

Amy Martin: on around them than love-ins

Speaker: 00:17:40

Amy Martin: and acid trips.

Speaker: 00:17:41

Amy Martin: Protests against the Vietnam

Speaker: 00:17:42

Amy Martin: War were heating up.

Speaker: 00:17:44

Amy Martin: The civil rights movement was

Speaker: 00:17:45

Amy Martin: in full swing, and Native

Speaker: 00:17:47

Amy Martin: Americans around the country

Speaker: 00:17:48

Amy Martin: began to voice their

Speaker: 00:17:49

Amy Martin: frustrations and demand change,

Speaker: 00:17:51

Amy Martin: too.

Speaker: 00:17:52

Amy Martin: In fact, this is one of the

Speaker: 00:17:53

Amy Martin: great ironies of the Indian

Speaker: 00:17:55

Amy Martin: Relocation Act.

Speaker: 00:17:56

Amy Martin: The goal was to assimilate

Speaker: 00:17:58

Amy Martin: Native people and cut them off

Speaker: 00:17:59

Amy Martin: from their cultures.

Speaker: 00:18:01

Amy Martin: But as young indigenous people

Speaker: 00:18:02

Amy Martin: were increasingly concentrated

Speaker: 00:18:04

Amy Martin: in cities, they began to

Speaker: 00:18:05

Amy Martin: share their experiences and

Speaker: 00:18:07

Amy Martin: ideas, which led to a

Speaker: 00:18:08

Amy Martin: new wave of Indian pride

Speaker: 00:18:10

Amy Martin: and indigenous activism.

Speaker: 00:18:12

Amy Martin: In 1968, the American

Speaker: 00:18:14

Amy Martin: Indian Movement, or AIM, was

Speaker: 00:18:16

Amy Martin: founded in Minneapolis.

Speaker: 00:18:17

Amy Martin: And in San Francisco, young

Speaker: 00:18:19

Amy Martin: native people were starting to

Speaker: 00:18:20

Amy Martin: use the phrase "Red Power."

Speaker: 00:18:23

Amy Martin: Sarah says the Mission District

Speaker: 00:18:25

Amy Martin: became the gathering spot.

Speaker: 00:18:27

Sarah James: On a weekend, we get to

Speaker: 00:18:28

Sarah James: go down

Speaker: 00:18:30

Sarah James: 16th and Mission Street.

Speaker: 00:18:32

Sarah James: That's where we hang out

Speaker: 00:18:34

Sarah James: because they had they pay band

Speaker: 00:18:35

Sarah James: that one place.

Speaker: 00:18:36

Amy Martin: Sarah says Native people would

Speaker: 00:18:38

Amy Martin: come in from across the region

Speaker: 00:18:40

Amy Martin: seeking each other out for

Speaker: 00:18:41

Amy Martin: companionship and political

Speaker: 00:18:43

Amy Martin: conversation.

Speaker: 00:18:44

Sarah James: And then I started hanging

Speaker: 00:18:45

Sarah James: out with San Francisco

Speaker: 00:18:47

Sarah James: State College students,

Speaker: 00:18:50

Sarah James: and they were talking about

Speaker: 00:18:51

Sarah James: Native American rights.

Speaker: 00:18:53

Sarah James: And right away, to my interest

Speaker: 00:18:55

Sarah James: keeping around with them,

Speaker: 00:18:57

Sarah James: they just started American

Speaker: 00:18:59

Sarah James: Indian Law and

Speaker: 00:19:00

Sarah James: they were taking that class

Speaker: 00:19:03

Sarah James: and we just discussed it on

Speaker: 00:19:04

Sarah James: the weekend. We hang around.

Speaker: 00:19:06

Sarah James: They go back to

Speaker: 00:19:07

Sarah James: their college.

Speaker: 00:19:08

Sarah James: I go back to my apartment

Speaker: 00:19:11

Sarah James: and

Speaker: 00:19:12

Sarah James: well, anyway, one

Speaker: 00:19:14

Sarah James: day I guess they decided

Speaker: 00:19:16

Sarah James: to take over the Alcatraz,

Speaker: 00:19:19

Sarah James: take the island back.

Speaker: 00:19:20

Amy Martin: And you were part of that?

Speaker: 00:19:21

Sarah James: Yeah.

Speaker: 00:19:22

Amy Martin: This is the point in the

Speaker: 00:19:23

Amy Martin: interview when I was like,

Speaker: 00:19:25

Amy Martin: wait, what?

Speaker: 00:19:27

Amy Martin: I sat down with Sarah to talk

Speaker: 00:19:28

Amy Martin: about drilling for oil in the

Speaker: 00:19:29

Amy Martin: Arctic National Wildlife

Speaker: 00:19:30

Amy Martin: Refuge.

Speaker: 00:19:31

Amy Martin: And here I was learning she

Speaker: 00:19:33

Amy Martin: was a participant in one of the

Speaker: 00:19:34

Amy Martin: most important direct actions

Speaker: 00:19:36

Amy Martin: in 20th century Native American

Speaker: 00:19:37

Amy Martin: history.

Speaker: 00:19:38

Amy Martin: This is Richard Oakes, one of

Speaker: 00:19:40

Amy Martin: the leaders of the Alcatraz

Speaker: 00:19:41

Amy Martin: occupation, recorded by

Speaker: 00:19:43

Amy Martin: a local news channel.

Speaker: 00:19:44

Richard Oakes: We, the Native Americans,

Speaker: 00:19:46

Richard Oakes: reclaim this land known as

Speaker: 00:19:47

Richard Oakes: Alcatraz Island in the name of

Speaker: 00:19:49

Richard Oakes: all American Indians by right

Speaker: 00:19:50

Richard Oakes: of discovery.

Speaker: 00:19:51

Amy Martin: Alcatraz is a small island

Speaker: 00:19:53

Amy Martin: in the San Francisco Bay that

Speaker: 00:19:54

Amy Martin: indigenous people had lived on

Speaker: 00:19:56

Amy Martin: or used for more than 10,000

Speaker: 00:19:58

Amy Martin: years.

Speaker: 00:19:59

Amy Martin: Most recently, the Ohlone.

Speaker: 00:20:00

Reporter: What's this nation want to

Speaker: 00:20:02

Reporter: establish out here?

Speaker: 00:20:03

Richard Oakes: An American Indian nation

Speaker: 00:20:05

Richard Oakes: comprising of all the, all the

Speaker: 00:20:06

Richard Oakes: tribes, including

Speaker: 00:20:08

Richard Oakes: the Alaskans.

Speaker: 00:20:11

Amy Martin: In the 1800s, the U.S.

Speaker: 00:20:13

Amy Martin: government took over the

Speaker: 00:20:14

Amy Martin: island, urning it into a

Speaker: 00:20:15

Amy Martin: military fortress and later

Speaker: 00:20:16

Amy Martin: a prison.

Speaker: 00:20:18

Amy Martin: And some of those prisoners

Speaker: 00:20:19

Amy Martin: were Native Americans.

Speaker: 00:20:20

Amy Martin: Like the 19 Hopi people

Speaker: 00:20:22

Amy Martin: who were locked up on Alcatraz

Speaker: 00:20:23

Amy Martin: in 1895 for

Speaker: 00:20:25

Amy Martin: resisting the forced education

Speaker: 00:20:27

Amy Martin: of their children.

Speaker: 00:20:29

Amy Martin: The prison was shut down in

Speaker: 00:20:30

Amy Martin: 1963,

Speaker: 00:20:32

Amy Martin: and six years later, the

Speaker: 00:20:33

Amy Martin: students that Sarah was hanging

Speaker: 00:20:35

Amy Martin: out with in the mission decided

Speaker: 00:20:37

Amy Martin: to take the island back.

Speaker: 00:20:38

Reporter: You think you have the legal

Speaker: 00:20:39

Reporter: right to clean the island and

Speaker: 00:20:41

Reporter: why?

Speaker: 00:20:42

Richard Oakes: Well you're talking about two

Speaker: 00:20:43

Richard Oakes: different societies now in

Speaker: 00:20:45

Richard Oakes: my society or in Indian

Speaker: 00:20:46

Richard Oakes: society, yes, we do.

Speaker: 00:20:48

Amy Martin: This was November 1969.

Speaker: 00:20:51

Amy Martin: Sarah was working at an

Speaker: 00:20:52

Amy Martin: insurance company at this point

Speaker: 00:20:54

Amy Martin: and sharing an apartment with

Speaker: 00:20:55

Amy Martin: that same friend from boarding

Speaker: 00:20:56

Amy Martin: school.

Speaker: 00:20:57

Sarah James: Middle of the night at 2:00.

Speaker: 00:20:59

Sarah James: They came to our place, our

Speaker: 00:21:01

Sarah James: apartment.

Speaker: 00:21:02

Sarah James: For some reason that week

Speaker: 00:21:03

Sarah James: we moved.

Speaker: 00:21:05

Sarah James: They didn't know we move

Speaker: 00:21:07

Sarah James: and they came to our place.

Speaker: 00:21:08

Sarah James: We weren't there, so they went

Speaker: 00:21:10

Sarah James: on without us.

Speaker: 00:21:11

Amy Martin: Would you have gone if you had

Speaker: 00:21:12

Amy Martin: been there?

Speaker: 00:21:13

Sarah James: Yeah. I probably would just

Speaker: 00:21:15

Sarah James: go.

Speaker: 00:21:16

Amy Martin: Sarah missed that knock on the

Speaker: 00:21:17

Amy Martin: door in the middle of the

Speaker: 00:21:18

Amy Martin: night.

Speaker: 00:21:19

Amy Martin: But when she and her friend

Speaker: 00:21:20

Amy Martin: woke up the next morning.

Speaker: 00:21:22

Sarah James: Then we got up and looked

Speaker: 00:21:23

Sarah James: at the TV.

Speaker: 00:21:24

Sarah James: There were up there on the

Speaker: 00:21:26

Sarah James: island.

Speaker: 00:21:27

Sarah James: Hey, they did it!

Speaker: 00:21:30

Sarah James: There, they really

Speaker: 00:21:32

Sarah James: did it right away.

Speaker: 00:21:34

Sarah James: Say, I'm going.

Speaker: 00:21:35

Sarah James: So I start packing.

Speaker: 00:21:36

Sarah James: So I pack and I went down.

Speaker: 00:21:40

Sarah James: They were there at the dock

Speaker: 00:21:42

Sarah James: where they said they're going

Speaker: 00:21:43

Sarah James: to be.

Speaker: 00:21:44

Amy Martin: They were waiting to take

Speaker: 00:21:44

Amy Martin: people who wanted to join.

Speaker: 00:21:45

Sarah James: Yeah.

Speaker: 00:21:46

Amy Martin: My gosh.

Speaker: 00:21:47

Sarah James: But it was a real small

Speaker: 00:21:50

Sarah James: rocking sailboat.

Speaker: 00:21:52

Sarah James: I'd never been in a sailboat in

Speaker: 00:21:54

Sarah James: my life, and I'm not the best

Speaker: 00:21:56

Sarah James: swimmer.

Speaker: 00:21:57

Sarah James: Got on there.

Speaker: 00:21:59

Sarah James: I barely holding on.

Speaker: 00:22:01

Sarah James: It was packed full.

Speaker: 00:22:03

Sarah James: Inside and outside.

Speaker: 00:22:05

Sarah James: I was outside holding on

Speaker: 00:22:08

Sarah James: all the way over there.

Speaker: 00:22:11

Amy Martin: The occupation of Alcatraz

Speaker: 00:22:12

Amy Martin: lasted for 19 months

Speaker: 00:22:14

Amy Martin: until June 1971,

Speaker: 00:22:16

Amy Martin: and it's now considered one of

Speaker: 00:22:18

Amy Martin: the pivotal moments in the

Speaker: 00:22:19

Amy Martin: story of Native Americans

Speaker: 00:22:20

Amy Martin: pushing back against white

Speaker: 00:22:21

Amy Martin: domination in the United

Speaker: 00:22:23

Amy Martin: States.

Speaker: 00:22:24

Amy Martin: At the beginning of the

Speaker: 00:22:25

Amy Martin: occupation, the students

Speaker: 00:22:27

Amy Martin: issued a proclamation saying

Speaker: 00:22:28

Amy Martin: they would pay the U.S.

Speaker: 00:22:29

Amy Martin: government $24

Speaker: 00:22:31

Amy Martin: in glass beads and red cloth

Speaker: 00:22:33

Amy Martin: for the island, which was more,

Speaker: 00:22:35

Amy Martin: they pointed out, than what the

Speaker: 00:22:36

Amy Martin: colonists had paid for the

Speaker: 00:22:37

Amy Martin: purchase of Manhattan 300

Speaker: 00:22:39

Amy Martin: years earlier.

Speaker: 00:22:41

Amy Martin: I'm going to play a little bit

Speaker: 00:22:42

Amy Martin: more of Richard Oakes reading

Speaker: 00:22:43

Amy Martin: the proclamation and understand

Speaker: 00:22:45

Amy Martin: the power of what he's saying

Speaker: 00:22:47

Amy Martin: here. You need to know that the

Speaker: 00:22:48

Amy Martin: Bureau of Indian Affairs, part

Speaker: 00:22:50

Amy Martin: of the Department of the

Speaker: 00:22:51

Amy Martin: Interior, was the face

Speaker: 00:22:53

Amy Martin: of the violent paternalism

Speaker: 00:22:54

Amy Martin: that these students were

Speaker: 00:22:55

Amy Martin: calling out.

Speaker: 00:22:57

Richard Oakes: We will give to the inhabitants

Speaker: 00:22:58

Richard Oakes: of this island a portion of

Speaker: 00:22:59

Richard Oakes: that land for their own to be

Speaker: 00:23:01

Richard Oakes: held in trust by the American

Speaker: 00:23:02

Richard Oakes: Indian government, to be

Speaker: 00:23:03

Richard Oakes: administered by the Bureau of

Speaker: 00:23:04

Richard Oakes: Caucasian Affairs.

Speaker: 00:23:06

Richard Oakes: For as long as the sun shall

Speaker: 00:23:07

Richard Oakes: rise and the rivers go down to

Speaker: 00:23:08

Richard Oakes: the sea.

Speaker: 00:23:09

Richard Oakes: We will further guide the

Speaker: 00:23:10

Richard Oakes: inhabitants of the proper way

Speaker: 00:23:11

Richard Oakes: of living.

Speaker: 00:23:12

Richard Oakes: We will offer them our

Speaker: 00:23:13

Richard Oakes: religion, our education, our

Speaker: 00:23:14

Richard Oakes: lifeways in order to help

Speaker: 00:23:16

Richard Oakes: them achieve our level of

Speaker: 00:23:17

Richard Oakes: civilization and thus raise

Speaker: 00:23:18

Richard Oakes: them and all our white brothers

Speaker: 00:23:20

Richard Oakes: up from their savage and

Speaker: 00:23:21

Richard Oakes: unhappy state.

Speaker: 00:23:23

Richard Oakes: We offer this treaty in good

Speaker: 00:23:24

Richard Oakes: faith and wish to be

Speaker: 00:23:25

Richard Oakes: fair and honorable in our

Speaker: 00:23:26

Richard Oakes: dealings with all white men.

Speaker: 00:23:31

Amy Martin: The whole proclamation is

Speaker: 00:23:32

Amy Martin: definitely worth a read.

Speaker: 00:23:34

Amy Martin: It's a pretty brilliant

Speaker: 00:23:35

Amy Martin: political essay in which these

Speaker: 00:23:37

Amy Martin: young indigenous people turn

Speaker: 00:23:38

Amy Martin: the tables on white society

Speaker: 00:23:40

Amy Martin: in a way that couldn't be

Speaker: 00:23:41

Amy Martin: ignored.

Speaker: 00:23:42

Amy Martin: And Sarah James was there,

Speaker: 00:23:45

Amy Martin: but she didn't stay long

Speaker: 00:23:47

Amy Martin: because in January 1970,

Speaker: 00:23:49

Amy Martin: her father died suddenly

Speaker: 00:23:51

Amy Martin: and she left for Alaska

Speaker: 00:23:52

Amy Martin: immediately.

Speaker: 00:23:53

Sarah James: And I never went back

Speaker: 00:23:55

Sarah James: because there's no phone

Speaker: 00:23:56

Sarah James: or electricity here

Speaker: 00:23:58

Sarah James: and no way to go back.

Speaker: 00:24:00

Sarah James: All that kind of stuff.

Speaker: 00:24:05

Amy Martin: So here's Sarah James in 1970,

Speaker: 00:24:08

Amy Martin: 26 years old, raised

Speaker: 00:24:09

Amy Martin: in the Alaska wilderness and

Speaker: 00:24:11

Amy Martin: swept up into events that were

Speaker: 00:24:13

Amy Martin: making headlines all around the

Speaker: 00:24:14

Amy Martin: world.

Speaker: 00:24:15

Amy Martin: And now she's suddenly back

Speaker: 00:24:17

Amy Martin: in Arctic Village.

Speaker: 00:24:18

Amy Martin: The census that year recorded a

Speaker: 00:24:20

Amy Martin: population of 85 people.

Speaker: 00:24:23

Amy Martin: I imagine she might have felt

Speaker: 00:24:24

Amy Martin: like this was sort of the end

Speaker: 00:24:25

Amy Martin: of something.

Speaker: 00:24:27

Amy Martin: But as it turned out, all

Speaker: 00:24:29

Amy Martin: of this had been training

Speaker: 00:24:30

Amy Martin: for what was coming next.

Speaker: 00:24:35

Amy Martin: We'll have more after this

Speaker: 00:24:36

Amy Martin: short break.

Speaker: 00:24:49

Matt Herlihy: Hi, my name's Matt Herlihy and

Speaker: 00:24:50

Matt Herlihy: I've been a Threshold listener

Speaker: 00:24:51

Matt Herlihy: and donor since season one came

Speaker: 00:24:53

Matt Herlihy: out in 2017.

Speaker: 00:24:55

Matt Herlihy: I was also one of the first

Speaker: 00:24:56

Matt Herlihy: volunteer board members of the

Speaker: 00:24:57

Matt Herlihy: nonprofit organization that

Speaker: 00:24:59

Matt Herlihy: makes Threshold.

Speaker: 00:25:00

Matt Herlihy: Over the past seven plus

Speaker: 00:25:02

Matt Herlihy: years, I've had this unique,

Speaker: 00:25:03

Matt Herlihy: firsthand look at just how much

Speaker: 00:25:04

Matt Herlihy: work it takes to make this kind

Speaker: 00:25:06

Matt Herlihy: of show. I mean, the time,

Speaker: 00:25:08

Matt Herlihy: the dedication, the

Speaker: 00:25:08

Matt Herlihy: determination that's required

Speaker: 00:25:10

Matt Herlihy: to tell these in-depth stories

Speaker: 00:25:12

Matt Herlihy: that really make people think

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Speaker: 00:25:14

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Speaker: 00:25:15

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Speaker: 00:25:17

Matt Herlihy: stories are happening to, to

Speaker: 00:25:18

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Speaker: 00:25:19

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Speaker: 00:25:20

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Speaker: 00:25:22

Matt Herlihy: listening experience.

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Matt Herlihy: reporting, this whole kind of

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Matt Herlihy: show is not easy to make.

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Matt Herlihy: Threshold's Year End

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Matt Herlihy: fundraising campaign is

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Matt Herlihy: happening right now through

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Speaker: 00:25:59

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Matt Herlihy: and give what you can.

Speaker: 00:26:02

Matt Herlihy: Thank you.

Speaker: 00:26:09

Amy Martin: Hi Threshold listeners. Do you ever find yourself wondering what businesses are doing and what more they should do to confront climate change? Then you should check out Climate Rising, the award-winning podcast from Harvard Business School. Climate Rising gives you a behind-the-scenes look at how top business leaders are taking on the challenge of climate change. The show covers cutting edge solutions from leveraging A.I. and carbon markets to sharing

Speaker: 00:26:36

Amy Martin: stories that inspire climate

Speaker: 00:26:38

Amy Martin: action.

Speaker: 00:26:39

Amy Martin: Recent episodes feature

Speaker: 00:26:41

Amy Martin: insightful conversations with

Speaker: 00:26:42

Amy Martin: leaders like Netflix's first

Speaker: 00:26:44

Amy Martin: Sustainability Officer, Emma

Speaker: 00:26:46

Amy Martin: Steward, who discusses how the

Speaker: 00:26:47

Amy Martin: global entertainment giant

Speaker: 00:26:49

Amy Martin: uses its platform to promote

Speaker: 00:26:51

Amy Martin: climate awareness.

Speaker: 00:26:52

Amy Martin: You'll also hear from CNN's

Speaker: 00:26:54

Amy Martin: chief climate correspondent

Speaker: 00:26:55

Amy Martin: Bill Weir about the importance

Speaker: 00:26:57

Amy Martin: of integrating climate change

Speaker: 00:26:59

Amy Martin: into news coverage.

Speaker: 00:27:01

Amy Martin: Each episode dives deep into

Speaker: 00:27:03

Amy Martin: the challenges and

Speaker: 00:27:04

Amy Martin: opportunities that climate

Speaker: 00:27:05

Amy Martin: change presents to

Speaker: 00:27:06

Amy Martin: entrepreneurs and innovators.

Speaker: 00:27:09

Amy Martin: Listen to Climate Rising

Speaker: 00:27:11

Amy Martin: every other Wednesday on Apple

Speaker: 00:27:12

Amy Martin: Podcasts, Spotify

Speaker: 00:27:14

Amy Martin: or wherever you get your

Speaker: 00:27:15

Amy Martin: podcasts.

Speaker: 00:27:20

Dallas Taylor: I'm Dallas Taylor, host of

Speaker: 00:27:22

Dallas Taylor: 20,000 Hertz,

Speaker: 00:27:23

Dallas Taylor: a podcast that reveals the

Speaker: 00:27:25

Dallas Taylor: untold stories behind the

Speaker: 00:27:26

Dallas Taylor: sounds of our world.

Speaker: 00:27:28

Dallas Taylor: We've uncovered the incredible

Speaker: 00:27:29

Dallas Taylor: intelligence of talking

Speaker: 00:27:30

Dallas Taylor: parrots.

Speaker: 00:27:31

Speaker 6: Basically, birdbrain

Speaker: 00:27:33

Speaker 6: was a pejorative term.

Speaker: 00:27:35

Speaker 6: And here I had this bird

Speaker: 00:27:37

Speaker 6: that was doing the same types

Speaker: 00:27:39

Speaker 6: of tasks the primates.

Speaker: 00:27:40

Dallas Taylor: We've investigated the bonding

Speaker: 00:27:42

Dallas Taylor: power of music.

Speaker: 00:27:43

Speaker 7: There's an intimacy there in

Speaker: 00:27:45

Speaker 7: communicating through

Speaker: 00:27:46

Speaker 7: the medium of music

Speaker: 00:27:48

Speaker 7: that can be really a

Speaker: 00:27:50

Speaker 7: powerful force for bringing

Speaker: 00:27:51

Speaker 7: people together.

Speaker: 00:27:52

Dallas Taylor: We've explored the subtle

Speaker: 00:27:53

Dallas Taylor: nuances of the human voice.

Speaker: 00:27:55

Speaker: We have to remember that humans

Speaker: 00:27:57

Speaker: over many hundreds of thousands

Speaker: 00:27:59

Speaker: of years of evolution have

Speaker: 00:28:00

Speaker: become extremely attuned

Speaker: 00:28:02

Speaker: to the sounds of each other's

Speaker: 00:28:03

Speaker: voices.

Speaker: 00:28:04

Dallas Taylor: And we've revealed why a famous

Speaker: 00:28:05

Dallas Taylor: composer wrote a piece made

Speaker: 00:28:07

Dallas Taylor: entirely of silence.

Speaker: 00:28:09

Speaker 7: I think that's a really

Speaker: 00:28:10

Speaker 7: potentially quite useful and

Speaker: 00:28:12

Speaker 7: quite profound experience to

Speaker: 00:28:13

Speaker 7: have.

Speaker: 00:28:14

Dallas Taylor: Subscribe to 20,000Hz

Speaker: 00:28:16

Dallas Taylor: right here in your podcast

Speaker: 00:28:17

Dallas Taylor: player.

Speaker: 00:28:18

Dallas Taylor: I'll meet you there.

Speaker: 00:28:26

Amy Martin: Welcome back to Threshold.

Speaker: 00:28:27

Amy Martin: I'm Amy Martin and I'm in

Speaker: 00:28:28

Amy Martin: Arctic Village, Alaska,

Speaker: 00:28:30

Amy Martin: listening to the story of

Speaker: 00:28:31

Amy Martin: Gwich'in leader Sarah James.

Speaker: 00:28:33

Amy Martin: After a childhood in the Alaska

Speaker: 00:28:35

Amy Martin: wilderness adolescence in

Speaker: 00:28:37

Amy Martin: an Oregon boarding school,

Speaker: 00:28:38

Amy Martin: an on-the-ground activist training in San Francisco, Sarah had returned home to a state about to be transformed by oil. Up on the coast, the Prudhoe Bay oil field had been discovered. And by the late 1970s, the Trans-Alaska Pipeline was built. Oil was flowing south to the Port of Valdez

Speaker: 00:28:38

Amy Martin: day and night. In the 1980s, Sarah started hearing that drilling operations might be expanded to the east of Prudhoe. Into the calving grounds of the porcupine caribou herd.

Speaker: 00:29:07

Sarah James: And so I went to my brother.

Speaker: 00:29:09

Sarah James: At that time, they told

Speaker: 00:29:11

Sarah James: my brother, Well, how come they

Speaker: 00:29:12

Sarah James: keep telling me they're going

Speaker: 00:29:13

Sarah James: to do gas and oil development

Speaker: 00:29:15

Sarah James: up there?

Speaker: 00:29:16

Sarah James: And he said, yeah,

Speaker: 00:29:19

Sarah James: oil companies are huge.

Speaker: 00:29:21

Sarah James: They're very huge.

Speaker: 00:29:23

Sarah James: We can't stop it.

Speaker: 00:29:24

Sarah James: You know, just us

Speaker: 00:29:26

Sarah James: is too huge.

Speaker: 00:29:28

Sarah James: I don't think we'll get

Speaker: 00:29:29

Sarah James: anywhere with it.

Speaker: 00:29:31

Sarah James: Well, we shall see about

Speaker: 00:29:33

Sarah James: it. I told him that, you know,

Speaker: 00:29:35

Sarah James: and he said there might

Speaker: 00:29:36

Sarah James: be a way.

Speaker: 00:29:37

Sarah James: Let's, let's work on it,

Speaker: 00:29:39

Sarah James: he said.

Speaker: 00:29:40

Sarah James: So I laugh.

Speaker: 00:29:42

Amy Martin: And she got to work.

Speaker: 00:29:45

Sarah James: I was one of the tribal council

Speaker: 00:29:46

Sarah James: then, and

Speaker: 00:29:48

Sarah James: the tribal council chose

Speaker: 00:29:50

Sarah James: me to deal with

Speaker: 00:29:52

Sarah James: environment issues.

Speaker: 00:29:54

Amy Martin: So Sarah started going to

Speaker: 00:29:55

Amy Martin: meetings throughout the region,

Speaker: 00:29:57

Amy Martin: learning about what was going

Speaker: 00:29:58

Amy Martin: on up on the coast and how it

Speaker: 00:30:00

Amy Martin: might affect the caribou.

Speaker: 00:30:02

Amy Martin: She says she definitely wasn't

Speaker: 00:30:03

Amy Martin: working alone.

Speaker: 00:30:04

Amy Martin: Lots of folks were involved,

Speaker: 00:30:06

Amy Martin: including Inupiat people

Speaker: 00:30:07

Amy Martin: who are also concerned about

Speaker: 00:30:09

Amy Martin: protecting the caribou and

Speaker: 00:30:10

Amy Martin: their own communities.

Speaker: 00:30:12

Amy Martin: In 1987, they succeeded

Speaker: 00:30:14

Amy Martin: in getting the U.S.

Speaker: 00:30:15

Amy Martin: and Canada to sign an

Speaker: 00:30:16

Amy Martin: international treaty designed

Speaker: 00:30:18

Amy Martin: to protect the Porcupine

Speaker: 00:30:19

Amy Martin: caribou herd.

Speaker: 00:30:20

Amy Martin: And the language of the treaty

Speaker: 00:30:21

Amy Martin: made it clear that the animals

Speaker: 00:30:23

Amy Martin: needed to be protected, both

Speaker: 00:30:24

Amy Martin: for their own sake and for

Speaker: 00:30:26

Amy Martin: the sake of the people who

Speaker: 00:30:27

Amy Martin: depended on them, both

Speaker: 00:30:28

Amy Martin: nutritionally and culturally.

Speaker: 00:30:30

Amy Martin: The treaty also established

Speaker: 00:30:32

Amy Martin: the Porcupine Caribou

Speaker: 00:30:33

Amy Martin: Management Board, which still

Speaker: 00:30:34

Amy Martin: exists today and is supposed

Speaker: 00:30:36

Amy Martin: to be consulted on development

Speaker: 00:30:38

Amy Martin: projects that could impact the

Speaker: 00:30:39

Amy Martin: herd.

Speaker: 00:30:40

Amy Martin: But the Gwich'in knew the

Speaker: 00:30:42

Amy Martin: allure of the oil was going to

Speaker: 00:30:43

Amy Martin: continue to turn the heads of

Speaker: 00:30:45

Amy Martin: the big companies.

Speaker: 00:30:46

Amy Martin: And the treaty lacked an

Speaker: 00:30:47

Amy Martin: enforcement mechanism.

Speaker: 00:30:49

Amy Martin: By itself, it wasn't enough to

Speaker: 00:30:50

Amy Martin: prevent drilling on the coastal

Speaker: 00:30:52

Amy Martin: plain.

Speaker: 00:30:53

Amy Martin: So members of the new

Speaker: 00:30:54

Amy Martin: management board started going

Speaker: 00:30:55

Amy Martin: out to villages and talking to

Speaker: 00:30:57

Amy Martin: people.

Speaker: 00:30:57

Sarah James: They went to each village and

Speaker: 00:30:59

Sarah James: talked to elders,

Speaker: 00:31:01

Sarah James: what we should do.

Speaker: 00:31:02

Sarah James: And

Speaker: 00:31:04

Sarah James: the one elder, Mary Kay.

Speaker: 00:31:07

Sarah James: And she said, Well,

Speaker: 00:31:09

Sarah James: when we deal with it back

Speaker: 00:31:11

Sarah James: in the day, like back

Speaker: 00:31:13

Sarah James: before our first visitor,

Speaker: 00:31:16

Sarah James: when there's a threat to our

Speaker: 00:31:18

Sarah James: nation and this

Speaker: 00:31:19

Sarah James: is a threat to our nation,

Speaker: 00:31:22

Sarah James: they come together as a nation

Speaker: 00:31:25

Sarah James: and, and then they

Speaker: 00:31:27

Sarah James: make a decision within

Speaker: 00:31:29

Sarah James: less than four days,

Speaker: 00:31:31

Sarah James: then that's how they deal with

Speaker: 00:31:33

Sarah James: the issue.

Speaker: 00:31:34

Sarah James: And those days bow and arrow

Speaker: 00:31:36

Sarah James: days.

Speaker: 00:31:37

Sarah James: And we should do that.

Speaker: 00:31:39

Sarah James: We should call it a nation

Speaker: 00:31:41

Sarah James: back to gather

Speaker: 00:31:43

Sarah James: it, take it on from then.

Speaker: 00:31:44

Amy Martin: Sarah says this idea of

Speaker: 00:31:46

Amy Martin: bringing the whole Gwich'in

Speaker: 00:31:47

Amy Martin: Nation together to figure out

Speaker: 00:31:49

Amy Martin: how to respond to the threat of

Speaker: 00:31:50

Amy Martin: oil development quickly gained

Speaker: 00:31:52

Amy Martin: traction among the Gwich'in.

Speaker: 00:31:54

Sarah James: So they call

Speaker: 00:31:56

Sarah James: and gather here in the Arctic

Speaker: 00:31:57

Sarah James: Village, June 5

Speaker: 00:31:59

Sarah James: to 10, 1988.

Speaker: 00:32:02

Sarah James: People start coming, and

Speaker: 00:32:04

Sarah James: I think we have 15

Speaker: 00:32:05

Sarah James: chief U.S.

Speaker: 00:32:07

Sarah James: and Canada and

Speaker: 00:32:09

Sarah James: 15 elders

Speaker: 00:32:11

Sarah James: and one youth from

Speaker: 00:32:13

Sarah James: each village.

Speaker: 00:32:14

Amy Martin: That was kind of the official

Speaker: 00:32:15

Amy Martin: delegation.

Speaker: 00:32:16

Amy Martin: But Sarah says Gwich'in people

Speaker: 00:32:18

Amy Martin: from across their home

Speaker: 00:32:19

Amy Martin: territory started arriving

Speaker: 00:32:21

Amy Martin: and getting the whole Gwich'in

Speaker: 00:32:22

Amy Martin: community together in one place

Speaker: 00:32:24

Amy Martin: at one time was no

Speaker: 00:32:25

Amy Martin: small feat.

Speaker: 00:32:27

Amy Martin: These are tiny villages

Speaker: 00:32:28

Amy Martin: scattered across really rugged,

Speaker: 00:32:30

Amy Martin: wild territory with

Speaker: 00:32:32

Amy Martin: no roads connecting them

Speaker: 00:32:33

Amy Martin: and divided by a national

Speaker: 00:32:35

Amy Martin: border.

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Amy Martin: One family chartered a plane.

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Amy Martin: Others piled into boats

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Amy Martin: and took them up the rivers.

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Sarah James: It's difficult to travel

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Sarah James: that river from here to

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Sarah James: Yukon.

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Sarah James: But then they did.

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Amy Martin: Sarah says back in what she

Speaker: 00:32:52

Amy Martin: calls "bow and arrow days,"

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Amy Martin: the semi-nomadic life of the

Speaker: 00:32:55

Amy Martin: Gwich'in meant that all of the

Speaker: 00:32:57

Amy Martin: different subgroups met and

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Amy Martin: mingled frequently.

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Amy Martin: But the colonization process

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Amy Martin: had changed. That and the

Speaker: 00:33:02

Amy Martin: various Gwich'in bands have

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Amy Martin: become much more separate from

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Amy Martin: each other.

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Amy Martin: At the 1988 gathering,

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Amy Martin: Sarah says, they were reminded

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Amy Martin: that they shared a common

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Amy Martin: language and history

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Amy Martin: and common concerns

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Amy Martin: for the future.

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Sarah James: And it's just like a rebirth

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Sarah James: of the nation as a whole.

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Sarah James: Everybody getting to know each

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Sarah James: other. There's some graveyard

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Sarah James: of their relatives

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Sarah James: here. They want to worship.

Speaker: 00:33:28

Amy Martin: One native-owned media

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Amy Martin: organization was allowed to

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Amy Martin: film parts of the event.

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Amy Martin: And we've put a link to that

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Amy Martin: video up on our website.

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Amy Martin: There were non-Gwich'in people

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Amy Martin: who came to the gathering too.

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Amy Martin: Government officials,

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Amy Martin: representatives from

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Amy Martin: conservation groups and

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Amy Martin: Sarah says they brought their

Speaker: 00:33:49

Amy Martin: non Gwich'in ways of doing

Speaker: 00:33:51

Amy Martin: things with them.

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Sarah James: They came up with the agenda.

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Sarah James: But when

Speaker: 00:33:56

Sarah James: they start the meeting,

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Sarah James: those elders took over

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Sarah James: the meetings and said, we don't

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Sarah James: need this agenda.

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Sarah James: So they tore up the agenda

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Sarah James: and said, we'll take it from

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Sarah James: here.

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Amy Martin: Whatever plan the outside

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Amy Martin: groups may have had.

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Amy Martin: The elders said, No, thank

Speaker: 00:34:14

Amy Martin: you.

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Amy Martin: This is our gathering and we'll

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Amy Martin: do it our way.

Speaker: 00:34:18

Sarah James: And then somebody presented

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Sarah James: a talking stick.

Speaker: 00:34:22

Sarah James: It's just a stick with the

Speaker: 00:34:23

Sarah James: eagle head on it.

Speaker: 00:34:25

Sarah James: And then they said, who will

Speaker: 00:34:27

Sarah James: talk with a stick?

Speaker: 00:34:28

Sarah James: And we had to be in the center

Speaker: 00:34:30

Sarah James: of the whole community

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Sarah James: hall.

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Sarah James: So that's how they

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Sarah James: ran their meeting.

Speaker: 00:34:36

Amy Martin: And almost everything happened

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Amy Martin: in Gwich'in.

Speaker: 00:34:44

Amy Martin: The video doesn't give names

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Amy Martin: for individual speakers, but

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Amy Martin: it does provide translations.

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Amy Martin: And this man is saying, "Oil

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Amy Martin: burns when the trucks and cats

Speaker: 00:34:52

Amy Martin: work and the wells are drilled,

Speaker: 00:34:54

Amy Martin: the oil spreads all over the

Speaker: 00:34:56

Amy Martin: caribous' food."

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Amy Martin: He says, "What will become

Speaker: 00:35:08

Amy Martin: of our children when the

Speaker: 00:35:09

Amy Martin: caribou go?"

Speaker: 00:35:16

Amy Martin: The story of the outside groups

Speaker: 00:35:17

Amy Martin: creating an agenda and

Speaker: 00:35:19

Amy Martin: the elders promptly tossing it

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Amy Martin: out- I think this is an

Speaker: 00:35:22

Amy Martin: important detail.

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Amy Martin: As we talked about last time,

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Amy Martin: one of the meta battles

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Amy Martin: surrounding the fight over

Speaker: 00:35:27

Amy Martin: drilling in the refuge is who

Speaker: 00:35:29

Amy Martin: controls the narrative.

Speaker: 00:35:31

Amy Martin: Are pro-oil groups using

Speaker: 00:35:33

Amy Martin: some Inupiaq people to advance

Speaker: 00:35:34

Amy Martin: their agenda?

Speaker: 00:35:35

Amy Martin: Are conservation groups doing

Speaker: 00:35:37

Amy Martin: the same with the Gwich'in?

Speaker: 00:35:39

Amy Martin: But both of those lines of

Speaker: 00:35:40

Amy Martin: thought give all the agency

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Amy Martin: to white people.

Speaker: 00:35:43

Amy Martin: In Sarah's narrative, the

Speaker: 00:35:44

Amy Martin: Gwich'in are the protagonists,

Speaker: 00:35:46

Amy Martin: they know what they want and

Speaker: 00:35:47

Amy Martin: they make it happen.

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Amy Martin: She's not describing some

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Amy Martin: hapless group of people who can

Speaker: 00:35:52

Amy Martin: easily be manipulated by

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Amy Martin: outsiders.

Speaker: 00:35:55

Woman at Gathering: And together here,

Speaker: 00:35:57

Woman at Gathering: we're going to fight

Speaker: 00:36:00

Woman at Gathering: in a good way

Speaker: 00:36:02

Woman at Gathering: to teach

Speaker: 00:36:04

Woman at Gathering: many white people out there

Speaker: 00:36:06

Woman at Gathering: who do not understand our ways.

Speaker: 00:36:08

Woman at Gathering: We got to teach them.

Speaker: 00:36:11

Amy Martin: Sarah says it quickly became

Speaker: 00:36:13

Amy Martin: clear that there was no

Speaker: 00:36:14

Amy Martin: disagreement among the Gwich'in

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Amy Martin: about the goal.

Speaker: 00:36:16

Amy Martin: What they were trying to figure

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Amy Martin: out was a strategy.

Speaker: 00:36:19

Woman at Gathering: They know that they're

Speaker: 00:36:21

Woman at Gathering: against oil and gas

Speaker: 00:36:22

Woman at Gathering: development, but how are we

Speaker: 00:36:24

Woman at Gathering: going to do it?

Speaker: 00:36:25

Woman at Gathering: You know, what to do,

Speaker: 00:36:26

Woman at Gathering: where we're going to go, how

Speaker: 00:36:28

Woman at Gathering: are we going to do it?

Speaker: 00:36:30

Woman at Gathering: And then they say,

Speaker: 00:36:31

Woman at Gathering: the only way we're going to win

Speaker: 00:36:33

Woman at Gathering: is unless we do it in a good

Speaker: 00:36:35

Woman at Gathering: way, educate the world

Speaker: 00:36:37

Woman at Gathering: in good way and make

Speaker: 00:36:39

Woman at Gathering: friends because we can't

Speaker: 00:36:41

Woman at Gathering: do it ourselves, it's too huge.

Speaker: 00:36:43

Amy Martin: So they wrote a resolution,

Speaker: 00:36:45

Amy Martin: a short, clear message,

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Amy Martin: saying who they were and what

Speaker: 00:36:48

Amy Martin: they wanted.

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Amy Martin: You can read it on our website.

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Amy Martin: It says the Gwich'in have a

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Amy Martin: right to continue their way of

Speaker: 00:36:53

Amy Martin: life and that their culture

Speaker: 00:36:54

Amy Martin: depends on the caribou.

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Amy Martin: Therefore, oil and gas

Speaker: 00:36:58

Amy Martin: development should be

Speaker: 00:36:59

Amy Martin: prohibited in the 1002 area.

Speaker: 00:37:02

Man at Gathering: We have it in writing with our

Speaker: 00:37:03

Man at Gathering: signatures on it.

Speaker: 00:37:04

Man at Gathering: I think they

Speaker: 00:37:05

Man at Gathering: know at least we have

Speaker: 00:37:07

Man at Gathering: one nation of

Speaker: 00:37:09

Man at Gathering: Gwich'in people that are saying

Speaker: 00:37:11

Man at Gathering: no and

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Man at Gathering: we mean no.

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Man at Gathering: And, you know, maybe

Speaker: 00:37:16

Man at Gathering: it means it may

Speaker: 00:37:17

Man at Gathering: help in the decision-making.

Speaker: 00:37:22

Sarah James: We are the caribou people.

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Sarah James: If it wasn't for the caribou,

Speaker: 00:37:26

Sarah James: we wouldn't be here today.

Speaker: 00:37:28

Sarah James: And to take away of who

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Sarah James: you are and be proud

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Sarah James: of who you are,

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Sarah James: that's genocide.

Speaker: 00:37:37

Amy Martin: At the 1988 gathering,

Speaker: 00:37:39

Amy Martin: the Gwich'in chose eight

Speaker: 00:37:40

Amy Martin: ambassadors to help get that

Speaker: 00:37:41

Amy Martin: message out to the world.

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Amy Martin: Sarah was one of them.

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Amy Martin: And this was a permanent

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Amy Martin: appointment.

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Amy Martin: This was now her assigned role

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Amy Martin: in the community for the rest

Speaker: 00:37:50

Amy Martin: of her life.

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Amy Martin: So she picked up that mantle

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Amy Martin: and has never set it down.

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Amy Martin: She's given speeches all over

Speaker: 00:37:56

Amy Martin: the country.

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Amy Martin: She's traveled to Washington,

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Amy Martin: D.C. countless times to meet

Speaker: 00:38:00

Amy Martin: with lawmakers and to testify

Speaker: 00:38:02

Amy Martin: at congressional hearings.

Speaker: 00:38:03

Amy Martin: And every two years since 1988,

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Amy Martin: the Gwich'in have held another

Speaker: 00:38:07

Amy Martin: gathering. And every two years,

Speaker: 00:38:09

Amy Martin: they've reaffirmed their

Speaker: 00:38:10

Amy Martin: opposition to drilling on

Speaker: 00:38:12

Amy Martin: the coastal plain.

Speaker: 00:38:13

Sarah James: They never break what they make

Speaker: 00:38:15

Sarah James: the decision on at that time

Speaker: 00:38:17

Sarah James: and never have.

Speaker: 00:38:18

Sarah James: And never will.

Speaker: 00:38:23

Amy Martin: So that's the message Sarah has

Speaker: 00:38:24

Amy Martin: been repeating over

Speaker: 00:38:26

Amy Martin: and over.

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Sarah James: Look like

Speaker: 00:38:28

Sarah James: we made the right decision back

Speaker: 00:38:30

Sarah James: in 1988.

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Sarah James: We overcame many, many

Speaker: 00:38:33

Sarah James: battles because

Speaker: 00:38:35

Sarah James: all American out there

Speaker: 00:38:37

Sarah James: along with us, spoke

Speaker: 00:38:39

Sarah James: loud and clear, they don't want

Speaker: 00:38:40

Sarah James: a gas and oil development.

Speaker: 00:38:43

Sarah James: And I believe it's

Speaker: 00:38:44

Sarah James: going to stay that way.

Speaker: 00:38:45

Sarah James: I believe we're going to win.

Speaker: 00:38:49

Amy Martin: I recorded this conversation in

Speaker: 00:38:50

Amy Martin: August of 2017.

Speaker: 00:38:53

Amy Martin: In December of that year,

Speaker: 00:38:54

Amy Martin: President Trump signed the Tax

Speaker: 00:38:56

Amy Martin: Cuts and Jobs Act, and

Speaker: 00:38:58

Amy Martin: the Arctic National Wildlife

Speaker: 00:38:59

Amy Martin: Refuge was open for oil

Speaker: 00:39:00

Amy Martin: and gas drilling.

Speaker: 00:39:02

Bernadette Demientieff: I feel like my home

Speaker: 00:39:04

Bernadette Demientieff: is being attacked.

Speaker: 00:39:06

Bernadette Demientieff: I feel like

Speaker: 00:39:07

Bernadette Demientieff: my children are being

Speaker: 00:39:09

Bernadette Demientieff: attacked.

Speaker: 00:39:10

Amy Martin: Again, this is Bernadette Demientiff.

Speaker: 00:39:11

Bernadette Demientieff: To

Speaker: 00:39:13

Bernadette Demientieff: me, this is how I look at

Speaker: 00:39:15

Bernadette Demientieff: it.

Speaker: 00:39:16

Bernadette Demientieff: Like I would walk into your

Speaker: 00:39:17

Bernadette Demientieff: house, sit at your table, and

Speaker: 00:39:19

Bernadette Demientieff: you start going through your

Speaker: 00:39:20

Bernadette Demientieff: cupboards and

Speaker: 00:39:22

Bernadette Demientieff: go in and kick them back on

Speaker: 00:39:23

Bernadette Demientieff: your couch, kick them out.

Speaker: 00:39:25

Bernadette Demientieff: That's how I feel

Speaker: 00:39:27

Bernadette Demientieff: when they're coming in here and

Speaker: 00:39:28

Bernadette Demientieff: just wanting to rip everything

Speaker: 00:39:30

Bernadette Demientieff: apart.

Speaker: 00:39:31

Bernadette Demientieff: You know, I get angry,

Speaker: 00:39:34

Bernadette Demientieff: but then I have to always

Speaker: 00:39:35

Bernadette Demientieff: remember I have to go back to

Speaker: 00:39:36

Bernadette Demientieff: what our elders say and

Speaker: 00:39:38

Bernadette Demientieff: do it in a good way.

Speaker: 00:39:43

Amy Martin: Stay with us for part two.