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The Refuge | 3 | Listen to the People, Pt. 2
Episode 4 • 9th December 2019 • Threshold • Auricle Productions
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Sarah James:

This series was supported by the Pulitzer

Sarah James:

Center.

Don Young:

I'll tell you, Mr. Chairman, I want to believe the

Don Young:

people. Not the Gwich'in because they're not the people.

Amy Martin:

Welcome to Threshold, I'm Amy Martin, and

Amy Martin:

we're just going to pick up right where we left off. No

Amy Martin:

intro this time. We're listening to Don Young, Alaska's sole

Amy Martin:

representative in the US House, speaking at a congressional

Amy Martin:

hearing about drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Amy Martin:

This is March of 2019.

Don Young:

I'm talking about the Inuits that live there. That's

Don Young:

their land. It always been their land, and to totally ignore

Don Young:

them, and any mention of their occupancy is wrong in this this

Don Young:

report and including you in your written statement. It's wrong.

Amy Martin:

So what is going on here? Well, the Gwich'in are an

Amy Martin:

Alaska native tribe who are pretty united against drilling.

Amy Martin:

We're going to hear from Gwich'in people in our next

Amy Martin:

episode. And this hearing was on a bill sponsored by House

Amy Martin:

Democrats aimed at stopping drilling in the Arctic National

Amy Martin:

Wildlife Refuge. The bill was mostly symbolic. It's now dead

Amy Martin:

in the water in the Senate, but this hearing was pretty

Amy Martin:

fascinating. Picture six people kind of squished together at a

Amy Martin:

table, shoulder to shoulder, preparing to speak. All of them

Amy Martin:

are indigenous, and all of them have flown thousands of miles to

Amy Martin:

be at this hearing. But Don Young's message to his

Amy Martin:

colleagues is not to listen to some of his own constituents.

Don Young:

Not the Gwich'in. That's my tribe. My wife was

Don Young:

Gwich'in, my daughter's a Gwich'in in we have a few

Don Young:

Gwich'in that make a living out of this by promoting something

Don Young:

that's wrong, by saying we want to take away from their

Don Young:

brothers, that's wrong. You've divided two tribes, two tribes.

Don Young:

Listen to the people who live there. If not, you're not

Don Young:

representatives at all. That's all I ask you to do. Listen to

Don Young:

them. Hear what they say. Not someone who's living in

Don Young:

Fairbanks, not someone that does not kill a caribou and 10 years

Don Young:

and probably doesn't have a license. That's wrong. Think

Don Young:

about that when you say, "we want to save the culture." Save

Don Young:

the culture of the people, not those that are foreigners or

Don Young:

living away from the area. These are not the native directly

Don Young:

affected with that. I yield back.

Amy Martin:

There's a lot to unpack here. First, Gwich'in

Amy Martin:

leaders released a statement after this hearing, saying Don

Amy Martin:

Young does not represent their people, and asking him to stop

Amy Martin:

claiming he's Gwich'in. Second, when Don Young says that the

Amy Martin:

Gwich'in won't be affected by drilling, he's presuming that he

Amy Martin:

has the authority to decide for them what affects them, and he

Amy Martin:

doesn't. Many Gwich'in people say they will be impacted by

Amy Martin:

drilling, and again, we're going to hear more from them in our

Amy Martin:

next episode. But what fascinated me the most here is

Amy Martin:

this whole bit about listening to the people. There are just so

Amy Martin:

many layers waiting to get peeled back. There's the irony

Amy Martin:

of Congressman Young shouting at his colleagues to listen to some

Amy Martin:

people while simultaneously telling them not to listen to

Amy Martin:

others, but at the same time, he is pointing to something real

Amy Martin:

here. Some conservation groups and politicians who are opposed

Amy Martin:

to oil development have kind of ignored the Inupiat, often

Amy Martin:

describing the Gwich'in as "the" indigenous people of the refuge,

Amy Martin:

when in reality, they're one of the indigenous groups of this

Amy Martin:

region. In fact, at this very hearing, Democrats had invited

Amy Martin:

eight witnesses to two different panels, and none of them were

Amy Martin:

Inupiat. But this same game is played from the other side too.

Amy Martin:

Pro oil groups and politicians try to lift up certain Native

Amy Martin:

voices that back up their position- exhibit A, Don Young's

Amy Martin:

testimony here, so both pro and anti oil factions are probably

Amy Martin:

guilty of promoting select groups of Alaska Native people

Amy Martin:

and ignoring others. The antidote to all of this is

Amy Martin:

obvious. Go to the source. Let indigenous Alaskans speak for

Amy Martin:

themselves. And when you do that, when you go to Kaktovik

Amy Martin:

and listen to the people who live closest to the drilling

Amy Martin:

area, some of them say things like this:

Carla SimsKayotuk:

I really believe that there's enough oil

Carla SimsKayotuk:

fields open already. We've got oil fields all along the coast.

Amy Martin:

This is Carla SimsKayotuk and she lives in

Amy Martin:

Kaktovik. Again, this is the only village located inside the

Amy Martin:

1002 area where drilling has been approved.

Carla SimsKayotuk:

That first time I really, maybe understood

Carla SimsKayotuk:

what's going on was maybe in high school when they started

Carla SimsKayotuk:

having the seismic teams come through and and then I remember

Carla SimsKayotuk:

not liking it then.

Amy Martin:

Why didn't you like it?

Carla SimsKayotuk:

I just, I just didn't like the possibility

Carla SimsKayotuk:

of what it meant could happen here, and just having an oil

Carla SimsKayotuk:

field around here, I just, never appealed to me.

Amy Martin:

Carla grew up here, and she loves this place- Barter

Amy Martin:

Island, where the village is located, and the coastal plain.

Carla SimsKayotuk:

To me, it's very beautiful. It's probably

Carla SimsKayotuk:

the most beautiful place on Earth, is this area. There's so

Carla SimsKayotuk:

much life out there. The birds come here. They're from here.

Carla SimsKayotuk:

They lay their eggs there. They have their babies here, then

Carla SimsKayotuk:

they fly out for the winter. So this is their home.

Amy Martin:

Carla has been on a whaling crew in the past, she

Amy Martin:

says caribou are really important to her. In fact,

Amy Martin:

everything about this part of the world seems to have deep

Amy Martin:

meaning for her.

Carla SimsKayotuk:

When you go up in the springtime or in the

Carla SimsKayotuk:

winter and it's, it's all white and everything it's, it's just,

Carla SimsKayotuk:

it's beautiful. I mean, like God created all of that. It's just,

Carla SimsKayotuk:

you can't deny the beauty of it all out there, and he placed us

Carla SimsKayotuk:

here for a reason.

Amy Martin:

Even though Carla never liked the idea of oil

Amy Martin:

development in this place that's so precious to her, she says she

Amy Martin:

mostly kept her thoughts to herself. For a while.

Carla SimsKayotuk:

I was always quiet about my personal views,

Carla SimsKayotuk:

until I heard a radio broadcast with one of the past mayors of

Carla SimsKayotuk:

the North Slope and they were talking about developing in the

Carla SimsKayotuk:

Teshepuk Lake area.

Amy Martin:

The top elected office of the North Slope

Amy Martin:

borough is mayor, and Teshepuk Lake is an area close to where

Amy Martin:

this former mayor was living.

Carla SimsKayotuk:

And he was like, it's not gonna happen in

Carla SimsKayotuk:

my backyard and and everything. I was like, whoa, wait a minute.

Carla SimsKayotuk:

Let me turn this up and listen to this. And I was just like,

Carla SimsKayotuk:

wow, it's okay for you guys to push to open up ANWR, which is

Carla SimsKayotuk:

where I live, and but yet you don't want it in your backyard.

Carla SimsKayotuk:

I'm sorry. I'm not going to be quiet anymore. I'm going to

Carla SimsKayotuk:

start voicing my concerns and my opinions, and I haven't stopped

Carla SimsKayotuk:

since then.

Amy Martin:

Like Nora Jane Burns, one of Carla's biggest

Amy Martin:

concerns is how oil development might sprawl across the coastal

Amy Martin:

plain. The law that authorized drilling says production and

Amy Martin:

support facilities would be limited to 2000 acres, which

Amy Martin:

sounds like a small portion of the one and a half million acres

Amy Martin:

of the coastal plain. But Carla says,

Carla SimsKayotuk:

I don't trust what they say. I just don't

Carla SimsKayotuk:

believe it. Yeah, they'll find loopholes. They'll find ways to

Carla SimsKayotuk:

to get around it.

Amy Martin:

And she has reasons to be suspicious. Pro oil people

Amy Martin:

like to say that 2000 acres is a smaller footprint than many

Amy Martin:

airports, but that's not a fair comparison, because the 2000

Amy Martin:

acres of development on the coastal plain doesn't have to be

Amy Martin:

continuous. It doesn't have to be one chunk of land with

Amy Martin:

everything else left untouched. Only certain things are counted

Amy Martin:

toward the 2000 acres. For instance, fence posts, which

Amy Martin:

touch the ground would be counted, but not the fences

Amy Martin:

themselves connecting the posts. Same with pipelines, the pads

Amy Martin:

for the support structures that hold up the pipelines would be

Amy Martin:

counted, but not the actual pipes, because they don't rest

Amy Martin:

directly on the ground. So this 2000 acres gets broken down into

Amy Martin:

these tiny little pieces, which can be spread out over a huge

Amy Martin:

area, five feet here, 10 feet there, maybe two acres over

Amy Martin:

there. Instead of an airport, a more accurate visual might be a

Amy Martin:

toddler's playroom with Legos streaming across the floor.

Amy Martin:

Sure, if you add up how much space each individual Lego is

Amy Martin:

taking up, it might sound like a small percentage of the room,

Amy Martin:

but that doesn't really matter, because you can't walk across it

Amy Martin:

without stepping on one of those sharp little pieces. And to

Amy Martin:

Carla, all of these technicalities can obscure the

Amy Martin:

obvious. She says, if people want to know what oil

Amy Martin:

development in the refuge would be like, all they have to do is

Amy Martin:

look around.

Carla SimsKayotuk:

You just look to our neighbors and family over

Carla SimsKayotuk:

in Nuiqsut area, and they told them it was just going to be

Carla SimsKayotuk:

just this little spot. They're now almost completely 360

Carla SimsKayotuk:

surrounded by oil development and the structures and

Carla SimsKayotuk:

infrastructure and stuff over there.

Amy Martin:

Nuiqsut is an Inupiaq village on the other

Amy Martin:

side of the Prudhoe Bay oil field. Huge oil and gas deposits

Amy Martin:

have been found near this community, and like Carla said,

Amy Martin:

it's basically surrounded by industry now, and that is not

Amy Martin:

the future she wants for Kaktovik.

Carla SimsKayotuk:

Do I want it in my backyard? No, I don't want

Carla SimsKayotuk:

it in my backyard. Like no one else wants it in their backyard.

Carla SimsKayotuk:

Do I think another oil field needs to be opened? No, I think

Carla SimsKayotuk:

there's plenty of oil fields opened already. We don't need to

Carla SimsKayotuk:

be opening any more. Complete what's out there already and and

Carla SimsKayotuk:

try and find other sources to power everything.

Amy Martin:

Carla is a shareholder in the Arctic Slope

Amy Martin:

Regional Corporation, the biggest Native corporation in

Amy Martin:

this area, and she says she stands up at shareholder

Amy Martin:

meetings and tries to remind people that their most important

Amy Martin:

job is to protect the land, water and animals they depend

Amy Martin:

on.

Amy Martin:

What kind of response do you get when you say that kind of stuff?

Carla SimsKayotuk:

What do they say? They tell me that they need

Carla SimsKayotuk:

the revenue to continue to have the things that we have, the

Carla SimsKayotuk:

running waters, the schools, the fire department, the health

Carla SimsKayotuk:

care, that's the way for our revenue to keep the slope going.

Carla SimsKayotuk:

And I'm like, well, I think our people are smart enough to where

Carla SimsKayotuk:

they can find other ways to earn that revenue than to keep

Carla SimsKayotuk:

growing economically. I think, I think we're smart enough to find

Carla SimsKayotuk:

other ways to survive.

Amy Martin:

An organization called Voice of the Arctic

Amy Martin:

Inupiat has been very active in supporting oil development in

Amy Martin:

the refuge. Their website says the purpose of the group is to

Amy Martin:

establish a unified voice for the Inupiaq people of this

Amy Martin:

region. Carla says this bothers her, because there isn't just

Amy Martin:

one voice here, but at public hearings on oil development,

Amy Martin:

members of this group sometimes hold signs saying we stand with

Amy Martin:

Kaktovik, which gives the impression that the whole

Amy Martin:

village supports drilling.

Carla SimsKayotuk:

They're taking our voice and speaking

Carla SimsKayotuk:

for us. And so I find it really ironic that they get really

Carla SimsKayotuk:

angry when they say the Gwich'in are speaking and they shouldn't

Carla SimsKayotuk:

be speaking, and it's like, hey, you're you're taking my voice

Carla SimsKayotuk:

away and trying to say you're speaking for me when I don't

Carla SimsKayotuk:

think you should be speaking for me.

Amy Martin:

This is the dark side of any call for unity. It

Amy Martin:

can be a mask for other intentions, like silencing

Amy Martin:

dissent.

Carla SimsKayotuk:

You can have conflict but not be mean and

Carla SimsKayotuk:

everything about it. I think you can voice your concerns and

Carla SimsKayotuk:

still try to work together to come to an agreement or

Carla SimsKayotuk:

something, but avoiding saying something just to avoid conflict

Carla SimsKayotuk:

is also not healthy.

Amy Martin:

Yeah, and do you think that's a cultural value

Amy Martin:

too?

Carla SimsKayotuk:

It should be. You should always be honest.

Carla SimsKayotuk:

Yeah.

Amy Martin:

So how do we differentiate between a healthy

Amy Martin:

unity and a coercive one? That's a problem people in every

Amy Martin:

culture struggle with. It's behind the protests that have

Amy Martin:

racked Hong Kong this fall. It's being hotly debated within U.S.

Amy Martin:

political parties in the run up to the 2020 election, and it's

Amy Martin:

something we all face as individuals too. How do we have

Amy Martin:

conflict without breaking up families or friendships? How can

Amy Martin:

we be real with each other about who we are and what we think,

Amy Martin:

but still have atauchikun, a foundation of togetherness?

Amy Martin:

In December 2017 when the tax bill got passed that allowed for

Amy Martin:

drilling in the in the refuge-

Carla SimsKayotuk:

That was a sad day.

Amy Martin:

Was it?

Carla SimsKayotuk:

Yes, I thought it was a very sad day.

Amy Martin:

Carla said she remembers posting something on

Amy Martin:

Facebook expressing her sadness. Now, almost two years later, her

Amy Martin:

grief about this decision is still very close to the surface.

Carla SimsKayotuk:

I just think it's it's going to change the

Carla SimsKayotuk:

whole dynamics of our area, the ambience, the social structure,

Carla SimsKayotuk:

our places, of where we can go and hunt and subsist and

Carla SimsKayotuk:

probably even camp. It's going to have an impact.

Amy Martin:

Some of the land owned by the Kaktovik Inupiat

Amy Martin:

Corporation, or KIC is right here on Barter Island, where the

Amy Martin:

village lies.

Carla SimsKayotuk:

And that's just, that's just like, right

Carla SimsKayotuk:

out here. I mean, like, not even a mile from from this house and

Carla SimsKayotuk:

you're gonna see it. I mean, I don't understand how people

Carla SimsKayotuk:

think we're not going to be impacted. The pipeline is going

Carla SimsKayotuk:

to be up on the tundra that's right along the coast. I mean,

Carla SimsKayotuk:

KIC lands are right there on the mainland, on right, right, close

Carla SimsKayotuk:

to shore. And that's where we do all our hunting, all our camping

Carla SimsKayotuk:

during the summer time and spring time. And it's, it's

Carla SimsKayotuk:

gonna change.

Amy Martin:

iI's really personal for you.

Carla SimsKayotuk:

It is, that's all where we go camping, where

Carla SimsKayotuk:

my family goes camping and and everything. And I use that time

Carla SimsKayotuk:

to get away from, I know we're in a small community, but

Carla SimsKayotuk:

there's a lot that we have to deal with here. And so I used

Carla SimsKayotuk:

that camping time to to get out and and just renew myself and

Carla SimsKayotuk:

and I. Sorry. It's going to be hard. I just I hope that I'm

Carla SimsKayotuk:

wrong, that we're not going to be impacted the way I think we

Carla SimsKayotuk:

will be, but we'll see. So, I feel for the coming generations

Carla SimsKayotuk:

that's going to have to deal with it all. Sorry.

Amy Martin:

Carla and I kept talking for quite a while, but

Amy Martin:

eventually I packed up my gear and I was about to head out when

Amy Martin:

she told me this, as much as she is opposed to oil development,

Amy Martin:

what she wants the most is for Inupiaq land to be in Inupiaq

Amy Martin:

hands. That's her top priority, sovereignty. Even more than

Amy Martin:

stopping development, she wants her community to have control

Amy Martin:

over their land. We'll have more after this short break.

Amy Martin:

Hey, I want to take a minute to thank you for listening to

Amy Martin:

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Amy Martin:

Wow, this is the closest we've gotten, for sure.

Amy Martin:

Welcome back to Threshold, I'm Amy Martin and producer Nick

Amy Martin:

Mott and I are with polar bear guide Robert Thompson again.

Amy Martin:

We've just come upon a mother and cub out for an afternoon

Amy Martin:

stroll.

Amy Martin:

So mom and baby are walking right in front of us and

Amy Martin:

cuteness explosion.

Amy Martin:

Everything around us is gray- gray sky, gray ocean, gray sand,

Amy Martin:

except these two creamy white creatures exploring the beach.

Amy Martin:

It's like an ivory, slightly yellowish white, and she looks

Amy Martin:

big and healthy. And baby's nose is a lot flatter and rounder

Amy Martin:

around her face and just tooling right behind her mom, and you

Amy Martin:

can definitely see the hunter in them, and she's looking right at

Amy Martin:

us right now. She looks incredibly powerful, just really

Amy Martin:

happy to be in a vehicle right now.

Amy Martin:

Robert says oil development in the refuge poses a direct threat

Amy Martin:

to mothers and cubs like this pair, even before any wells are

Amy Martin:

drilled. As we talked about earlier in this series, seismic

Amy Martin:

testing is usually the first step in oil exploration, and the

Amy Martin:

way that it works is a big truck, commonly called a thumper

Amy Martin:

truck, drives across the exploration area, stopping

Amy Martin:

intermittently to lower a metal plate, which sends a vibration

Amy Martin:

deep underground. Decades ago, these heavy trucks did damage to

Amy Martin:

the tundra that's still visible today, tire tracks that tore up

Amy Martin:

the fragile Arctic soil. To mitigate that, seismic

Amy Martin:

exploration in this area is now limited to the winter months,

Amy Martin:

when the ground is frozen, but this attempt to address one

Amy Martin:

problem created another, because winter is when polar bears make

Amy Martin:

dens under the snow. Females give birth to their cubs in

Amy Martin:

these dens and nurture them there for many months without

Amy Martin:

eating or drinking anything themselves. Then they emerge

Amy Martin:

with their cubs in March or April, extremely hungry and with

Amy Martin:

new mouths to feed.

Amy Martin:

They were playing with some stuff before, kind of tossing

Amy Martin:

around the air, and then the baby's like a quarter of her

Amy Martin:

height, moving behind her, kind of copying her movements.

Amy Martin:

The thumper trucks used in seismic surveys can be equipped

Amy Martin:

with infrared technology designed to detect polar bear

Amy Martin:

dens, but Robert says the bears could still be disrupted at a

Amy Martin:

very vulnerable stage in their life cycle, or even get missed

Amy Martin:

by the infrared and crushed in their dens, and right now, he

Amy Martin:

says the last thing polar bears need is another threat.

Robert Thompson:

I'm an Eskimo person from North Slope being

Robert Thompson:

rained on in February. I don't need any more scientific

Robert Thompson:

evidence, we're being affected. We're losing species. We will

Robert Thompson:

never hunt musk ox again. We had musk ox here, and the polar bear

Robert Thompson:

on the way out, and other species are moving in, and the

Robert Thompson:

ocean currents are changing, and this whole fish situation is

Robert Thompson:

changing, and usually it's not for the better.

Amy Martin:

Robert's not a shareholder in the two Alaska

Amy Martin:

Native corporations that have the most to gain from

Amy Martin:

development here, but he is a shareholder in a different one,

Amy Martin:

and because all the Alaska Native regional corporations

Amy Martin:

share some of their profits, he does still stand to benefit

Amy Martin:

financially from drilling.

Amy Martin:

Is there a part of you that's like, well, that money would be

Amy Martin:

really nice. Maybe it's worth it. Have you ever been tempted?

Robert Thompson:

No, no, never.

Amy Martin:

Why not?

Robert Thompson:

I'm happy without that money, I probably

Robert Thompson:

wouldn't be happy. There are stories on people who won

Robert Thompson:

lotteries and everything, and almost at a person they run

Robert Thompson:

through it and their life falls apart. No, I've been poor

Robert Thompson:

before. I can be poor very well. I don't need that money. Plus,

Robert Thompson:

I'm involved in ecotourism, and I like that, and it's enjoyable,

Robert Thompson:

and it's not harming the environment, and it's fun. So

Robert Thompson:

why should I sit there getting dividends, and I don't need it.

Robert Thompson:

I wouldn't miss it, and I'd rather have the land like it is.

Amy Martin:

I have to look through the binoculars again.

Amy Martin:

Wow, it's really cool to see her through the binocs, she's

Amy Martin:

beautiful. Her face is kind of dirty and greenish brown.

Nick Mott:

Aww, sharing.

Amy Martin:

She's licking his face. She licked his face a

Amy Martin:

minute. Sweet.

Robert Thompson:

Well, I hope people listen to this and

Robert Thompson:

realize, hey, it's amazing to see these bears, but they're

Robert Thompson:

probably on the way out because of climate change. You got to

Robert Thompson:

look at, you know, reality. And I don't know if we can do enough

Robert Thompson:

to mitigate it, but we couldn't do anything to take what they

Robert Thompson:

have left away. Who knows might turn around and a miracle will

Robert Thompson:

happen.

Amy Martin:

In our first episode from Kaktovik, we heard from

Amy Martin:

Fenton Rexford, one of the people in the village who

Amy Martin:

supports drilling. He was speaking at that same hearing

Amy Martin:

where we heard the tape from Congressman Don Young earlier.

Amy Martin:

In fact, Fenton was invited to that hearing by the congressman.

Amy Martin:

I want to replay part of what Fenton had to say.

Fenton Rexford:

We are not an exhibit in a museum, Nor should

Fenton Rexford:

the lands that we have survived and thrived from centuries be

Fenton Rexford:

locked away for the peace of mind from those from far away

Fenton Rexford:

places. This school of thoughts amount to nothing more than

Fenton Rexford:

green colonialism, a political occupation of our land in the

Fenton Rexford:

name of environment, while others exploit the idea of

Fenton Rexford:

wilderness for economic gain.

Amy Martin:

Fenton and Robert know each other, of course.

Amy Martin:

Everybody knows everybody in Kaktovik. They're of the same

Amy Martin:

generation, I'm guessing they have a lot in common, but they

Amy Martin:

see this issue of drilling in the refuge so differently.

Amy Martin:

Robert sees drilling as a direct assault on Inupiaq culture, and

Amy Martin:

Fenton sees it as an expression of Inupiaq sovereignty. That's

Amy Martin:

big stuff to disagree on, and yet somehow, the people in this

Amy Martin:

small village are making it work as a community. I was there for

Amy Martin:

less than a week, I can't begin to say I understand this whole

Amy Martin:

situation or how they're getting through it, but it seems like

Amy Martin:

they have some combination of airing out of differences from

Amy Martin:

time to time, while mostly focusing on what they have in

Amy Martin:

common instead of what divides them. Nora Jane Burns, the

Amy Martin:

former mayor of Kaktovik, who we met in part one of this episode,

Amy Martin:

extends that attitude beyond the village. She's a big advocate

Amy Martin:

for dialog with their closest neighbors, the Gwich'in.

Amy Martin:

Nora Jane Burns: I know that they always try to say that

Amy Martin:

those folks are not from here, but, but when you look at the

Amy Martin:

map, their Arctic Village is really close borderline to the

Amy Martin:

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. So maybe work with them and come

Amy Martin:

up with some kind of solution. There's always a possibility of

Amy Martin:

solutions of how they can work together. Working together would

Amy Martin:

be the best way and everybody would win.

Amy Martin:

Inupiaq territory is on the northern part of the

Amy Martin:

refuge which in territory is to the south, on the other side of

Amy Martin:

the Brooks Range and the Porcupine Caribou Herd, which

Amy Martin:

both tribes have deep ties to, moves between these two regions.

Amy Martin:

They migrate from which in to Inupiaq lands and back again.

Amy Martin:

Nora Jane says, a quick glance at social media provides all the

Amy Martin:

evidence you need for how much these animals unite people here,

Amy Martin:

regardless of their tribe or their opinion on oil

Amy Martin:

development.

Amy Martin:

Nora Jane Burns: Because they all, everybody, if they all,

Amy Martin:

you'll see posting, oh, I had caribou this, I had caribou

Amy Martin:

this, and they all like to eat caribou.

Amy Martin:

That's kind of the connecting thread.

Amy Martin:

Nora Jane Burns: That's the connecting thread. That caribou.

Amy Martin:

So that's what I like to see them, is just to at least sit

Amy Martin:

down and just listen to them, listen to their concerns.

Amy Martin:

Because if you flip it, if it was flipped, if their country

Amy Martin:

had lot of oil and we didn't have anything, and we know our

Amy Martin:

animals migrate to their land, I think I would be concerned too.

Amy Martin:

They're are people like us. They eat the same animal we eat.

Amy Martin:

At that hearing in Washington, DC, Congressman

Amy Martin:

Young accused his colleagues of dividing the Gwich'in and the

Amy Martin:

Inupiat.

Don Young:

You've divided two tribes, two tribes. Listen to

Don Young:

the people live there.

Amy Martin:

But who or what has divided them and how divided are

Amy Martin:

they really? Maybe it's appealing to make a nice, simple

Amy Martin:

story in which one tribe wants oil development and the other

Amy Martin:

doesn't, then all you have to do is pick which side you're

Amy Martin:

rooting for. But that narrative only works if you ignore Carla

Amy Martin:

SimsKayotuk and Robert Thompson and Nora Jane Burns and Vebjorn

Amy Martin:

Aishana Reitan, who we met in our first episode and many

Amy Martin:

others.

Amy Martin:

Nora Jane Burns: Working together would be the best way,

Amy Martin:

and everybody would win.

Amy Martin:

I didn't hear anyone in Kaktovik or in Arctic

Amy Martin:

Village, where we're going next time, describe this situation in

Amy Martin:

these binary terms, as a fight between one group that wants oil

Amy Martin:

development and another that doesn't. Instead, I heard

Amy Martin:

Inupiaq people and Gwich'in people talking about the pride

Amy Martin:

and pleasure they take in their cultures, their food, their

Amy Martin:

languages, their ways of being in the world. I heard them

Amy Martin:

describing the painful effects of colonization and racism and

Amy Martin:

ignorance and arrogance from outsiders, and how they're

Amy Martin:

dealing with those things as individuals and in their

Amy Martin:

communities. And I heard people with very different opinions on

Amy Martin:

oil development express a strong common value, a determination to

Amy Martin:

survive.

Sarah James:

We're not going anywhere. We're here to stay.

Sarah James:

God or creator put us where we are today, as Gwich'in people to

Sarah James:

take care of this part of the world, and we did good, and we

Sarah James:

like it, and we're going to stay. We're not going anywhere.

Sarah James:

We're here to stay.

Amy Martin:

This is Sarah James, a Gwich'in leader from Arctic

Amy Martin:

Village, Alaska. We'll meet her next time on Threshold.

Sarah James:

Our reporting was funded by the Pulitzer Center,

Sarah James:

Montana Public Radio, the Park Foundation, the High Stakes

Sarah James:

Foundation, the William H and Mary Wattis Harris Foundation,

Sarah James:

and by our listeners.Our work depends on people who believe in

Sarah James:

it and choose to support it, people like you. Join our

Sarah James:

community and find pictures from our trip to the refuge at

Sarah James:

thresholdpodcast.org.

Amy Martin:

The team behind this episode of Threshold is Nick

Amy Martin:

Mott, Eva Kalea, Michelle Woods, Caysi Simpson, Brooke

Amy Martin:

Artziniega, Lynn Liu and Megan Myskofsky. Special thanks to

Amy Martin:

Andrew Stemp, Frank Allen, Hana Carey, Dan Carreno, Michael

Amy Martin:

Connor, Kara Cromwell, Katie DeFusco, Matt Herlihy, and

Amy Martin:

Rachel Klein. Our music is by Travis Yost.

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