Sarah Agnes James
Neither the Anti-Discrimination Act of 1945 nor the advent of statehood in 1959 resolved Alaska Native land claims. Renewed pressure to act attended the discovery of oil on the Arctic coast and proposals for a pipeline to transport it across disputed areas. In 1971 the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act quieted title to a huge swath of land and divided an additional 90 million acres among twelve regional corporations composed of hundreds of Alaska Native villages. Calls for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which contained Gwich’in ancestral lands, crescendoed during the early 2000s. In the midst of economic collapse and an energy crisis, advocates argued that drilling would bring jobs and energy independence. Opponents focused on protecting the pristine wilderness area, a position that gained the support of President Barack Obama in early 2015. Consider how Sarah Agnes James, chairperson of the Gwich’in Steering Committee, framed the issue as a matter of identity, sovereignty, human rights, international law, and sacred land in this 2011 testimony.25
I am honored to speak on behalf of this Committee for my nation, which is Gwich’in Nation. I feel real honored to be here. English is my second language, so I will address to you and translate it in my language back to English. I will speak Gwich’in. English is my second language. . . .
I say: We came a long ways. We all came a long ways. We still have a long ways to go. On behalf of the elders that cannot be here today, and on behalf of the children that is not yet born, my people have been traveling all over the country trying to tell a story about a special place in the world, which is Iizhik Gwats’an Gwandaii Goodlit, “sacred place where life begins.” We do that for our future generation. . . .
The Gwich’in are caribou people. Caribou is our main food, it is in our tools and clothes and songs and stories and beadwork. We have lived right here with the caribou for hundreds of generations and will stay right far into the future. There are maybe 7,000 of us, mostly living in 15 small communities and villages scattered across northeast Alaska and the northwest corner of Canada. We are among the most remote and most traditional people in America.
The Gwich’in Steering Committee was created by resolution of our Chiefs in 1988 at the first gathering of all our people in more than 100 years—the Gwich’in Niintsyaa. Our job is to speak with one voice for all our Gwich’in people on the caribou issue. The Chiefs gave us two directions:
• to tell the world about the caribou and the Gwich’in way of life, and what oil development would mean for the Gwich’in; and
• to do it in a good way.
So, Mr. Chairman, I am especially honored to be here today to carry out this important task for my Chiefs and my people.
We respect the difficult job you have. We know about the problems of jobs and energy. In Arctic Village we only have jobs in the summer, and there are not enough to go around, so we know what it is like to be unemployed and to worry about how to pay our bills.
We also know about energy problems. In Arctic Village everything is flown in. If you have a 4-wheeler or snow-machine, you will pay about $15/gallon for gas. Fuel for electric generators is flown in too, so electricity is really expensive. I’m not complaining, I love my life, but we do know what it means to have a “deficit” when life is expensive. But in the winter you can’t just turn out the lights. You have to get the money to pay the bills. Go to town to get a job, or raise taxes. You have to keep the lights on at home.
The idea of waiting to pay the bills for 10 or 15 years while you hope to find oil in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge is backwards. People need to go to work now. Our country, our government needs to fix our schools and roads and towns, and find a way to meet new needs like icebreakers - not 10 or 20 years from now, but now. If it costs more money, we will pay our fair share. To go on pretending you can just cut costs without ruining our country is not telling the truth.
But the question of oil development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is not just about money and oil. It is about the most basic human rights of the Gwich’in. For the Gwich’in, this is a simple issue: Oil development in the birthplace and nursery grounds of the Porcupine (River) Caribou Herd would hurt the caribou and threaten the culture and way of life of my people and the viability of our communities.
We know the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as Iizhik Gwats’an Gwandaii Goodlit, “the Sacred Place Where Life Begins.” After migrating 400 miles and giving birth, the mother caribou cannot be disturbed at this time, and our people may not go there then. The cows and their calves will move from place to place to find the cotton-grass and other new green sprouts they need to recover their strength and feed their calves. Depending on weather, the prime area for feeding might change from year to year, especially for the first weeks. Sometimes when snows are deep the caribou are born in Canada, but studies of radio-collared caribou show that as soon as she can, the mother caribou will lead her calf onto the Arctic Refuge’s coastal plain. From what we know, every Porcupine caribou gets their start in life right there, at Iizhik Gwats’an Gwandaii Goodlit.
When oil development around Prudhoe Bay came close to the calving grounds of the Central Arctic Caribou Herd, the cows and their calves were pushed away onto new calving- and nursery grounds. Because there was lots of good ground, this did not hurt them and those caribou prospered.
The problem for Porcupine caribou is, in the Arctic Refuge the mountains come close to the Arctic Ocean—and the coastal plain is only a few miles wide. There are already more caribou per square mile on the Porcupine caribou calving and nursery grounds than almost any other caribou herd. If the caribou are disturbed they have nowhere to go. Caribou biologists believe oil development, or any large-scale disturbance and noise, risks displacement of cow and calve caribou from essential habitats, would likely hurt productivity, leading to declines, and possibly alter migration patterns.
These are the expected and unavoidable effects of oil development even if it is done right. This is not the risk we face if there is a spill or other large industrial accident.
As indigenous people, we have the right to continue our way of life, and that right is guaranteed by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, signed by the President and Ratified by the Senate. Article 1 of that Covenant reads in part: “In no case may a people be deprived of their own means of subsistence.”
The U.S. and Canadian governments signed an international agreement for management and long-term protection of the Porcupine Caribou Herd (Ottawa, July 17, 1987), forming the International Porcupine Caribou Commission (IPCC). The objectives of the agreement were: “To conserve the Porcupine Caribou Herd and its habitat through international cooperation and coordination so that the risk of irreversible damage or long-term adverse effects as a result of use of caribou or their habitat is minimized; To ensure opportunities for customary and traditional uses of the Porcupine Caribou Herd ; To enable users of Porcupine Caribou to participate in the international coordination of the conservation of the Porcupine Caribou Herd and its habitat; To encourage cooperation [and] communication among governments, users of Porcupine Caribou and others to achieve these objectives.”
Much of the language used in this international (governments-to-governments) agreement admits and supports the Gwich’in human and cultural rights regarding caribou habitat. . . . There are other documents that support our claim, but it is the very simple human right to continue to live our lives on our traditional lands that I hope you will remember.