Indigenous Issues in the Arctic Rim

August 31, 2006 Listen to the Show

Resisting Waste-Culture and Reducing Toxicity; Native Inupiats Describe Their Harrowing Experience with Oil; and Saving Lake Teshekpuk

Zero Waste: Setting Goals to Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Resist!
GAIA is an expanding international alliance that includes individuals, NGOs, community-based organizations and academics. This alliance is working to end the incineration of all forms of waste. They also work to promote sustainable waste prevention. GAIA means Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives and was initially conceived in 2000 by participants in Africa, Asia, North and South America and the Middle East. GAIA's first global campaign goal is to stop the World Bank from funding incinerators around the world. They support local communities being targeted by the Bank for incineration and help them with alternatives. During the Indigenous Environmental Network conference, Govinda Dalton interviewed these GAIA members. We speak with Ann Leonard and Monica Wilson.
Links: www.no-burn.org and www.ienearth.org

The Battle to Save Lake Teshekpuk
Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne announced on Tuesday plans will go forward to drill in the North Slope region of Alaska. The Interior department will sell oil leases to nearly 500,000 acres north and east of Lake Teshekpuk. It is in the National Petroleum Reserve Alaska, an area set aside in 1923 for its energy resource. But environmentalists and some congress members are opposed to the lease sale. The National Audubon Society and the Wilderness Society have filed a federal court appeals claiming the government's Resource Management Plan for the reserve is inadequate. We hear about this opposition and what is at stake in the plan to drill around Teshekpuk Lake.
Stan Senner, Executive Director of Alaska Audubon
Links: Alaska Audubon and National Audubon Society

Voices From the Arctic: Native Inupiats Describe How Oil Drilling has Devastated their Community
Indigenous peoples voices are often lost in the discussion on drilling in Alaska, which is why we spend to much time here giving those voices a chance to be heard. We hear some of those voices from the remote and small village of Nuiqsut, Alaska. As the long-running debate rages on over what the consequences could be of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) or around Lake Teshekpuk, we can look to an Inupiat village that began its own experiment with drilling a decade ago. Nuiqsut is located in the northernmost regions of Alaska, less than 20 miles south of Beaufort Sea, where the edge of Alaska meets the Arctic waters. It is remote even by Alaskan standards.

In 2003, there were just 416 residents in Nuiqsut, of which roughly 92% are Inupiat. Nuiqsut village sits atop one of the nation's largest oil fields: to the east is Prudhoe Bay and the National Petroleum Reserve Alaska to the west. When drilling was proposed just outside the town limits in the early 1990s, Nuiqsut residents were told it would boost their fortunes. A decade later, many residents say the reality has not matched the promises. So how are they faring?

January 26, 2006

Indigenous Environmental Network Director Charges Bush Administration With Crimes Against Humanity; A Discussion With Charmaine Whiteface, Defender of the Black Hills

Indigenous People Demand an End to the Bush Administration's Human Rights Violations We speak with an Indigenous political activist who testified at the recent International Commission of Inquiry on Crimes Against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration held in New York City. We hear about the various Indigenous communities whose human rights have been violated as a result of the Bush administration's policies.

Tom Goldtooth, Executive Director of the Indigenous Environmental Network

Defenders of the Black Hills

We hear about Bear Butte, a small mountain about 8 miles off the northeastern corner of the Black Hills. It is sacred to more than 60 Native nations from the North American continent and is being threatened by urban sprawl from the nearby town of Sturgis, and the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. Although the community was able to stop the building of an outdoor shooting range four miles from this sacred mountain, they are now facing an individual who wants to build a number of biker bars, an outdoor concert arena, and a biker campground on 300 acres only one and a half miles from the base.

Also, there are close to 1,000 abandoned uranium mines and prospects in the north, northwest, and western portions of the Treaty Territory, in SD, ND, MT, WY, and also in the southern Black Hills. Nebraska currently has an active uranium mine just south of the Pine Ridge Reservation. The Native community became aware of these this past year and are trying to bring this information to the attention of the public. We hear about these issues and more.

Charmaine White Face, Coordinator of the Defenders of the Black Hills

August 25, 2005

Gwitch'in Nation Launches National Campaign to Protect the Arctic Refuge and a Way of Life

The Gwitch'in Nation launched a national campaign in Washington, D.C. on August 13 called "Drum! Dance! Sing! Protect the Arctic Refuge! The Gwitch'in are preparing to battle members of Congress who are trying to insert provisions into the national Budget Bill for oil development in the coastal plains of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. During the next five weeks members of Indigenous nations from across the country will travel to D.C. to support the Gwitch'in. The vigil, held across from the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, is scheduled to culminate in a demonstration during the week of September 20th, when Congress members supporting a plan for drilling in the Arctic will make their next move.

We speak with three Indigenous people of different nations who are in Washington, D.C. for the Save the Arctic campaign. We discuss how oil development could impact the Gwitch'in nation and all the wildlife in the region, how the recently signed Energy bill impacts Native Alaskans and other Indian lands, and the broader threats oil development may hasten such as climate change, human rights violations and opening nationally protected wildlife regions to energy development.

• Sarah James, Member of the Gwitch'in Steering Committee
• Kelvin Long, Director of ECHOES (Educating Communities While Healing and Offering Environmental Support), and member of Black Mesa Water Coalition
• Clayton Thomas-Mueller, Native Energy Organizer for the Indigenous Environmental Network