The Prologue featuring Arctic National Wildlife Refuge protector and Gwich’in Tribal Member, Bernadette Demientieff, Fort Yukon, Alaska
In our season finale, we bring your attention to the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), known to the Gwich’in Indian Nation as “The Sacred Place Where Life Begins.” Hear the personal story of Bernadette Demientieff, a Gwich’in Steering Committee leader fighting to protect her Nation’s traditional lifeways.
The Gwich’in Indian Nation lives in 15 small villages scattered across northeast Alaska in the US to the northern Yukon and Northwest Territories in Canada. The Arctic is their home. The coastal plain of the ANWR has been a location of intense controversy between environmentalists, Native tribes, and the oil and gas industry. The coastal plain is also the birthing and nursing grounds of the Porcupine Caribou Herd - the very heart of the Gwich’in people. The caribou provide food and nourishment for the Gwich’in who are deeply connected to them on a spiritual level.
If oil drilling goes forward in ANWR, the birthrate of the caribou could decrease by 40% - it would be a cultural genocide for Bernadette’s tribe.
In 1988, the Gwich’in Steering Committee was formed in response to threats of oil development in ANWR’s coastal plain. Time and time again, Bernadette has testified in front of US Congress, the United Nations, and public hearings. She has met with banks and insurance companies funding oil infrastructure, framing the drilling and desecration of sacred lands as a Human Rights issue. As the issue of oil extraction gains urgency in the US and around the world, more pressure is put on the oil-rich region of the Arctic.
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