In a recent opinion piece Matthew Rexford reminded people that the Village of Kaktovik is the only community in the 19 million acre Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, as well as the only permanent settlement on the narrow strip of coastline that is the ANWR 1002 area, where there is “great oil and gas potential.”
President of Kaktovik Iñupiat Corp. and tribal administrator of the Native Village of Kaktovik, Rexford said that “despite the picture often painted by politicians and outside special interests, ANWR is not a desolate wilderness. It never has been. The Kaktovik Iñupiat have lived here for thousands of years, and we refuse to allow our land to be managed by the federal government and unaccountable agencies that are either indifferent, or downright hostile, to the interests of local communities they are supposed to serve. Our village is not a shiny monument for outsiders to gawk at - it is our home.”
For the past 40 years, Rexford said, the ANWR debate has been largely framed by lawmakers and environmental groups and has centered around the caribou, polar bears, tundra and birds.
“But,” he asked, “what about the people - my people? Aren’t we worth preserving? Don’t we get a say in whether oil can be developed on our land so we can have an economy?”
In March, the Alaska House of Representatives passed a resolution pushing back on President Joe Biden’s moratorium on oil and gas leasing in ANWR.
“Alaska House Joint Resolution 12 urges the president to uphold the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that approved ANWR leasing and begin permitting lease holders,” Rexford noted. “The resolution also opposes designation of the refuge as a national monument, a unilateral move the president is considering that would require no congressional approval and would end any possibility of ANWR development, at least for the next four years.”
HJR 12 has been met with bipartisan support in the Alaska Legislature and is “described as a united effort by Alaskans to defend their state’s energy rights against a hostile federal administration,” he said.
“While that may be the intent of the resolution, it represents something far bigger for those of us living inside the refuge - human rights,” Rexford said.
“This is an inconvenient and uncomfortable truth for the federal government and others who oppose ANWR development, so they pretend we don’t exist. It’s easier to justify locking up the refuge when no one acknowledges that people live here, own land and support responsible development here.”
- KAY CASHMAN
