SACRED GROUND

This article really moved us here at the Alaska Progessive Review today, as we read it. We really feel the points of view of Indigenous cultures, throughout the World, are very important. And really find value in learning and understanding from them. As they offer a valuable counter-balance to the conventional "developed nations" culture, which is necessary to bring the global environment back toward a more balanced, safe for future generations state. And since we are here in this beautiful and relatively pristine area, we greatly appreciate and relate to this message.  

 

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/12/04-6

Celebration, Sacredness, and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

by Princess Lucaj

(Photo: US Fish and Wildlife Service)It is the holiday season and in Alaska we have much to be grateful for and much to celebrate. On December 6th we will be celebrating the birthday of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. It was on this date in 1960 that President Eisenhower established the Arctic National Wildlife Range (later named Refuge) “to preserve its unique wildlife, wilderness, and recreational values”. In 1980, Congress expanded the refuge to encompass more winter habitat of the Porcupine Caribou Herd and the refuge purpose to provide for continued subsistence uses was specified.
 
But the longer history of this special place belongs to the indigenous people of Alaska. The term nan kat in Gwich’in Athabascan translates into ‘on the land’.
 
It is this land, today referred to as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge that is the home to hundreds of species of birds and animals and it is the coastal plain of the Refuge that is the birthplace and nursery grounds of the Porcupine Caribou Herd. Each spring, between 40-50,000 calves are born there. It is because of the vadzaih – the caribou – that we as Gwich’in people have been able to maintain our way of life. For thousands of years we depended upon this herd for our sustenance, for clothing, shelter, tools and even games. To this day, the Porcupine Caribou now 170,000 strong continues to feed thousands of Gwich’in men, women, and children living in the remote Arctic villages scattered along the migratory route of the herd in both Northeast Alaska and Northwest Canada.

Every society needs sacred places.
 
Another Gwich’in term explains much of our relationship to the caribou and that is gwintł'ee daachįį or ‘the animal gave itself up for sustenance’. In this way, we are living with the understanding that there is a balance to life and that we must take care of and respect the land and animals. This is why, in 1988, with an increased threat of oil and gas development in the birthplace and nursery grounds of the Porcupine Caribou Herd, the Gwich’in Nation came together and agreed unanimously to speak with one voice in opposition to oil and gas development. To accomplish this task the communities established the Gwich'in Steering Committee. This coming summer will mark 25 years of the Gwich’in Steering Committee’s efforts to protect the Arctic Refuge and our way of life.
The late Native American scholar and activist Vine Deloria, Jr. said:

“Every society needs sacred places. A society that cannot remember its past, and honor it, is in peril of losing its soul.”

The coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is sacred. It is sacred, not only to the Gwich’in, but to millions of Americans who have time and time again voiced their steadfast support of permanent protection of the Refuge. After all, Webster’s definition of a 'refuge' is: a shelter, a place that gives protection from danger or distress. And the Arctic Refuge lives up to this name. Most recently, the Fish & Wildlife Service received close to a million comments in support of Wilderness for the Arctic Refuge the results of which we hope to see at the end of January 2013.
 
In a world of climate change, the Refuge has become increasingly important to polar bears who den and nurse their young on the coastal plain and are the first vertebrate species to be listed by the US Endangered Species Act as threatened by extinction due to climate change. Additionally, of the entire North Slope of Alaska the Arctic Refuge is the only 5% that is protected by law from oil leasing and development. I don’t think that Presidents Eisenhower and Carter, or Mardy Murie and all the many notable activists that have worked on protecting the Arctic Refuge could have foreseen the great peril that the world is in today or how significant this Refuge would become.
 

For the Gwich'in, we are grateful that so many see the logic in protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. To open the Refuge up to oil and gas development would take an act of Congress and if this travesty were to occur it would set a precedent for the United States that no place is truly protected, no place is truly sacred. [Unfortunately there is a high probability of this occurring in the next few years, neither rethuglicans or even democratic politicians, for the most part, can resist the power/money of the fossil fuel lobby/corporatocrocy. And really, in today's greed-driven/predatory capitalistic environment, nothing has value, just a price, eds..]

 
Today though, a grandmother up in Arctic Village, Alaska is preparing a pot of caribou soup for her grandchildren. Today we give thanks for our ancestors, for the caribou that gave itself up so that we can survive, and we give thanks for the many, many good people in the world who are doing all they can to protect our Mother Earth for future generations. Happy birthday, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, may we see many more to come!

 

Princess Lucaj (Neet'saii Gwich'in) is a writer/actor/director based in Alaska. Her grandparents are the late Steven & Katherine Peter of Arctic Village. She is the Executive Director of the Gwich'in Steering Committee an indigenous non-profit whose mission is to ensure the long-term health and viability of the Porcupine Caribou Herd that sustains the Gwich'in way of life. She is a mother and loves sharing her rich culture with others.

We think it is very important to enjoy your environment, wherever you are, and appreciate the beauty you find there.

Because every day, there is beauty to be found in it, wherever and whenever you happpen to be out.

 It is vitally important for all people to get out and enjoy, and learn about their local environments. So that we can understand and appreciate what keeps them healthy, as all of global life depends upon the health of them.

This fall/early winter, while your lead editor has been partially disabled by a broken leg, when the APR staff ventures out in the -15 to -30C cold, we still are awed by our beautiful sunsets, and morning light breaking out on some protected old-growth forest in one of our city parks.

Most cities in North America have protected natural areas, which we view as sacred. In the sense of still being in the relatively "natural state" they were in before European-derived cultures overtook them. In Portland, Oregon, Forest Park is a wonderful example. In San Diego, CA, Mission Trails Park is another. Every large city in the lower 48 has something similar, and even in other areas there are numerous wildlife refuges, on both the state and federal levels which people can retreat to. We always find value in seeking these out, wherever we are, and learning about these environments. '

 After all, it is our natural environment, the complex interplay and the cooperative processes between all the species in the different ecosystems, that allows our civilisation and the "human race" to be able to exist, and sustain itself. It is in our greatest interest to fully understand and respect the global environment, if we want a stable and hopeful future to occur for future generations.

The solutions to our problems, of the collapsing global environment, global warming, resource depletion, can be addressed. Jill Stein's (the Green party presidential candidate this past month) eloquent address today in Common Dreams shows just how easy it could be, if the US had a real unbiased media that reported actual news and pressing issues, allowing our populace to become more informed. Here is the best part of her address:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/12/05-8

"Our planet is rapidly approaching a geophysical tipping point at which the consequences of climate change, such as the disappearance of polar ice caps and the melting of frozen methane deposits, trigger an unstoppable acceleration of warming. Once that happens, it will render our climate incompatible with civilization as we know it. [Here is the latest official summary of how global warming is accelerating, and affecting the Arctic:
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2012/20121205_arcticreportcard.html, eds]

Throwing the nation over the climate cliff will make our current fiscal challenges look like a minor bump in the road.

Mother Nature must also have a seat at the negotiating table as our leaders hash out their supposedly grand bargain. In a nation already reeling from droughts, wildfires, and superstorms, budget priorities must reconcile the climate and economic imperatives. After all, they're ultimately one and the same.

Our current drive to expand oil and gas drilling on U.S. soil is part of a bipartisan energy policy that's doing nothing to reduce unsustainably high carbon emissions. Showpiece programs to encourage renewable energy alternatives like solar and wind can't avert climate disaster unless they're going to replace fossil fuels.

The $15 billion a year that Obama wants to invest in renewable energy is a small fraction of what's being spent every month on the latest Wall Street bailout. Any boost the environment might get from his administration's showpiece renewable energy programs is more than cancelled by its promotion of dirty energy that runs from natural gas fracking to coal and nuclear reactors, and an expansion of oil drilling in our national parks, offshore, and in the Arctic.

We can avoid both the fiscal and climate crises only if we democratize our priorities and put the public interest ahead of the profiteering elite. One blueprint for this is the Green New Deal, which served as the mainstay of my presidential bid as the Green Party's nominee. Our plan would launch an emergency program to create 25 million jobs in green energy, sustainable agriculture, public transportation, and infrastructure improvements. It would also cut spending, making big tax hikes unnecessary.

Our Green New Deal would be funded by a combination of waste-cutting and targeted fair-tax reforms. These include scaling back the Pentagon's bloated budget to year 2000 levels.

A ”Medicare for All” health insurance system would provide health care to everyone, while eliminating the massive private health insurance bureaucracy and reducing the medical inflation that's straining federal, state, and household budgets alike.

Our proposed tax reforms would extend the Bush tax cuts for 90 percent of Americans. It would rein in Wall Street speculation with a small (0.5 percent) tax on financial transactions, generating $350 billion annually. Capital gains would be taxed as income, and income would be taxed more progressively, with multi-millionaires and billionaires paying in the 50-80 percent range, just as they did before the tax giveaways of recent decades.

If we are to have an economy that serves the people and creates a livable planet for the future, we must insist on nothing less than a grand bargain that is truly worthy of the name."
Cheers.