Anchorage Public Meeting
I spent the last few days reading through the transcripts from the public comments period of the Environmental Impact Statement that is looking at the impacts to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Coastal Plain from the proposed oil and gas leasing program.
There were moving comments on both sides of the spectrum in Anchorage, even if the process did seem a bit skewed toward the “Pro Leasing” side of the equation. The speaking process was broken out into 2 phases. Pre-approved speakers were given 5 minutes to testify. The mix of pre-approved speakers was in favor of the pro’s. However the public comments certainly favored the anti-leasing perspective. I kept a tally from Anchorage here: View attachment Anchorage Public Meeting Transcript May 30 2018.pdf.
The Pro side was a mix of unions, state representatives and trade organizations. Notably, the Oil & Gas companies were conspicuously absent, preferring (I assume) to let the labor representatives represent their interests. Their arguments centered on jobs, and getting the Trans-Alaska pipeline back to capacity. Sergio Acuna with the Alaska Laborers' Union Local 341 said, “It's getting tougher and tougher to find any other good-paying jobs other than the ones associated with oil and gas development. Right now the state is not at their best, economically speaking, and it's because we are not producing enough oil to fill out the Trans-Alaska Pipeline.”
I think its shameful that laborers are put in the position to choose between either wilderness, clean water and clean air or their livelihoods. Christina Talbott-Clark said it best. While challenging BLM to uphold its mandate of wise land stewardship, She said, “The majority of our state's revenue comes from the oil industry. But our state government's shortsighted refusal to diversify our economic sources is not your [BLMs] responsibility. Wise stewardship is the Bureau's mandate. Oil drilling in the Arctic Refuge is not wise stewardship.”
I say we put people to work restoring the land and water. Echoing what mulecreek said, there is a mountain of work to be done in completing final reclamations and combating the effects of climate change.
I am not in Alaska. So I don’t pretend to know the particulars there. I was recently on a limited-entry quail hunt here in Texas, and watched the flare stacks light the night sky while waiting for legal shooting light. It crossed my mind what it would feel like to have grown up here, the generations behind me, and to be the one who witnessed these changes.
While reading through the transcripts, I came across this testimony. I found it particularly moving:
_________________________
MR. DAVID BATTS (the administrator): We are up to No. 24. We are missing No. 24. Does anybody have card No. 24? Would you like us to bring the microphone back there, or would you like to come up front? Would you like to sit down? Please speak this way so our court reporter can see you. Would you like to stand or sit?
MS. MARYANN IQILAN NASUALUK NAGEAK REXFORD WARDEN: I don't think I have that big a speech.
MR. DAVID BATTS: Okay. Go ahead.
MS. MARYANN IQILAN NASUALUK NAGEAK REXFORD WARDEN: But I do feel funny -- maybe I don't like to speak -- I would like to speak to all of you. And I like to see your face when I speak. So let me do it this way. Okay?
I'll speak in English. My name is MaryAnn Iqilan Nasualuk. Those first two Inupiaq names are my names that were given to me. And the last two, Nageak and Rexford, I was born in the land and adopted to be a Rexford. I was adopted. I was adopted by my aunt who was a Rexford. And Rhoda Nageak was my birth mom. But they were leaving to go to Barrow, and her sister and Mildred and Herman Rexford adopted me.
And I was born May 15, 1942 at Barrow, Alaska to Vincent and Rhoda Akootchook Nageak, both deceased. And I was culturally adopted by Mildred and Herman Rexford, both deceased. I grew up in Kaktovik on Barter Island. My parents -- my grandparents were Susie and Andrew Akootchook who settled on Barter Island and on Arey Island, just north of Barter Island. You don't mind if I turn around and speak. Okay.
MR. DAVID BATTS: If you could speak a little sideways for our court reporter, please. She's trying to read your lips, so it's hard to do that when you give her your back.
MS. MARYANN IQILAN NASOALUK NAGEAK REXFORD WARDEN: This is very interesting. I never spoke sideways before. Anyway, I was -- I was culturally adopted by Mildred Akootchook and Herman Rexford, both deceased. I grew up on Kaktovik, on Barter Island, Alaska. We are so close to Canada, sometimes we have relatives in Canada. And we used to go -- actually go back and forth between the invisible line, our side of Alaska and the other side, Canada. But we never had lines when we are growing up. I was growing up, we could go anywhere without any paperwork. We just had to let the dogs go.
My grandparents were Susie and Andrew Akootchook. Susie was the sister of Paul Akudak [ph]. Some of you may know that name. And Oolawak [ph]. [indiscernible] Oolawak was her brother, as well.
Like I said, my grandparents were Susie and Andrew Akootchook who settled on Barter Island and also on Arey Island just north of Barter Island. Arey Island is a long stretch of sand which was used also as a base for making salt. Salt, S-A-L-T. The family would pick the clear ice and set them up to drip the salt off the clear ice.
I once watched a movie about Ghandi and watched them make salt just as our ancestors did on our island and sand spit on the ocean. We not only use the ocean for the animals, like hunting them, but also we used it to make salt.
On the west end of the island -- that would be towards Barrow -- we fished with nets, as well, both for the trout and (Inupiaq word), the whitefish. I'm not sure -- I forget what the -- what you would call it. It's a different kind of fish. Good fish.
The island is also a nesting area for all the species of birds which we also gathered for food. A aahaliq -- I always forget the English name for aahaliq. It's a black and white bird which we call in Inupiaq aahaliq.
MR. DAVID BATTS: If you could please wrap up, we need to move on. If you could please wrap up, we need to move on, too.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE SPEAKER: I'll give her my time.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE SPEAKER: Yeah, respect the elder, man.
MS. MARYANN IQILAN NASUALUK NAGEAK REXFORD WARDEN: I'll get rid of -- I'll just do the last page here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE SPEAKER: No. Say your whole thing.
THE WITNESS: I'll speak as fast as I can. Okay?
MR. DAVID BATTS: That's fine.
MS. MARYANN IQILAN NASUALUK NAGEAK REXFORD WARDEN: I'm sorry. (Speaking in Inupiaq.) Because they were named for the noisy noise they made aah, aah, then aahaliq means noise. Aah, aah, aahaliq. Aah, aah, aahaliq. Maybe some of you have the same name for them, but I don't know. We also have other species of edible fowl: geese, swans and many kinds of birds. Some we cannot hunt as children. You see, we also killed the small brown birds for our elders since the smaller birds have softer meat.
We used to have more elders living in our land in our village, but nowadays most of our elders no longer live long or live in the villages. We still take care of our elders, but they are -- there are facilities for them to live in and be cared for as a group. But if they still have family, they are cared for by them.
We as a village also living by the Brooks Range to the south, we also have access to the Dall sheep, which is a delicacy for Christmas and Thanksgiving feasts we have as a village. Thanksgiving, Christmas, 4th of July and whaling season events.
I am supposing that many of you have families that get together for the holidays. On our island, we get together as a family when we first settled on Barter Island, Kaktovik. We were out somewhere, and when we came back, we smelled the diesel, and we went by it. They had already started dipping the diesel into many empty drums. The diesel came from the camp, the Air Force camp that was built on an island. They built it. They just built it. I don't think there was anybody to make any -- any -- any say on it.
The spill was bad. It was bad. And the spill came from the camp, the Air Force camp. When we came -- come to the island, the first thing we smelled is the land, but when we came in, we smelled the diesel, and it was biting into our nose and eyes. It was bad. That was the Air Force.
The Air Force when -- and Russia was alive when everybody was thinking that USA was going to be in war.
We always made something good out of something disastrous. We dipped our drums to clean it up. That's the side of the island where we could set our nets for the cisco, the fish, and where the ducks came around. And that's where the whale would come, too.
It's hard to lose a way of life when the English came. That's what we called them. Or the white man. Some of those people were not very nice to our men. Inupiaq men. And we are not -- we were not -- we are not -- we will not be violent.
There was a man who kept bugging my dad, and he -the only violence my dad did to him was he took his hat off and he banged his -- the top of his head. That's all he could come up with for that man to treat him like that.
And I'm not sure if you will have another -- another chance to hear somebody talk about how it was in my village. So I didn't put down too much in here, but I would invite you, if you have any questions, to raise your arm and I can try and answer.
We did -- we did have education. We had English. We had to learn English. Anybody that came to our village didn't have to learn our language, but we learned English. And that became our language. Writing -- and we learned how to write. We learned how to argue. We learned how to argue with the ones that came and spoke of -- we spoke their language and we were able to answer back at them, even though we were taught not to answer back at people older than us.
There were -- the ones that could speak English were us, the younger ones. And if somebody need it, my mom would always want to know what they say. What did they say? Sometimes it was very hard to translate what you say in English. What you say in English, sometimes it's really hard to translate to Inupiaq because in Inupiaq we have soft language. It's not -- it's not harsh.
You have to respect -- you have to respect. And so we -- I don't have my -- I don't have much to say anymore, but we did -- we did learn English. We went to -- I went to high school in Sitka, and after that I went to the University of Alaska in Fairbanks. And then after that I went to the Dubuque seminary school.
So I have all the -- I have all the degrees that any of you may be able to get yourself. But my parents were proud I could do it. And I was thankful -- I was thankful to the people that helped me achieve my highest -- the highest I could go. I did not want to try for the Ph.D. I'd rather live than get another degree.
So I praise any of you who I -- it's not is struggle. It's something you can achieve, even if you have to struggle for it. Even if you had to struggle for it, you can do it. You can do it. Okay. If you have any questions -
MR. DAVID BATTS: Thank you very much. That was very interesting. Okay. We're going to go over to speaker No. 25.
I spent the last few days reading through the transcripts from the public comments period of the Environmental Impact Statement that is looking at the impacts to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Coastal Plain from the proposed oil and gas leasing program.
There were moving comments on both sides of the spectrum in Anchorage, even if the process did seem a bit skewed toward the “Pro Leasing” side of the equation. The speaking process was broken out into 2 phases. Pre-approved speakers were given 5 minutes to testify. The mix of pre-approved speakers was in favor of the pro’s. However the public comments certainly favored the anti-leasing perspective. I kept a tally from Anchorage here: View attachment Anchorage Public Meeting Transcript May 30 2018.pdf.
The Pro side was a mix of unions, state representatives and trade organizations. Notably, the Oil & Gas companies were conspicuously absent, preferring (I assume) to let the labor representatives represent their interests. Their arguments centered on jobs, and getting the Trans-Alaska pipeline back to capacity. Sergio Acuna with the Alaska Laborers' Union Local 341 said, “It's getting tougher and tougher to find any other good-paying jobs other than the ones associated with oil and gas development. Right now the state is not at their best, economically speaking, and it's because we are not producing enough oil to fill out the Trans-Alaska Pipeline.”
I think its shameful that laborers are put in the position to choose between either wilderness, clean water and clean air or their livelihoods. Christina Talbott-Clark said it best. While challenging BLM to uphold its mandate of wise land stewardship, She said, “The majority of our state's revenue comes from the oil industry. But our state government's shortsighted refusal to diversify our economic sources is not your [BLMs] responsibility. Wise stewardship is the Bureau's mandate. Oil drilling in the Arctic Refuge is not wise stewardship.”
I say we put people to work restoring the land and water. Echoing what mulecreek said, there is a mountain of work to be done in completing final reclamations and combating the effects of climate change.
I am not in Alaska. So I don’t pretend to know the particulars there. I was recently on a limited-entry quail hunt here in Texas, and watched the flare stacks light the night sky while waiting for legal shooting light. It crossed my mind what it would feel like to have grown up here, the generations behind me, and to be the one who witnessed these changes.
While reading through the transcripts, I came across this testimony. I found it particularly moving:
_________________________
MR. DAVID BATTS (the administrator): We are up to No. 24. We are missing No. 24. Does anybody have card No. 24? Would you like us to bring the microphone back there, or would you like to come up front? Would you like to sit down? Please speak this way so our court reporter can see you. Would you like to stand or sit?
MS. MARYANN IQILAN NASUALUK NAGEAK REXFORD WARDEN: I don't think I have that big a speech.
MR. DAVID BATTS: Okay. Go ahead.
MS. MARYANN IQILAN NASUALUK NAGEAK REXFORD WARDEN: But I do feel funny -- maybe I don't like to speak -- I would like to speak to all of you. And I like to see your face when I speak. So let me do it this way. Okay?
I'll speak in English. My name is MaryAnn Iqilan Nasualuk. Those first two Inupiaq names are my names that were given to me. And the last two, Nageak and Rexford, I was born in the land and adopted to be a Rexford. I was adopted. I was adopted by my aunt who was a Rexford. And Rhoda Nageak was my birth mom. But they were leaving to go to Barrow, and her sister and Mildred and Herman Rexford adopted me.
And I was born May 15, 1942 at Barrow, Alaska to Vincent and Rhoda Akootchook Nageak, both deceased. And I was culturally adopted by Mildred and Herman Rexford, both deceased. I grew up in Kaktovik on Barter Island. My parents -- my grandparents were Susie and Andrew Akootchook who settled on Barter Island and on Arey Island, just north of Barter Island. You don't mind if I turn around and speak. Okay.
MR. DAVID BATTS: If you could speak a little sideways for our court reporter, please. She's trying to read your lips, so it's hard to do that when you give her your back.
MS. MARYANN IQILAN NASOALUK NAGEAK REXFORD WARDEN: This is very interesting. I never spoke sideways before. Anyway, I was -- I was culturally adopted by Mildred Akootchook and Herman Rexford, both deceased. I grew up on Kaktovik, on Barter Island, Alaska. We are so close to Canada, sometimes we have relatives in Canada. And we used to go -- actually go back and forth between the invisible line, our side of Alaska and the other side, Canada. But we never had lines when we are growing up. I was growing up, we could go anywhere without any paperwork. We just had to let the dogs go.
My grandparents were Susie and Andrew Akootchook. Susie was the sister of Paul Akudak [ph]. Some of you may know that name. And Oolawak [ph]. [indiscernible] Oolawak was her brother, as well.
Like I said, my grandparents were Susie and Andrew Akootchook who settled on Barter Island and also on Arey Island just north of Barter Island. Arey Island is a long stretch of sand which was used also as a base for making salt. Salt, S-A-L-T. The family would pick the clear ice and set them up to drip the salt off the clear ice.
I once watched a movie about Ghandi and watched them make salt just as our ancestors did on our island and sand spit on the ocean. We not only use the ocean for the animals, like hunting them, but also we used it to make salt.
On the west end of the island -- that would be towards Barrow -- we fished with nets, as well, both for the trout and (Inupiaq word), the whitefish. I'm not sure -- I forget what the -- what you would call it. It's a different kind of fish. Good fish.
The island is also a nesting area for all the species of birds which we also gathered for food. A aahaliq -- I always forget the English name for aahaliq. It's a black and white bird which we call in Inupiaq aahaliq.
MR. DAVID BATTS: If you could please wrap up, we need to move on. If you could please wrap up, we need to move on, too.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE SPEAKER: I'll give her my time.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE SPEAKER: Yeah, respect the elder, man.
MS. MARYANN IQILAN NASUALUK NAGEAK REXFORD WARDEN: I'll get rid of -- I'll just do the last page here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE SPEAKER: No. Say your whole thing.
THE WITNESS: I'll speak as fast as I can. Okay?
MR. DAVID BATTS: That's fine.
MS. MARYANN IQILAN NASUALUK NAGEAK REXFORD WARDEN: I'm sorry. (Speaking in Inupiaq.) Because they were named for the noisy noise they made aah, aah, then aahaliq means noise. Aah, aah, aahaliq. Aah, aah, aahaliq. Maybe some of you have the same name for them, but I don't know. We also have other species of edible fowl: geese, swans and many kinds of birds. Some we cannot hunt as children. You see, we also killed the small brown birds for our elders since the smaller birds have softer meat.
We used to have more elders living in our land in our village, but nowadays most of our elders no longer live long or live in the villages. We still take care of our elders, but they are -- there are facilities for them to live in and be cared for as a group. But if they still have family, they are cared for by them.
We as a village also living by the Brooks Range to the south, we also have access to the Dall sheep, which is a delicacy for Christmas and Thanksgiving feasts we have as a village. Thanksgiving, Christmas, 4th of July and whaling season events.
I am supposing that many of you have families that get together for the holidays. On our island, we get together as a family when we first settled on Barter Island, Kaktovik. We were out somewhere, and when we came back, we smelled the diesel, and we went by it. They had already started dipping the diesel into many empty drums. The diesel came from the camp, the Air Force camp that was built on an island. They built it. They just built it. I don't think there was anybody to make any -- any -- any say on it.
The spill was bad. It was bad. And the spill came from the camp, the Air Force camp. When we came -- come to the island, the first thing we smelled is the land, but when we came in, we smelled the diesel, and it was biting into our nose and eyes. It was bad. That was the Air Force.
The Air Force when -- and Russia was alive when everybody was thinking that USA was going to be in war.
We always made something good out of something disastrous. We dipped our drums to clean it up. That's the side of the island where we could set our nets for the cisco, the fish, and where the ducks came around. And that's where the whale would come, too.
It's hard to lose a way of life when the English came. That's what we called them. Or the white man. Some of those people were not very nice to our men. Inupiaq men. And we are not -- we were not -- we are not -- we will not be violent.
There was a man who kept bugging my dad, and he -the only violence my dad did to him was he took his hat off and he banged his -- the top of his head. That's all he could come up with for that man to treat him like that.
And I'm not sure if you will have another -- another chance to hear somebody talk about how it was in my village. So I didn't put down too much in here, but I would invite you, if you have any questions, to raise your arm and I can try and answer.
We did -- we did have education. We had English. We had to learn English. Anybody that came to our village didn't have to learn our language, but we learned English. And that became our language. Writing -- and we learned how to write. We learned how to argue. We learned how to argue with the ones that came and spoke of -- we spoke their language and we were able to answer back at them, even though we were taught not to answer back at people older than us.
There were -- the ones that could speak English were us, the younger ones. And if somebody need it, my mom would always want to know what they say. What did they say? Sometimes it was very hard to translate what you say in English. What you say in English, sometimes it's really hard to translate to Inupiaq because in Inupiaq we have soft language. It's not -- it's not harsh.
You have to respect -- you have to respect. And so we -- I don't have my -- I don't have much to say anymore, but we did -- we did learn English. We went to -- I went to high school in Sitka, and after that I went to the University of Alaska in Fairbanks. And then after that I went to the Dubuque seminary school.
So I have all the -- I have all the degrees that any of you may be able to get yourself. But my parents were proud I could do it. And I was thankful -- I was thankful to the people that helped me achieve my highest -- the highest I could go. I did not want to try for the Ph.D. I'd rather live than get another degree.
So I praise any of you who I -- it's not is struggle. It's something you can achieve, even if you have to struggle for it. Even if you had to struggle for it, you can do it. You can do it. Okay. If you have any questions -
MR. DAVID BATTS: Thank you very much. That was very interesting. Okay. We're going to go over to speaker No. 25.
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