Only a couple weeks later, I found myself back in Kate Simson Norfleet’s office, this time with Glen Brand, the Sierra Club Maine Chapter director, and Miho Aida, an environmental activist and filmmaker who directed the documentary “The Sacred Place Where Life Beings: Gwich’in Women Speak”. Miho toured Maine by bike, a journey that the Sierra Club co-sponsored, stopping in Portland, Bar Harbor, Wells, and Damariscotta to speak on behalf of the Gwich’in people and show her film. The documentary details the Gwich’in people’s sacred connection to the caribou herds that use the coastal plains of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as calving grounds. With drilling in ANWR under review, the culture and way of life of the Gwich’in people is threatened. All the Arctic indigenous people ask is for their sacred place to be protected; this is the place where the caribou that feed and clothe them are born. They believe that the caribou will take care of the as long as they take care of the caribou.
Senator Collins sponsored an Arctic Wilderness bill in the past. S.820, the bill to prohibit oil drilling in ANWR is a bipartisan bill, but has no Republican co-sponsor yet. Miho suggested that Senator Collins could leave a legacy by being the first Republican to co-sponsor the bill. While Kate made it clear that Senator Collins is working closely with Senator Murkowski of Alaska on environmental issues, she failed to cite any specifics, and we know that Senator Murkowski is supportive of oil drilling. Many Alaskans still rely on revenue from the oil industry. Senator Collins has a very close working relationship with Senator Murkowski. It is unclear whether she will deviate from Senator Murkowski’s position on this issue.
However, the fact remains that we and the Gwich’in people want no drilling on the coastal plain of ANWR, and Congress is the only group of people who can choose to protect it. What we ask is, why a wildlife refuge? Why this coastal plain that is so integral to the way of life of an entire people? At best, the coastal plains of ANWR are going to supply six months of oil. Is a mere six months really worth the ecological and cultural devastation that would result from that drilling? I think not.
Maine and Alaska are alike in their indigenous presence; Native Americans are spoken of in the present tense, rather than the past, because indigenous ways of life are still prevalent in both states. Additionally, Maine and Alaska share a passion for environmental stewardship. By engaging community and ecology at the same time with the help of Senator Collins, Mainers and Alaskans can work together to protect and preserve the Arctic environment and the Gwich’in way of life.
- Hannah Marr