Houston-Area Indigenous Leaders Stand With Gwich’in Nation to Deliver 100,000 Letters Opposing Arctic Drilling to SAExploration

Houston, TX -- This morning, a group of local Indigenous leaders joined representatives from the Gwich’in Steering Committee for an in-person delivery of more than 100,000 letters from across the country to SAExploration’s Houston office urging the company to stay out of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. SAExploration is the only company that has applied to do destructive seismic exploration in the refuge’s coastal plain, with plans to begin as soon as next month.

View photos from today’s event here (photo credit: Keri Oberly) and livestream here.

One of the world’s last intact ecosystems, the Arctic Refuge is one of the few places in the United States that has never been developed or industrialized. Seismic exploration in the coastal plain -- considered the biological heart of the Arctic Refuge and sacred to the Gwich’in people -- would bring industrial vehicles and equipment to this sensitive and pristine area, threatening wildlife including denning mother and baby polar bears, and leaving permanent scars on the landscape.

More than 250,000 people have sent emails and called SAExploration’s offices and executive board, including CEO Jeff Hastings. The company has not responded or made any acknowledgement of the public’s concerns about the damage seismic testing would do to the Arctic Refuge.

“SAExploration has failed to respond to any of the hundreds of thousands of messages from people around the country standing with the Gwich’in in defense of the Arctic Refuge, so we’re here today in person to make sure Jeff Hastings and his team hear our message loud and clear,” said Bernadette Demientieff, Executive Director of the Gwich’in Steering Committee. “The coastal plain is sacred to the Gwich’in people and critical to our food security and way of life. It is no place for heavy machinery and destructive seismic testing. We will not back down until this sacred place is protected.”

“People need to understand that what happens to our Gwich’in relatives and the Arctic wildlife in Alaska affect us all throughout the world,” said Frankie Orona, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Society of Native Nations. “Their very way of life, culture, air, water, and land is in danger by the drilling taking place in the sacred coastal plains. This attack on their community is an attack on all future generations and is why we must stand together in solidarity to help protect the future so that our children don’t only survive but thrive.”

“Houston has to connect Hurricane Harvey’s unprecedented amounts of rain with a rapidly changing climate. Continued fossil fuel expansion, even if it is done thousands of miles away, puts us all at risk from future climate disasters,” said Sierra Club Gulf Coast Organizer Bryan Parras. “It is irresponsible to engage in deliberate destruction of our last protected areas. The Gwich’in and Indigenous peoples of Alaska are also being affected and seeing their climate heat up at twice the rate as the rest of the planet. We must all stand together to protect those last sacred places that remain.”

In spite of the partial government shutdown, the Trump administration is rushing forward with plans to open the Arctic Refuge for drilling, but the proposal faces enormous public opposition. In addition to the calls and letters sent to SAExploration, hundreds of thousands more have weighed in with the administration calling for protection for the Arctic Refuge. The financial sector is also taking notice -- just this morning, multinational investment bank Barclays announced a new policy that rejects financing for drilling or exploration in the Arctic Refuge.