Like former Gov. Sarah Palin, Sarah James, of tiny Arctic Village, is outspoken about oil and gas development in Alaska.
But while Palin calls drilling an answer to the nation's energy needs, James calls it an affront.
An elder of the Gwich'in Nation, James won the Goldman Environmental Prize for extraordinary grass roots leadership on environmental issues. She and other Alaska Natives were in Washington this week to lobby against drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and on offshore sites in Alaska.
James said drilling for oil threatens the birth place of the porcupine caribou, a sacred figure to the Gwich'in people.
"We are caribou people. It's our clothing, our story, our song, our dance and our food. That's who we are. If you drill for oil here, you are drilling right into the heart of our existence," James said.
Her village of about 150 people is among the first to be experiencing the devastation of global warming, James said, calling climate change a human rights issue.
James and five other activists - including two from Canada - were in Washington on a trip organized by the Alaska Wilderness League.
The group met with several high-ranking officials from the Obama administration - including Assistant Interior Secretary Tom Strickland and Larry Echohawk, head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs - as well as members of the Alaska delegation and a staffer for the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.
Emilie Surrusco, a spokeswoman for the Alaska Wilderness League, said the women made the 5,000 mile trip "to bring a face to the issues their communities are dealing with on a daily basis."
Mae Hank, an Inupiat Tribe member from Point Hope, Alaska, said she lives in fear of an oil spill that could devastate her community. "It would annihilate our culture," she said.
Palin has been critical of climate change legislation.
She has attacked the Obama administration's so-called cap-and-trade plan that would allow industrial sources to buy and sell pollution permits. Palin called it a threat to jobs that would undermine the economic recovery.
"We are ripe for economic growth and energy independence if we responsibly tap the resources that God created right underfoot on American soil. Just as important, we have more desire and ability to protect the environment than any foreign nation from which we purchase energy today," she wrote.
James, Hank and others on the trip said they came to the capital in part to show that prominent drilling supporters such as Palin do not speak for Alaska Natives.
To Palin's famous cry of "Drill, baby, drill," James said she had a ready reply: "Chill, baby, chill."
CAUSE OIL SPILLING IN SOUTH OF 48 STATES
Sarah shared wonderful stories about her love for the people and her homeland, she sang a song for the animals, which brought tear to my eyes.
I met this wonderful lady, who is one of our elders and we have very much respect for our elders.
I joked with her, like we natives do, that I needed a vacation to come and see Alaska, and she graciously invited me to visit her. With her sweet smile and the love she has for her people and homeland, as Native people we value what Creator has given us!!
Sarah James keep up the great work you are doing, your voice will be heard. We will stand behind you!!
Thank you Sarah for teaching me more about you and your Alaska Native people and land. I still have the Tundra tea, to remind me of you!
Thank you! Sophie Adison (UTAH)
Sevier School District-Indian Education Coord.
My prayers are that all of the people in Alaska can hear each other and speak from their hearts. All this cynical talk I read here - that is not from your heart, it is from somewhere else, a depleted place - but you are bigger than that. I have a great faith that some morning you will wake up and realize that whether you are Native or white, you have elders close by who are quiet but have a lot to say - but you will not hear them if you are talking sass or only listen to people on the radio. Your disrespect for elder women who live traditional lives speaks not about the women but of your lack of respect for yourself and for women who have given birth to the world.
In every group there are wise people and there are jerks. I encourage all those Alaskans who are not jerks to please speak up because the traditional people there have been asking for help for years.
The elders who are speaking here are important people. But other people, who speak in a variety of ways, need to speak up, too - or we are doomed to a future illuminated by ignorance.
Tribes from Alaska to the tip of south America are praying for this earth. The issues are serious and real and how we all deal with this - as people of the whole earth - is a reflection of our spiritual well being and our hearts. It is time to pray for us all. The world is blessed to have so many Alaskan grandmothers with strong voices and important life experiences.
The oil companies drill, and drill, and drill. They dole out measly PFD checks to keep the population quiet. Out of state workers fly in/out with their wealth and don't even pay income tax.
Our darling Alaska legislature can't figure out "why" we Alaskans pay the highest in gasoline. Oh right, because we Alaskans are NOT a priority.
Exxon can't even reimburse the state for Exxon's oil spill.
Take a hike petroleum co.s.
What are you going to do, when the oil runs dry? >move on.
Arctic Village and Venetie were interested in oil exploration in their immediate vicinity in the 1970's. They are honest people unfortunately vulnerable to sophisticated political manipulation, but ultimately people of common sense. You can bet that the 1970's interest would revive in an instant if their current source of funds was cut off. Interesting that no Eskimos from the north slope went along to D.C. (they seem to adapt well to the royalties provided by the drill-baby-drill approach). Here's a related item that was just forwarded. (By the way, Matt, for a little more in-depth reporting, just what devastation from global warming is Arctic Village experiencing?)
_________
Does anybody remember the reason given for the establishment of the DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY--during the Carter Administration?
Bottom line: We've spent several hundred billion dollars in support of an agency...the reason for which not one person who reads this is likely to remember! It was simple, and at the time everybody thought it very appropriate.
The Department of Energy was instituted on 8-04-1977 TO LESSEN OUR DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN OIL.
AND NOW IT'S 2009 -- 32 YEARS LATER -- AND THE BUDGET FOR THIS "NECESSARY" DEPARTMENT IS AT $24.2 BILLION A YEAR. THEY HAVE 16,000 FEDERAL EMPLOYEES AND APPROXIMATELY 100,000 CONTRACT EMPLOYEES.
LOOK AT THE JOB THEY HAVE DONE!
So, God created oil so we could ravage and poison His Creation with it? I don't think so! To believe that America has a desire to protect the environment is delusional at the very least. The lower 48 states can't even eat the fish in their rivers and streams because of the mercury, and mountaintop coal mining is destroying the Appalachians, just to mention two examples of America's "desire to protect the environment." Oh yeah, and there was that little spill 20 years ago that killed Prince William Sound. Has she forgotten that one?
We need to legalize industrial hemp and grow clean fuel so we don't keep killing the planet with petrol. We also need to spend part of the Permanent Fund to start some algae "farms" and start producing fuel locally. Now THAT would create jobs and put clean energy into the hands of the people. http://www.oilgae.com/ We need cleaner sources of energy NOW, and the two I mentioned are good places to start. "Grow-Baby-Grow!"