An alliance of grass-roots native activists came together during the fifth annual Alaska Forum on the Environment to launch REDOIL (Resisting Environmental Devastation On Indigenous Lands), a network of grassroots Indigenous activists in Alaska confronting oil and gas exploration. The network vociferously condemned extractive industries and the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANSCA), asserting their mission for the active unification and empowerment of all indigenous peoples and working to ensure the health and well-being of their people and Mother Earth.
"This violates our inherent sovereign rights as indigenous peoples to retain our lands, our cultures and our spirituality. We will not sacrifice the birthright of our future generations for short-term economic gain that will have long-term devastation on our peoples," said Faith Gemmill, Gwich'in leader and REDOIL member.
During the four-day Forum in Anchorage beginning on February 10, the group held a press conference. Chief Evon Peter, of Arctic Village, amplified the group's mission at the press conference, speaking out against the Settlement Act and citing it as an "illegitimate piece of legislation to gain access to Native lands."
Formed in June of 2002, the alliance includes Alaska Natives of the Athabascan, Inupiat, Eyak, Yupik, Tlingit, and other peoples. They have allied to address aboriginal, economic and environment justice issues concerning the role of corporations, the state of Alaska and the federal government in oil and gas development.
The Group is committed to a moratorium of all new exploration for oil, gas and coal as a first step towards the full phase-out of fossil fuels, with a just transition to sustainable jobs, energy and environment.
Each member is committed to working for the inherent right to self-determination for all indigenous peoples. They reject the ANSCA, identifying it as an illegitimate infringement on indigenous peoples' right to sovereignty and self-determination.
Passed in 1971, ANSCA gave Alaska Natives title to 44 million acres and US$962 million to settle aboriginal land claims by creating thirteen for-profit corporations. ANCSA was the largest land claim settlement in U.S. history.
Oil companies, due to their interest in the Trans-Alaskan Pipelines System, lobbied hard for the passage of ANCSA, fearing that Native claims along the proposed route might prohibit the granting of a right of way.
Even Justice Thomas Berger, in a 1985 report of the Alaska Native Review Commission regarding the Act, said, "The imposition of a settlement of land claims that is based on corporate structures was an inappropriate choice. The village has lost its political and social autonomy."
"Our Indigenous peoples have a direct spiritual, cultural, intimate relationship to the natural world, and we suffer most immediately and directly from any adverse effects of imposed or existing unsustainable development projects. We are the stakeholders, and at the first point of impact, and we need to create a mechanism that would build alliances, empower, educate and unify our peoples to build solidarity in a positive way to effectively address the profound issues and concerns of the first nations of this land," said Gemill in her remarks in the opening ceremony of the network's launch.
The fifth annual Alaska Forum on the Environment began as a conference that focused exclusively on environmental concerns facing federal government facilities in Alaska. It has evolved to include more participants, becoming a forum for education and interaction among all forms of government agencies, non-profit organizations and the general public.
While the forum has more participants, it has many notorious sponsors, such as the US Army, US Department of Interior, US Environmental Protection Agency, British Petroleum Exploration (Alaska), Inc., Conoco Phillips, the Bureau of Land Management and- the most notorious- Bureau of Indian Affairs, amongst others.
SOURCES: "Native group wants to stop new searches for gas, oil," by Paula Dobbyn, Anchorage Daily News, February 13, 2003; "Village Journey: The Report of the Alaska Native Review Commission," New York, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, Berger, Justice T. R., 1985.
VITAL STATISTICS:
ALASKA OIL, MINING and the ENVIRONMENT
Alaska ranks number 4 of the most polluted states in the country, with over 535,000,000 pounds of toxic releases in the year 2000 alone. It's also the only state in the Pacific Northwest to make it into the top 20. This does not even include oil spills or other accidental hazardous waste discharges that occur often throughout the state. And one mine puts Alaska in the top 5-the Red Dog Mine, which reported having 450,000,000 pounds of toxic releases in 2000.
That's not all. The four biggest polluters in the state of Alaska are all mines. The Red Dog lead and zinc mine near Kotzebue, the Greens Creek silver/gold/zinc/lead mine near Juneau, the Fort Knox gold mine, and the Illinois Creek gold mine near Anchorage reported a total of 533,155,363 pounds of toxic releases in 2000.
In 2000, there were 1,543 oil spills in the state, as reported to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. Spills amounted to the release of 145,338 gallons of oil. This averages out to almost 30 oil spills every week, or 4 oil spills a day.
In 2001, one oil spill alone amounted to more than all the reported oil spills in 2000. In October 2001, the Trans-Alaska Pipeline (TAPS), the 800-mile system that goes from Prudhoe Bay to the port of Valdez, reported that 285,000 gallons were spilled as a result of a rifle bullet that pierced the pipeline. Oil sprayed out about 75 feet from the pipeline at about 120 gallons per minute for 36 hours.
According to a Jan 10, 2002 report by Lois N. Epstein, a senior engineer at Cook Inlet Keeper, there were 43 reported pipeline oil spills at Cook Inlet in 2001 (through Dec. 5). This is up from 14 reported oil spills in the area in 1996.
Alaska's oil and mining industries get a lot of help from people in high places. As a US Senator, Frank Murkowski pushed for oil drilling in Alaska, particularly opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to the oil industry. When Murkowski won the office of governor, he made sure he upheld that commitment to oil and mining, by appointing his own daughter, Lisa, to take his place in the US Senate. It's the first and only instance of a father directly appointing his child to the chamber, and a stark example of what a spokeswoman for the Democratic Party calls "nepotism"-favoritism based on family relationship.
SOURCES: EPA Toxic Release Inventory 2000; Alaska Dept. of Environmental Conservation Quarterly Report of Oil and Hazardous Substance Response January-December; Monitor Publishing 10/28/01; Cook Inlet Keeper Special Report "Lurking Below: Oil and Gas Pipeline Problems in the Cook Inlet Watershed" Sept. 2002; Washington Post 12/21/02
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COMMUNITY PIPELINE
CONTACTS:
For more information regarding REDOIL (Resisting Environmental Devastation On Indigenous Lands , contact:
Eyak Preservation Council P.O. 460 Cordova, Alaska 99574 TEL: +1-907-424-5890 FAX: +1-907-424-5891 EMAIL: eyak@redzone.org WEBSITE: http://www.redzone.org
Indigenous Mining Campaign Project Indigenous Environmental Network / Project Underground 1916A Martin Luther King Jr. Way Berkeley, California 94704 - USA TEL: + 1 510-705-8981, FAX: + 1 510-705-8983 EMAIL: clayton@moles.org WEBSITES: http://www.ienearth.org http://www.moles.org
For more information regarding gold mining in Ghana, contact:
Friends of the Earth- Ghana PMB GPO Accra Ghana West Africa TEL: 233-21-225-963 FAX: 233-21-227-993 EMAIL: foeghana@africaonline.com.gh
"International Right to Know: Empowering Communities Through Corporate Transparency."
This report, put out by a coalition of environmental, development, labor and human rights groups including Earth Rights International, describes the great need for full disclosure and accountability in the global economy. The report was delivered in Switzerland for the 33rd annual World Economic Forum in January 2003.
Access the report online at: http://www.earthrights.org/pubs/irtkreport.pdf
Human Rights Watch World Report 2002
The 558-page Human Rights Watch World Report 2003 covers human rights in 58 countries in 2002. This report is Human Rights Watch's thirteenth annual review of human rights practices around the globe. It addresses developments in fifty-eight countries, covering the period from November 2001 through November 2002 reflecting extensive investigative work undertaken by the Human Rights Watch research staff, usually in close partnership with human rights activists in the country in question.
To download a copy or to or a hard copy of this report on-line, visit Human Rights Watch on the web at:
350 Fifth Avenue, 34th floor New York, NY 10118-3299 USA TEL: +1-212-290-4700 FAX: +1-212-736-1300 EMAIL: hrwnyc@hrw.org http://www.hrw.org
PUBLICATIONS
First Round Series of Facts Sheets on Alaska
Released by the Indigenous Mining Campaigns Project (IMCP), this series of fact sheets, is the first round to come out regarding the extractive industries in Alaska. The IMCP is a project borne of a partnership between the Indigenous Environmental Network and Project Underground. This round of Thirteen Fact Sheets highlights the companies operating in Alaska that exploit the region's natural resources and general information regarding oil, gas and Alaska. The general fact sheet on Alaska can be found in the vital statistics section of this month's issue of Drillbits and Tailings.
The Facts Sheets will be available on-line soon at http://www.moles.org
For copies of the the fact sheet, contact:
Project Underground info@moles.org
*Disclaimer: Project Underground does not extensively review any of the resources published in Community Pipeline. We only pass on the information for our readers.
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