In the Energy Source newsletter, “Will Trump unleash Alaska’s oil and gas?” (FT.com, February 13), Alexandra White overlooks the most important voice in the national conversation about energy and resource development policy in Alaska: the Indigenous communities whose lands, local economies, and traditions will be most impacted by federal policies. As a result, many Americans do not understand that as Alaska’s North Slope Iñupiat we support an economic development process of frequent consultations and engagements with elected leaders about our land.
The North Slope Iñupiat have stewarded their land that now includes the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A) and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) homelands, for over 10,000 years. Today, four of our eight communities are the only villages located in the NPR-A and one, Kaktovik, is the sole village within ANWR’s 19mn-acre expanse. Just like our ancestors, we use our lands to sustain our communities and culture, and we understand them better than anyone. Yet our voices and self-determination are frequently overlooked by those with no connection to our lands or people.
This omission can generate significant real-world consequences
for the North Slope Iñupiat. More than 95 per cent of our region’s tax base is derived from the taxation of resource development infrastructure — not output — and is used to fund essential modern services. This includes amenities that are ubiquitous to the “Lower 48” — as the contiguous US is called — but have only recently arrived on the North Slope, including modern water and sewer systems, schools, health clinics, and wildlife research and management departments to preserve our subsistence resources for future generations.
The impact of these services has been profound. In 1969, our average life expectancy was just 34 years. Today, we can expect to live to an average of 77 years. This is one of the largest increases of its kind in the US and is due in large part to the economic benefits of development projects in our region.
President Trump’s executive order to “unleash” energy production on the North Slope is a positive step in the right direction. However, it is important that the administration works collaboratively with the North Slope Iñupiat to build durable policy solutions providing long-term stability for our economy, communities and culture. The only way to achieve this
is by listening to our Indigenous voices, by including us at the policymaking table, and unleashing our Iñupiaq self-determination in our homelands.
Nagruk Harcharek
President of the Voice of Arctic Iñupiat,
Anchorage, AK, US