Alaska

Oil Companies Pull Out Of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

June 6, 2022 Olivia Rosane, EcoWatch. Educate! Alaska, Environment, Oil and Gas

Drilling in the refuge has long been a controversial issue, as the 19.5-million-acre wilderness area is home to 45 species of mammals including polar bears, bowhead whales and caribou and considered sacred by the Indigenous Gwich’in people, according to the Gwich’in Steering Committee. “These exits clearly demonstrate that international companies recognize what we have known all along: drilling in the Arctic Refuge is not worth the economic risk and liability that results from development on sacred lands without the consent of Indigenous Peoples,” the Gwich’in Steering Committee said in a statement. The Anchorage Daily News first reported Thursday that the oil company Regenerate Alaska, a subsidiary of 88 Energy, had canceled its lease on the refuge’s coastal plain, as confirmed by the Bureau of Land Management.

Indigenous Organizers In Alaska Lead The Way Toward Livable Climate Future

June 1, 2022 C. J. Polychroniou, Truthout. Create! Alaska, climate crisis, Green New Deal, Indigenous Peoples

In the United States, the public and politicians are moving in opposite directions on climate change. Grassroots environmental activism is spreading on the local state, regional and national levels, while Congress generally continues with a “business-as-usual” approach, rejecting the foremost way to avoid the worst consequences of global warming: the Green New Deal. While the Green New Deal remains aspirational in the U.S., it has been adopted by the European Union, and scores of countries around the world have committed to pursuing its goals. Among the many organizations in the U.S. fighting for environmental sustainability and a just transition toward clean, renewable energy is Native Movement, an organization dedicated to building people power for transformative change and imagining a world without fossil fuels.

Land Exchange For Alaska Native Veterans

May 15, 2021 Becky Bohrer, Associated Press. Create! Alaska, Indigenous Rights, Land Reform, Veterans

Juneau, AL - Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy on Wednesday proposed letting Alaska Native Vietnam War veterans exchange promised federal land allotments that many say are not available in their cultural regions for state lands. Details would need to be worked out through the legislative process, with lawmakers eyeing adjournment in about two weeks. Several legislators attended Wednesday’s announcement, along with Alaska Native veterans. Dunleavy said he sees this as an opportunity to “right a wrong” the federal government should have addressed long ago. “We’re going to help them get land as close as possible to where they grew up or where they hunted or where they berry picked, especially where they want their families to take part,” the Republican governor said.

Community-Focused Gardening Takes Root In Alaska

June 18, 2020 Meghan Sullivan, Indian Country Today. Create! Agriculture, Alaska, Communty gardens, Indigenous foods

Alaska is cold. With temperatures below freezing from October to April, it has some of the longest winters in the country. And the terrain can be challenging: rocky islands with scant soil. Tundra — soggy on top and frozen a foot down. On the other hand, summer days are long. In the land of the midnight sun, the sun doesn’t set for weeks, making gardening in Alaska a unique experience. With greenhouses to get an early start and raised beds to warm the soil, Alaskans are able to plant flourishing gardens and raise record-breaking vegetables despite the obstacles. At the start of the growing season in May, the Alaska Native Media Group launched the Garden and Gather initiative, to encourage Alaska Natives to practice local gardening, and to empower them to share their planting stories.

Alaska Legislation Would Finally Recognize The Existence Of Tribes

February 17, 2020 Joaqlin Estus, Newsmaven.io Create! Alaska, Indigenous Peoples, Reform

‘This bill is simply honoring and recognizing our Alaska people that have been here since time immemorial, an ancient people with an ancient past, a proud people’ A bill before the Alaska House Tribal Affairs Committee is simple: "The state recognizes all tribes in the state that are federally recognized ..." The legislation gets more complicated after that line.

Alaska Becomes First State To Allow Public Use Establishments

February 1, 2020 Staff, Norml.org Create! Alaska, Marijuana

Juneau, AK: Officials with the Alaska's Marijuana Control Board have issued their first-ever permits to retailers who wish to allow customers to consume cannabis on the premises. While a handful of cities in other states — such as West Hollywood, California and Springfield, Illinois — have similarly issued municipal licenses to allow for on-site cannabis consumption, Alaska is the first jurisdiction to provide state approval for such facilities.

Young Indigenous Activists Lead Climate Justice Action In Alaska

December 27, 2019 Tripp J Crouse, Hcn.org Resist! Alaska, Climate Change, Youth Activism

“We do not want to stop our ways of life. That’s why we’re here.” Seventeen-year-old Quannah Chasing Horse’s voice broke as she stood on stage in front of a sea of delegates at the Alaska Federation of Natives 2019 Convention in Fairbanks, Alaska. “We shouldn’t have to tell people in charge that we want to survive. It should be our number-one right. We should not have to fight for this.” In October, at one of the largest gatherings of Indigenous people in the U.S., the Hans Gwich’in and Lakota Sioux teenager stood with 15-year-old Nanieezh Peter (Neetsaii Gwich’in and Diné)...

Tlingit Carvers Create ‘Shaming Totem’ Of Trump And Alaska Governor Dunleavy

September 2, 2019 By Frank Hopper, Newsmaven.io Resist! Alaska, Electoral Politics, Trump Administration

The pole supports the effort to recall Dunleavy, who would rather balance the state budget by cutting benefits to the poor than reduce a tax credit to big oil companies. Did the Tlingit “shaming” totem pole featuring images of President Trump and Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy cause the governor to restore most of the nearly half a billion dollars he cut from the state budget? Well, it didn’t hurt. The 11-and-a-half foot red cedar pole arrived in the state capital of Juneau from where it was carved in Sitka just in time for the kickoff of the Recall Dunleavy signature drive on August 1.

Congress Opens Alaska Wildlife Refuge To Drilling, But Roadblocks Remain

December 22, 2017 Sabrina Shankman, insideclimatenews.org Resist! Alaska, Arctic drilling, Congress

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge could soon be open to drilling, thanks to the tax bill passed by Congress this week, but one key question remains: Once oil companies can drill in the refuge, will they jump at the chance? A provision tucked into the Republican tax overhaul calls for opening the refuge's coastal plain, a 1.5 million acre stretch of land that did not share the refuge's protected status. Republicans have fought for decades to allow drilling there. But those hoping that oil companies will flock to the refuge—and that revenues raised can help offset some of the deficit created by the tax bill—might be sorely disappointed, said Bud Coote, a senior fellow with the Atlantic Council's Global Energy Center.

Alaska Climate Impact: Collapsing Mountains, Shattered Lives

August 6, 2016 Dahr Jamail, www.truth-out.org Educate! Alaska, Climate Change

By Dahr Jamail for Truthout - The impacts of anthropogenic climate disruption (ACD) across Alaska are devastating to witness. In late June, due to glaciers melting at unprecedented rates, the side of a mountain nearly a mile high in Alaska's Glacier Bay National Park, which had formerly been supported by glacial ice, collapsed completely. The landslide released over 100 million tons of rock, sending debris miles across a glacier beneath what was left of the mountain.

Dahr Jamail | Alaskans Witness Collapsing Mountains, Shattered Lives

August 3, 2016 Dahr Jamail, www.truth-out.org Educate! Alaska, Climate Change

Alaska First State To Rename Columbus Day, Indigenous Peoples’ Day

October 14, 2015 Staff, www.indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com Create! Alaska, Indigenous Peoples

By Staff of ICTMN - This October 12 was momentous in Alaska, both Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz and Alaska Gov. Bill Walker signed proclamations declaring the second Monday of October to be Indigenous Peoples’ Day. The state is the first to rename the federal holiday, but joins a number of other cities that have done so, including Portland, Oregon and Albuquerque, New Mexico this year. “The more we can do to strengthen the ties between the communities that make up Anchorage and makeup Alaska, the better,” Berkowitz told Alaska Dispatch News.

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