FAIRBANKS (Sputnik) — Alaska's natives, including in the remote Arctic Village, will not stop their decades-long fight against oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), Gilbet stated.
"We have been fighting against oil drilling for more than 30 years," Gilbert, who lives in the village on the edge of ANWR, said. "It is scary what the new [US] leader is going to do, but that does not mean we are going to give up, but we are going to keep fighting against it."
Gilbert explained that the natives there really depend on the wildlife, which can be significantly impacted by drilling.
The traditional chief pointed out that specifically oil drilling will affect caribou. He noted that the area is a currently breeding ground for them.
"Some 200,000 porcupine caribou herds are using that area for breeding ground. If drilling is taking place, we might just lose that breeding place," he said. "Also birds. We are getting less and less birds."
Moreover, the elder noted that native people are very healthy people, but recently because of the ongoing activity in the region more and more die to cancer and other diseases.
The debate on drilling in the ANWR has been ongoing for many years. Former US President Barack Obama repeatedly called on the Congress to designate some 12 million acre section of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as wilderness that cannot be developed.
The US Obama administration’s proposal to designate 12 million acres in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) as protected wilderness area was characterized as an attack on the state of Alaska by US Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan.
