North Slope Borough Mayor George N. Ahmaogak(Editor's Note: Below are remarks given before the Arctic Power Annual Meeting. Arctic Power is the sponsor of anwr.org.) November 15, 2000
Down the street from here at the Anchorage Museum of History and Art, they're putting on a show this evening entitled Caribou Commons: Images and Sounds from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Word has it that some of the sounds they're using are the sounds of Native people. Something tells me this speech won't be among those sounds. I want to speak this evening about our situation as Native people in the new millennium, and I can assure you that my words don't belong in a museum. I have to wonder why they are always trying to put us in museums. Why is it assumed that Native people cannot benefit from the development of their homeland and still remain Native? This reminds me of a documentary about Inupiat whaling that was done many years ago. The film gave a pretty fair picture of the spiritual, cultural and nutritional importance of whaling to the Eskimo people of northern Alaska. But when the antiwhaling interests saw it, they criticized it because it showed whalers in their camps on the ice, eating subsistence foods from paper plates I guess they figured that real Eskimos don't use paper plates. That was news to us! There are people who see ANWR as a pristine wilderness, unmarked by human influence. They call its landscape vast and empty. They make brief visits along the coastal plain, and they go home in awe of its raw beauty and power. They make museum shows about it, and they label it untouchable. That is their vision of our homeland. I have a different vision of ANWR. It is a vision of a land that is neither untouched nor untouchable. The ANWR I want you to see is not a vast frozen wilderness to be either conquered or abandoned. It is our home, and we are part of it. We belong there just as much as the caribou and the fish and the birds. We are the Inupiat, and ANWR lies entirely within our domain, entirely under the jurisdiction of the North Slope Borough, the home rule government which we created. As Mayor of the North Slope Borough, I am here to tell you that whatever happens within ANWR affects us first. We are the stewards of that land, and if we support a development plan, you can be sure that we will have examined it and found it to be sound. Our lives and our livelihood depend on it. I can tell you, too, that we knew this land they call ANWR before it had an English name. It holds the remains of our ancestors, just as it holds the future of our children. Our great great grandfathers enjoyed its beauty and its bounty, and with careful development, our great great grandchildren will do the same. Don't misunderstand me. We are well aware of environmental concerns surrounding development in the Arctic. We live in constant awareness of these concerns. In fact, we formed the North Slope Borough as a tool to allow us to address these concerns in the course of development. Believe me, we were scared about what Prudhoe Bay development might do to our land and our lifestyle. Our fears turned out to be largely unfounded, but they were valid nonetheless. They kept us vigilant. They forced us to demand a seat at the planning table. They inspired us to speak loudly and firmly, and to insist that development proceed respectfully, in a manner compatible with our lifestyle. We succeeded in protecting our interests at Prudhoe Bay, and we will succeed in ANWR as well. We have no choice. It has not always been easy for us. We've had our battles. We fought for the right to form our own regional govenment and to enforce our own planning ordinances. But our culture places a high value on cooperation, and we learned how to develop a sense of partnership with the industry. That mutual respect and willingness to work together has strengthened over the years. I think we have been a pretty good partner, especially when you consider the cultural gulf that has sometimes separated us. I hope those of you in the industry will remember the sense of partnership that we have shared, and I hope you will continue to build on this relationship with us. I mention this because I was just elected Chairman of the Alaska Gasline Port Authority. As you probably know, the Port Authority is a consortium formed by the three municipalities along the route of the oil pipeline. We joined together because we want to encourage gasline development in the oil pipeline corridor. We believe that the Port Authority offers some substantial tax and financing benefits to the producers. It also offers a method for spinning off an annual payment to Alaskan municipalities all over the state. We think the Port Authority might be a very good mechanism for bringing all Alaskans together with the producers for the best possible pipeline project. Whether or not the Port Authority is the ultimate sponsor of a gasline, I think we incorporate some of the best elements of a gas pipeline plan that benefits Alaskans. These include a route that goes south through Fairbanks; provision for in-state uses of gas; jobs for Alaskans; and a stake in the project that extends to as many Alaskans as possible. During my term as Chairman, I plan to promote these features as much as I can. Getting back to ANWR, there is one other aspect of the ongoing political battle that really bothers me. When the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act extinguished our land claims in exchange for title to certain lands within our traditional territory, we lived up to our part of that deal. We ended our claims to ownership of all the land. But after the federal government conveyed title to our lands under ANCSA, it turned around and passed laws that prevented us from doing anything with those lands. I'm talking about our Arctic Slope lands within ANWR. We are not allowed to use this property now that we have title to it. What kind of a deal is that? I know that everyone in this room has more than one ANWR gripe with the government, but I did want to share that one with you. While our perspective on ANWR issues may differ from yours in certain ways, we do have a whole lot in common. Like you, we have watched the technology of oil development improve over the years. We know that ANWR development can be done much less intrusively than when Prudhoe Bay was developed. We know that the nation needs the oil, the state needs the revenues, and Alaskans need the jobs. In short, we know that ANWR holds resources that can be safely extracted without destruction to the ecosystem. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the bottom line. In closing, I thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak with you today. Together we will make sure that the truth is heard.
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Good
evening. I am George Nasuayaaq Ahmaogak, Mayor of the North Slope
Borough, and I'm honored to be here with you today. I'm also happy
to see that Arctic Power continues to perform a valuable public
service for the people of this state by educating the policy-makers
and opinion-makers about the real issues surrounding the development
of ANWR, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.