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[Moderator: Nellie Moore] We’ve touched a little bit on the pipeline and the significance of that.
Brenda, since you’re from the Arctic Slope area,
talk a little about how it was working with state during the time of the oil exploration,
the discovery that there was a huge find on the Slope,
and how that changed, impacted the negotiations for ANCSA.
[Brenda Ita Lee] I think when Prudhoe Bay was first discovered,
remember that Prudhoe Bay lies in the ancient boundaries that I described earlier,
it was right next door to our villages.
We hunted our caribou there,
we hunted for eider duck geese,
trapped for foxes, bears, and that sort of thing.
So, Prudhoe Bay from our traditional perspective, we owned that land.
We own that land.
And I think the state of Alaska had claim to that land before the Land Claims was settled.
And the federal government had claimed title to lands within our ancient boundaries
before the Land Claims was settled.
And that posed a very serious conflict
among our Inupiat people when Prudhoe Bay was discovered.
There was many strange people that started coming into our lands,
[laughter from audience], strange from our traditional perspective.
It was the Western American way of life.
But keep in mind, we did not have electricity at the time,
we did not have natural gas or cars when I was growing up.
Our main mode of transportation was by dog team.
So when I say that strange people were coming,
I really mean it because we were so isolated
until Prudhoe Bay was discovered.
And we did not know the oil industry,
it seemed that the state government
and the federal government as well as the oil industry,
it seemed they had very little regard for us
and yet, we had lived there for thousands and thousands of years.
Many of our people were gripped with fear
and concern about what’s going to happen to our land and our caribou?
It was a fear of the unknown because we did not this world that was coming into our land.
And yet, it was receiving a lot of publicity in the newspapers.
It was the largest oil discovery in the United States, right in our lands,
our ancient lands.
So when we heard about it, the news was quite overwhelming.
So in the meantime, there was the Land Claims issue going on.
And shortly after that,
another really big item we heard about,
the oil industry wanted to build the trans-Alaska pipeline
to take the oil from our traditional lands across,
I believe, 4 regions throughout the state – Arctic Slope, Atna, Doyon, and one other region.
So we were joined by those regions and they shared the same kind of concern we had
because it crossed our ancient boundaries.
So anyway,
I think the discovery of Prudhoe Bay and at that time,
the proposal of the Alyeska Pipeline had horrendous,
it was a huge negotiation tool
for all of Alaska
because the Land Claims had not been settled.
And they needed to settle that before taking any more of our lands.
So from our perspective,
the federal government and the state of Alaska at that time, had taken so much of our lands
before the Settlement
and we did not know that until all these conflicts started occurring –
about how are all these develop activities going to affect our subsistence,
that’s the only food we have.
So I think there were a lot of,
I appreciate very much,
the united voice of our Alaska Native people when
that came to the table as Francoise said
and yesterday Marlene made reference to.
That really unified our, and strengthened our position
to settle the Land Claims.
[Moderator: Nellie Moore] It also was a source of revenue for the North Slope Borough.
[Brenda Ita Lee] Yes, and I’m glad you mentioned the North Slope Borough
because right after the Land Claims was passed,
I’m so grateful to people like Evan Hopson
who used to work for Governor Egan as special assistant and he also served on the legislature.
And one of very few from his generation
who mastered the English and the Inupiaq language
and also really got to know the Western American way of life.
So right after the Land Claims,
he and Joe, Eddie Hopson, and others from our villages
had the foresight to establish a first class home world North Slope Borough
that granted us residence of the North Slope
the state powers to planning and zoning
and that in turn gave us the power to issue permits
to oil industry who wanted to develop our lands.
Before developing any kind of lands, they had to get permits from us too
along with the state of Alaska.
So many of the permits that were issued by the North Slope Borough were conditional.
And some the conditions were that the oil industry had to stop their activities
during the spawning of the fish
or the migration of the caribou.
And our people had very intelligent knowledge as to when those seasons were to occur
and how they were to be protected.
So the state of Alaska also utilized our resources
and the knowledge that we had when they issued permits.
We began to have establish a dialogue with the state and federal government.
We also began some relationships and dialogue with the oil industry.
And they assumed a very serious responsibility to regard us.
And they developed a very healthy respect
but it was a long time to educate them about our way of life.
[Moderator: Nellie Moore] It seems like it would have been a hard road
because you’re talking about dealing with executives of an oil company
who’s responsibility is a dividend and profit.
And here’s these crazy native people saying
“you can’t drill when the fish are spawning.”
How did they react to that at first? I mean it must have been really weird for them?
[Brenda Ita Lee] I was really thankful to God that the state of Alaska granted us
a home borough and gave us North Slope Borough to be able to issue the permit.
They had to listen to us because we were granted and empowered by the state law to listen us.
I know that it was very difficult
for the oil industry
to hear our side of the story because we were a very strange culture to them.
And they were very strange to us. [Some chuckling]
So it took a long time to get to know each other.
I am so proud of Evan Hopson and other leaders,
Oliver Levit, Jacob Adams, they were on the North Slope Borough Assembly for many years
and they would say, as a joke,
“you know we have to learn the white man’s tools,” and we did that.
[Moderator: Nellie Moore] In the Southcentral area, Agnes,
how difficult was it to keep Native people working together?
Or was it an easy process?
It seems like there were people who had different ideas about how ANCSA should go?
You know in some cases some villages hadn’t worked with others before.
Was it a hard process?
[Agnes Brown] Truthfully no.
While many of our villages were certainly not urban,
they had a flow with the seasons
and shared, there was a lot of sharing,
sharing of food resources and sharing when there were outside threats
they would come together and work well together.
It was not unheard of if there was a potential problem,
it was not unheard of mass groups to travel by foot in winter
to a multi-day Potlatch to discuss the issues.
And it worked.
And it happened.
People worked well together
during the good times and often times during the bad times.
But it was an incredible feeling that people trusted and shared
and I can’t remember any selfish times.
And as our
outreach expanded to other parts of Alaska it was all the same.
The giving was the same.
It was just phenomenal.