For Immediate Release - January 8, 2025
Fairbanks, AK – This week, the Biden Administration held the second legally mandated lease sale in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The Gwich’in Steering Committee celebrates that the Department of the Interior received no bids from oil companies or other entities in this sale. The Gwich’in Nation is united against any development or destruction of the Coastal Plain of the Arctic Refuge, and has been working tirelessly to protect it since 1988.
Today we celebrate the perseverance of our people in this fight to protect the Arctic Refuge. We also thank the allies who raised their voices to stand with us. We know that we are not alone: the majority of Americans support protecting the Coastal Plain of the Arctic Refuge; twenty-nine global banks now have a policy to decline underwriting oil and gas projects in the Refuge; and fourteen international insurers have also made such commitments, and the United Nations has three times sounded alarms about the harm and human rights violations to the Gwich’in from proposed oil and gas development in the sacred Coastal Plain.
A second failed lease sale in the Arctic Refuge also clearly demonstrates that even oil 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.
Long ago the Gwich’in followed vadzaih (caribou) to see where they went and to learn their ways. They led us to the Coastal Plain of what is now called Alaska. It was here that we exchanged half of our heart with half of the heart of vadzaih. In this way we became one and would always be connected. Iizhik Gwats’an Gwandaii Goodlit is the critical nursery grounds of the vadzaih, which are essential to the nutritional, cultural, and spiritual needs of the Gwich’in Nation. Our traditional knowledge tells us that if you develop in the nursery grounds of the caribou you destroy the caribou, and therefore, destroy the Gwich’in.
"Today – for the first time in many years – the Gwich’in people celebrate that there are no active threats to Iizhik Gwats’an Gwandaii Goodlit. But we also recognize that as others have sought to profit from this land before, threats to it still remain," said Kristen Moreland, Executive Director of the Gwich’in Steering Committee. "We reaffirm our commitment to seeing it permanently protected and remain steadfast in protecting our way of life for our future generations."
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For Media Inquiries:
Kristen Moreland, Executive Director, 907-328-9634
Genae Lako, 303-918-6290
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