Defending the Arctic Refuge: A Photographer, an Indigenous Nation, and a Fight for Environmental Justice

Description

Tucked away in the northeastern corner of Alaska is one of the most contested landscapes in all of North America: the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Considered sacred by Indigenous peoples in Alaska and Canada and treasured by environmentalists, the refuge provides life-sustaining habitat for caribou, polar bears, migratory birds, and other species. For decades, though, the fossil fuel industry and powerful politicians have sought to turn this unique ecosystem into an oil field. Defending the Arctic Refuge tells the improbable story of how the people fought back. At the center of the story is the unlikely figure of Lenny Kohm (1939-2014), a former jazz drummer and aspiring photographer who passionately committed himself to Arctic Refuge activism. With the aid of a trusty slide show, Kohm and representatives of the Gwich'in Nation traveled across the United States to mobilize grassroots opposition to oil drilling. From Indigenous villages north of the Arctic Circle to Capitol Hill and many places in between, this book shows how Kohm and Gwich'in leaders and environmental activists helped build a political movement that transformed the debate into a struggle for environmental justice. In its final weeks, the Trump administration fulfilled a long-sought dream of drilling proponents: leasing much of the Arctic Refuge coastal plain for fossil fuel development. Yet the fight to protect this place is certainly not over. Defending the Artic Refuge traces the history of a movement that is alive today--and that will continue to galvanize diverse groups to safeguard this threatened land. Cover Half Title Title Copyright Dedication Contents Map and Figures Prologue. At Lenny Kohm’s Memorial 1. On the Road 2. The Last Great Wilderness 3. The Sacred Place Where Life Begins 4. Lenny’s Epiphany 5. Glendon Brunk’s Epiphany 6. Delivering Bosco 7. The Little White Man Who Never Sleeps 8. The Slide Show at the Art Farm 9. Science and Skulduggery 10. I Hope People from the South Listen 11. Rebirth of a Nation 12. The Arctic Refuge in a Broader Frame 13. Grassroots versus Goliath 14. Catastrophe and the Coalition of Conscience 15. Native Corporations and Arctic Drilling 16. A Victory for the Grassroots 17. Gwich’in Recruits, Gwich’in Lives 18. Budget Showdown 19. Turning Spectators into Activists 20. 9/11 21. Flat, White Nothingness? 22. How the Refuge Survived the W. Years 23. Building a Bigger Choir 24. The Slide Show in Old Crow Epilogue. History and the Ongoing Struggle Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z Back Cover