Big Coal's Last Stand: Alaska Native Protests Fall On Deaf Ears
If you think of candidate sites for federal protection, it doesn't get any more clear cut than American Indian shrines and burial grounds. When a people has suffered as much at the hands of others as American Indians have, one would think that even the greediest of companies would have the decency to back off – and sometimes, that is indeed what happens.
Just not when Big Coal gets involved.
Usibelli Coal Mine Inc. has obtained the initial permits to build a coal road along Alaska’s Moose Creek, a site sacred to the Chickaloon Tribe. If the project proceeds as planned and the permits are renewed for 2012, 200 trucks a day will haul coal along the road for as long as 20 years, polluting the river and erasing all gains made by the tribe’s $1 million salmon restoration project.
The tribe sees this as a direct attack on both their way of life and their freedom of religion. The road will bisect a sacred hunting area and could drive away the ceremonial potlatch moose they hunt. “Moose are sacred, essential aspects of the traditional ceremonies… The area’s moose population is certain to be impacted by the blasting," the Chickaloon Village Traditional Council told Indian Country Today.
The council has good reason to be just a little bit touchy. During World War I, the last time coal was mined in this region, the new way of life killed all but forty residents of the Chickaloon’s Ahtna Athabascan Village. Usibelli either knows this or doesn’t care – their “no comment” speaks volumes.
Yet while Big Coal shows off its best George Custer impression, some in the government seem to be looking the other way. Chickaloon members accuse the Alaska State Department of Natural Resources of ignoring their voices at a recent public hearing. Fortunately, the Mat-Su Borough Planning Commission and Assembly seem more willing to listen, though they lack much say in the matter.
Tribes have been practicing sustainable land management since time immemorial, well before European soldiers and colonists arrived. On those occasions when the federal government does remember this and works with tribes, we find that American Indians have a remarkable ability to adapt their sustainable practices to modern times and tools.
Take the Coeur d’Alene of northern Idaho, whose land is directly affected by one of the nation’s largest Superfund sites. Early 20th century silver mining devastated the Silver Valley, Coeur d’Alene River, and Coeur d’Alene Lake, but thanks to recent tribal involvement, the land is making a remarkable comeback. As the Coeur d’Alene’s website reports, “The tribe took its case to court not only with a plea for environmental stewardship, but also with detailed and peer-reviewed science. The issue has become the Interior Department's number one priority for cleanup.”
Rather than turn a deaf ear, governments and corporations would do well to listen to American Indian's voices a bit more often.
Photo credit: ilya_ktsn, Flickr User
Austin Billings
has worked for the Alliance for Climate Protection and for a Katrina recovery non-profit and considers the mountain west his home.
COMMENTS (11)