Our Work is Not Done - Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation responds to reckless actions by President Trump

On his first day of his new term, President Trump issued “Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resources Potential”. This far-reaching Executive Order aims to industrialize Alaska through development of energy, mining, and other natural resources to the fullest extent possible. It includes a systematic plan to reverse the Biden Administration’s actions taken to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from oil and gas exploitation.

Trump’s Alaska Executive Order directs the U.S. Secretary of the Interior to rescind the Biden Administration’s cancellation of oil and gas leases acquired by the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA) in the first lease sale targeting lands in the Refuge carried out during Trump’s first presidency. 

The Executive Order also directs the Secretary of the Interior to rescind the oil and gas leasing program adopted under the Biden Administration and to reinstate the one adopted by the first Trump Administration. Trump’s leasing program was challenged in court for violating several laws in order to green light drilling in the Refuge. 

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Chief Pauline Frost responds to President Trump’s Alaska Executive Order

“In issuing his Alaska Executive Order, President Trump has signaled that he will make use of the full extent of his Presidential powers in his attempt to realize his desire to turn the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge into an oil field. Ignoring the significant reputational, legal and financial risks of drilling in these lands, the Executive Order makes it clear that President Trump and his Administration will continue along the destructive path they began nine years ago.”

“In his determination to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas development, Trump and his allies in Alaska assume they can ignore our rights and silence our voices. But our rights as Gwich’in cannot be ignored, and our voices cannot be silenced.”

“Since 1988, on the direction of our Elders, the Gwich’in have worked tirelessly to protect the Coastal Plain, the nursery grounds of the Porcupine caribou herd that we call Iizhik Gwats’an Gwandaii Goodlit (The Sacred Place Where Life Begins). For decades we have warned what will happen if drilling is allowed in the nursery grounds of Vadzaih (caribou). We have done this work to protect our sacred relationship with the land, waters, and animals we depend on—in other words, to protect who we are as Gwich’in.”

“Returning each spring to the Coastal Plain, the Porcupine caribou herd completes one of the greatest land migrations on earth and renews itself with the birth of thousands of Vadzaih (caribou). Drilling in the Coastal Plain will threaten this millennia old cycle of new birth, and with it the very survival of the Porcupine caribou herd as a whole.” 

“What happens in the Coastal Plain has profound implications for the Gwich’in and other northern Indigenous nations whose food security and way of life depend on the survival of the Porcupine caribou herd. United with our Gwich’in relatives in Alaska and Northwest Territories, and with our partners and allies around the world, we will continue to work for the protection of the Coastal Plain as our Elders directed us to do. We will continue to use every legislative, regulatory and legal tool available to protect Iizhik Gwats’an Gwandaii Goodlit from the same fate that the oil and gas industry has inflicted on so many rare and precious places around the world."

“We will continue to work in a good way as we speak for the caribou, for the land, and for our future generations. We will continue to stand together to protect the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a place where the life of every Porcupine caribou begins. Like the caribou, it is not for us a question of choice, it is a question of survival.” 

“Our work will not be done until Iizhik Gwats’an Gwandaii Goodlit is permanently protected.”

—Chief Pauline Frost, Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation

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Media Inquiries:

Gyde Shepherd (he/him), Communications Manager
Executive Office, Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation
‍gyde.shepherd@vgfn.ca | (613) 804-4273 

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Background:

• Statement (January 9, 2025) - Failure of second Arctic National Wildlife Refuge lease sale confirms oil and gas industry knows that threatening the Refuge is bad for business –
• Statement (December 11, 2024) - Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation responds to announcement of second lease sale of Arctic National Wildlife Refuge –
• Statement (November 7, 2024) - Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation remains steadfast in its commitment to secure permanent protection for the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge