Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation remains steadfast in its commitment to secure permanent protection for the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

The Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation remains steadfast in its commitment to secure permanent protection for the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

As the critical calving and post calving grounds of the Porcupine caribou herd, the Coastal Plain is sacred to the Gwich’in people. The significance of these lands is clearly expressed in our name for the Coastal Plain—Iizhik Gwats’an Gwandaii Goodlit—which in English means “The Sacred Place Where Life Begins”.

Since the 1988 Gwich’in Gathering in Arctic Village, Alaska, the Gwich’in have played a central role in preventing oil and gas development in the Coastal Plain. In doing this, we honour the direction of our Elders, and affirm that oil and gas exploration and development in the Coastal Plain ignores our Indigenous rights, our human rights, and the rights of our future generations to continue their Gwich’in way of life.

The last Trump Administration pushed through the Coastal Plain Oil and Gas Leasing Program, which saw over 400,000 acres of the Arctic Refuge leased for the purposes of oil and gas development. The Biden Administration cancelled those leases. With re-election of Donald Trump, and the release of the Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Coastal Plain Oil and Gas Leasing Program, the threat that oil and gas leasing in the Coastal Plain will be re-initiated is real. 

United with our Gwich’in relatives in Alaska and Northwest Territories, the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation will continue to use every legislative, technical, regulatory and legal tool available to us to protect our sacred lands and our culture. We will continue to share our knowledge and voice our opposition to any oil and gas development in the Coastal Plain. Most importantly—we will continue to honour our most fundamental relationship with the land and the Porcupine caribou herd. 

The Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation calls on our relations, our allies, our partners and our friends to stand with us. Our work will not stop until Izhik Gwats’an Gwandaii Goodlit is permanently protected. 

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Quotes: 

“We are determined not to give in to the cynical greed and political opportunism that threatens the survival of one of the last great herds on the planet. Oil and gas development in the Coastal Plain is an existential threat to the Porcupine caribou and to our Gwitch’in way of life.” Chief Pauline Frost, Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation 

“For millennia, the Porcupine caribou have provided us with all we need to survive and thrive in our northern homeland. We will not abandon them now when they need us most.” 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:

• On December 22, 2017, the Trump Administration passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act which mandates two lease sales in the Refuge’s Coastal Plain for oil and gas development ‘by not later than 10 years after the date of enactment’. 
• Following this, the Trump Administration rushed towards development, completing an Environmental Impact Statement (“EIS”) and the multi-step lease sale process before holding a lease sale on January 6, 2021. Nine leases, for over 400,000 acres of the Refuge were issued to the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA), Knik Arm Services LLC and Regenerate Alaska Inc. 
•  The first lease sale generated $14.4 million in initial bids— with actual revenue now standing at $9.7 million or a mere 0.54% of the projections made in 2017.
•  On his first day in office, President Biden signed an Executive Order which placed a temporary moratorium on all oil and natural gas leasing activities in the Refuge and in June 2021, the Department of Interior suspended the leases in the Refuge pending a comprehensive analysis of environmental impacts.
• Since this time, Knik Arm Services LLC and Regenerate Alaska Inc. cancelled their leases and the Department of Interior cancelled the remaining leases held by AIDEA acknowledging that the 2021 lease sale was seriously flawed and based on a number of legal deficiencies. 
• The Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) process for the Coastal Plain Oil and Gas Leasing Program is ongoing and a Final SEIS released for public comment on November 6, 2024. A Record of Decision will be released no sooner than 30 days from this date.
• Following their first bilateral meeting in 2021, President Biden and Prime Minister Trudeau released the “Roadmap for a Renewed U.S. – Canada Partnership” within which they recognized the importance of the Refuge and “agreed to work together to help safeguard the Porcupine caribou herd calving grounds that are invaluable to the Gwich’in and Inuvialuit people’s culture and subsistence.”
• In 2022, Chevron and Hillcorp abandoned their interests in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge paying Arctic Slope Regional Corporation to exit their legacy leases on a small tract of land owned by the Alaska Native corporation. These leases were originally held by BP and Chevron since the 1980s when the oil companies drilled the only test well in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the results of which were never released.
•  Major banks in the U.S. and Canada are among the more than two dozen banks around the world that have announced they will not fund any new oil and gas development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and more than 20 international insurers have said they would not insure any drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. 
• Partners of the Porcupine Caribou Management Agreement, including the governments of Canada, Yukon, Northwest Territories, Vuntut Gwitchin, Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in, the Gwich’in Tribal Council and the Inuvialuit Game Council, have stated that drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is not sustainable for long-term health of the Porcupine caribou herd and remain committed to the goal of permanent protection for the sacred calving grounds for Porcupine caribou in this region of Alaska. 
• This summer, delegates of the Gwich’in Nation from Alaska and Canada met in Danzhit Hanlaii (Circle) Alaska for the Biennial Gwich’in Gathering to unanimously reaffirm a resolution calling for protections for Iizhik Gwats’an Gwandaii Goodlit (The Sacred Place Where Life Begins), the birthplace and nursery grounds of the Porcupine caribou herd. The resolution calls for the United States Congress to recognize the human rights of the Gwich’in by permanently protecting the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
• Earlier this year Trump was reported saying that he would ‘restart’ oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. On November 5, 2024, Trump was elected President of the United States.