"It's really a crucial time in the U.S. They are seriously considering opening up the coastal plane."
Kevin Wilson
Northern News Services
Fort McPherson (Apr 02/01) - Elaine Alexie has an intimate connection with the land. The 21 year-old Fort McPherson woman learned at the knee of her great grandmother, Mary Vittrekwa.
"She would tell me about growing up on the land, living in caribou skin tents. I always point out that if she didn't survive that way, I wouldn't be here now."
Alexie recently returned from a three week speaking tour in the southern United States, where she related that message to people in five states.
"I talked about myself as a young Gwich'in person living on the land," she said.
Skyrocketing fuel prices have the Americans looking for new sources of oil, and Congress is now debating whether to open the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to exploration and drilling.
The refuge is the principal calving ground for the Porcupine caribou herd, and Alexie's home of Fort McPherson is heavily reliant on the herd.
"It's a really crucial time in the U.S.," says Alexie. "They are seriously considering opening up the coastal plain."
She marked Wildlife Week in Washington, D.C. and then toured Virginia Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana with U.S. activist Lenny Kohn's Last Great Wilderness Show.
"Our way of life is based so much on the Porcupine herd," she said.
"It is spiritual and cultural," for the Gwich'in of Fort McPherson.
"How can we change after living and depending on the herd for thousands of years?" she asks.
Alexie hopes to return to school this fall, and plans to focus her studies in biology and environmental studies.
