Alaska is a hard place to leave in early June.  Earl Kingik and Ernie Frankson were missing the preparation for the annual whaling festival, ‘Nalukatuq’, in their home village of Point Hope, the oldest continuously occupied community in North America.  The village celebrates the harvest of the bowhead and beluga whales caught in the previous fall and the spring.  Norm Anderson is usually out on his boat near his hometown of Naknek, catching the first run of King Salmon, not catching a two-day plane flight from Dillingham to D.C. I am usually planting my garden, trying to catch what I can of the short 3 month vegetable growing season in my hometown of Palmer.  As good Alaskans, we found it hard to leave the State at the beginning of June for hot, muggy Washington D.C.   But we had to.

Never before have the federal waters of Bristol Bay, the Chuckhi Sea, and the Beaufort Sea been under such threat.  In its’ five-year outer continental shelf (OCS) oil and gas leasing program, the Minerals Management Service (MMS) proposes to open 83 million acres to leasing for oil and gas drilling.

In a conversation in preparation for the visit to Washington D.C., Norm Anderson, the Economic Program Director for Bristol Bay Native Association, a commercial and subsistence fisherman, and a Native of the village of Naknek, likened the gathering of our dynamo group to the re-forming of the Blues Brothers.  “The band is back!” he belted with his characteristic enthusiasm.  We have worked alongside each other over the years on a myriad of natural resource issues in Alaska – from working to ensure the sensible management of federal lands that are habitat to a caribou herd half a million animals strong to preventing the richest salmon fishery in the world from becoming a mining district.  We were now united in a time of dire straits for Alaska’s offshore.  Our goal was to educate as many members of Congress as possible about Alaska’s Bristol Bay, Chukchi Sea and Beaufort Sea and why they should not be unilaterally opened to oil and gas drilling activities.

Earl, Ernie and Norm, and their families, depend upon healthy populations of marine mammals and fish to nourish their subsistence-way-of-life as well as religious and cultural practices.  They shared many stories and images with Congress to drive home the connection between the basic human right to fish and hunt and the threat of an overly aggressive leasing program that ignores good science and common sense.

Senator Lisa Murkowski and Representative Kucinich were among the Congressional members that we had face-to-face time with.  Dinah Bear, counsel for the Council for Environmental Quality also took the time to have a dialog about our concerns.

While most (friendly) members of Congress are well versed on the reasons why we should not drill our way to energy independence in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, nearly none of them had heard the word ‘Chukchi’, or met a Native Alaskan before, much less an Inupiat whaling captain.  Ernie is no stranger to Washington D.C. and was incredibly effective at sharing his experiences as a whaling captain with members of Congress.  Earl is also a whaler and subsistence hunter.  He hand delivered a resolution from the federally recognized sovereign tribe of the Native Village of Point Hope stating strong opposition to the development of oil and gas in the Arctic Ocean.  Earl also delivered other resolutions specifically opposing the proposed leasing plan including the Alaska Inter Tribal Council which represents over 240 of Alaska’s tribal councils.

On day four we took inventory and found after 22 visits to Congressional offices and meetings, everyone but Earl had blisters on our feet!  We decided this was a sign of a successful week of work on the hill in D.C.

The leg work and sweat paid off.  Within two weeks of our visit, Whit Sheard, Alaska Program Director was invited by the House Natural Resources Committee to speak to the Subcommittee on Energy and Minerals on the deficiencies and environmental impacts of the 5 year OCS plan.

As Earl, Ernie, Norm and I said good-bye and prepared to head to the airport to fly home to Alaska, Norm handed us each a sampling of deep red smoked salmon he had brought from Naknek.  It felt good to board the plane home with tender, tired feet yet feeling nourished and smelling sharply of Alaskan salmon.