The Salmon are Listening: What would they say about drilling in the Yukon Flats?
In our traditional stories, the animals often felt sorry for us humans. They helped us to find land, to make better birch bark canoes, or heal each other. Sometimes, we would shape shift into the animals so that we gained the intimate understanding of what it meant to be a caribou or a salmon. From this experience we gained the knowledge of how to be in right relation to the them, how to harvest, how to create ceremony, and how to maintain our reciprocal relationship. These stories also warn us that if we break these protocols, they will leave us — never to return again.
That is why it is deeply troubling to consider the recent announcement from Doyon regarding the partnership with Hilcorp and drilling in our ancestral homelands that is taking place without the free prior and informed consent of surrounding communities.
The plan includes the drilling of 250 feet boreholes (there’s no indication of how many). I’m sure to many in oil and mineral development, this doesn’t seem like a big deal. But it’s a major disturbance to our land and it’s truly only the beginning of what will come should oil be discovered. Our salmon relatives hear using low frequency sound waves and are able to detect the smell of chemicals down to one part per million. That is science.
As we all know, we are already being stressed by the impacts of climate change and there is much angst in Alaska Native communities across the state about the future of the salmon runs. If there was ever a time to listen to the signs of the land, to listen to our traditional stories, and to science, it is now. With a new Administration in place supporting efforts to transition to renewable energy, there is sure to be ample support to help all of us, including our Alaska Native Corporations to make this critical transition away from fossil fuels.
Our Indigenous knowledge, our stories and beliefs, all point to maintaining balance. When we start seeing the world around us simply as natural resources we can take from for monetary gain, we are straying from these ways. It’s easy to forget our close relationship when so many of us can rely on Fred Meyers and Costco. Yet, many of us still go out on the land — bringing our children to fish camp and doing our best to maintain our Native ways of life. This, more than anything, is what binds us together. We are all related.
All our lands and waters are sacred. There has been so much division on these issues and there is so much complexity inherent in the way our ANCs operate, but there is also a critical mass of Doyon shareholders who believe we can and must do better, collectively, for our future generations. The salmon are listening and it’s our turn to help them as we owe our existence to them, to these lands, waters and all the animals we share our world with.
