Nick Pope
Contributor
The Biden administration justified major crackdowns on fossil fuel and mineral development in Alaska by playing up its commitment to Native American tribes, but some community leaders who spoke with the Daily Caller News Foundation said they did not feel respected by the administration
Over the course of the last four years, the Biden administration moved to shut down drilling activity on tens millions of acres of land in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A) and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), retroactively canceled lease sales and effectively blocked a major mining project in the state, often touting the administration’s commitment to protecting the environment for native communities in official statements and press releases. However, these actions were a major disappointment to some of Alaska’s natives, who told the DCNF that the administration seems to have mostly ignored their desire to allow development that generates revenues for their communities and that they are ready to work with the incoming Trump administration to strike an appropriate balance. (RELATED: Tribes Claim ‘A Seat At The Table’ Thanks To Trump’s National Monument Decision)
Biden Makes Another Move To Crush Economic Development In Alaskahttps://t.co/84KbcDHO3Y
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) July 1, 2024
“With climate change warming the Arctic more than twice as fast as the rest of the planet, we must do everything within our control to meet the highest standards of care to protect this fragile ecosystem,” Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland said in a September 2023 statement after the administration moved to shield 13 million acres from drilling activity in the NPR-A and retroactively canceled lease sales. “President Biden is delivering on the most ambitious climate and conservation agenda in history. The steps we are taking today further that commitment, based on the best available science and in recognition of the Indigenous Knowledge of the original stewards of this area, to safeguard our public lands for future generations.”
However, the administration’s deference to “Indigenous Knowledge” did not mean much to some tribal leaders and officials in light of the government’s apparent disinterest in meaningfully engaging with them about key issues related to resource development.
Nagruk Harcharek is the president of Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat, an organization that represents the interests of numerous native communities in the resource-rich North Slope region of Alaska. In his view, the Biden administration was not particularly interested in hearing what his organization had to say about the value of the economic benefits that resource development provides for his community.
“I started here in 2022. The first thing I did was try to get in there and make sure our voices were heard, because what we’re hearing from the administration is that we’re the most tribally-friendly administration in the history of the United States, right? ” Harcharek told the DCNF. “At least from our perspective, that’s not our impression.”
“We’ve always tried to stress that we are part of the environment. We utilize it for subsistence hunting, for our culture, and it’s extremely important to us. We don’t need to be protected from our own environment,” Harcharek continued. “We can make decisions and help administrations make decisions that are both good for the region and also good for the environment and good for the state, good for the nation. And that just wasn’t the case. There was a lack of engagement, meaningful engagement. Oftentimes, we heard of policy changes in the news and not from phone calls from folks, even though everybody has our number.” (RELATED: ‘Silence, Stonewall, And Scorn’: Native American Group Sues Biden Admin For Cracking Down On Massive Petroleum Reserve)
Biden Admin Looks To Open Up 31 Million Acres For Solar After Locking Up Oil, Gas In Huge Swath Of Alaskahttps://t.co/C3AUKnGG4o
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) August 31, 2024
Harcharek says his organization attempted to secure a meeting with Haaland on nine different occasions, but only managed to get a chance in June of this year. Other times, the Department of the Interior (DOI) sent staffers or other officials to meet with them, if their outreach to the government was even returned.
“Sometimes we didn’t even get a response from those emails, so saying that they’re the most tribally-friendly and then not speaking to most of our tribes or us in a timely manner or a meaningful manner, the just question is, who are you? Who considers you the most tribally friendly organization? Because it sure isn’t us, or we’re not getting that sentiment,” Harcharek said.
Doreen Leavitt, secretary for the Inupiat Community of the Arctic Slope (ICAS), also ripped Haaland for lackluster engagement with her community since 2021 and expressed hope that Republican North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum — Trump’s pick to replace Haaland — will be a better leader at DOI.
“Secretary Haaland’s leadership for ICAS and our region was not just deeply frustrating, but it was saddening because as an indigenous woman myself, who wants to see other indigenous women in leadership succeed and grow, her lack of respect for our region was frustrating, to say the least, despite her recognition of tribal stewardship, our requests for consultation on critical issues were ignored or dismissed,” Leavitt told the DCNF. “I don’t know much about Secretary Burgum, other than that he comes from the Dakotas, but we will expect the incoming secretary to provide that meaningful consultation, that transparent process and respect for our tribal sovereignty and self-determination and those things we did not see under Haaland.”
Leavitt also explained that resource development has provided the money her community needed over the past 50 years to establish and maintain basic things like running water, school systems, health clinics, emergency services and more.
Without taking a political stance, Leavitt noted that she and her organization are “especially looking forward to having the government-to-government relationship rights respected” by the incoming Trump administration.
Charles Lampe, the president of Kaktovik Iñupiat Corporation, said that he and his people are looking forward to Trump’s return to power after sensing that most of his community’s concerns about cracking down hard on resource development were “pretty much just cast aside” by the Biden administration.
“We’re really excited about the next four years. With the previous administration, the Trump administration, we had a great relationship. We just felt like we were actually listened to during that time,” Lampe told the DCNF.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
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The present Democrat administration has consistently ignored and lied to native populations about their empathy for their interests. As a recent example, a lithium mine in Thacker Pass, Nevada is being developed in great haste. Regulations and environmental interests were ignored to get the mine into development, particularly the fact that Thacker Pass is an Indian burial ground. Indian protests and interests were totally ignored. The present administration did not heed, in the least, valid Indian concerns for the preservation of Indian remains. Such are the concerns of the Democrats now in power for the rights and interests of minorities.
Could I respectfully ask you to turn off the bold font when commenting, it’s much easier to read in normal font.
Thanks
Are there any places that aren’t Indian burial grounds?
The Democrat war on domestic oil and gas production has been going on for at least 40 years with no end in sight. Oil and gas companies don’t like being over taxed, over regulated, and drug in front of a congressional hearing and lied to and insulted every time market conditions cause a bump up in prices. Consequently, they contribute to Republican campaigns and the Democrats hate them for it.
Do they really drug them in front of Congress? That is truly cruel and unusual!
🙂
Depends on the drugs…
Particularly if they are in drag.
Part of ANWR was designated for oil exploration by the Carter administration. What’s in that area is essentially nothing. Rocks, possibly some moss, lichen, bacteria, small insects. It’s an arctic desert. Too cold and inhospitable for large plant and animal life.
“With climate change warming the Arctic more than twice as fast as the rest of the planet”
UAH data says… NO !!
How much of the “surface” warming is from major expanding towns like Barrow ??
Everywhere is warming twice as fast as everywhere else! Who’re you gonna believe; your lyin’ eyes, or our completely honest and transparent computer models! Happy New Year, bnice!
Now that I self-identify as a Native American lesbian woman, I have a much keener insight into all indigenous beliefs and practices; to go along with my greater understanding of women’s problems! These tribal leaders are trying to become white adjacent by currying favor with the incoming Fuhrer! The only way they can lose more status in the minds of most libtards is to ask for relaxed rules for hunting polar bears; those poor, harassed apex predators, forced to live on Coca-Cola and tourists!
You omitted trans….
He didn’t. He’s a man who identifies as a woman…
…hunting trans polar bears…
There, FIFY
““With climate change warming the Arctic more than twice as fast as the rest of the planet, we must do everything within our control to meet the highest standards of care to protect this fragile ecosystem,” Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland said…”
I’d think that the people living in the Arctic just might like it to warm up another few degrees. 🙂
Most of the wildlife too. Do we really need millions of square miles of tundra on this planet? If it warms up- more brush and trees will grow there- along with the wildlife that will prefer the changed ecosystem.
Most of the middle tier of US states as well as southern Europe and central Asia all used to be tundra – indeed for about 3 out of every 4 years for the last 2.6 million years. We don’t miss it.
The Biden administration has created dozens of Executive Orders aimed at shutting down economic activity in Alaska.
Alaska’s U.S. Senators and Governor are asking Trump to reverse Biden’s EO’s as soon as possible.
Trump is going to have writer’s cramp on January 20, reversing all the insanity Biden initiated with his Executive Orders.
Hopefully, unlike Biden, there will be a proper review so the baby is not thrown out with the bath water. It is doubtful all, 100% of the Biden EOs are bad, so just make sure the 1% continue.
What exactly is “proper review”? Did any of Biden’s knee jerk anti-Trump dementia-from-the-get-go EO’s come with “proper review”? And baby/bathwater jabber? What baby? What bathwater?
Meaningless buzzwords and jingoism do not make for good policy. Stuff the lefty loser pandering palliative grannyisms. Everything Brandon should be thrown out on Day One.
It’s more efficient to just throw everything out. Allowing the 99+% that is harmful to remain in affect even a day longer creates far more damage than the one or two not bad regulations can create benefit.
Trump’s EOs will be reversed later by someone else. All this whipsawing back and forth can’t be good.
That’s the worst excuse for doing zip I ever heard. Fix the plumbing now. If the toilet backs up again later, then fix it again. Don’t wallow in today’s sewage.
Where did I say “do nothing”? It needs to be done via legislation, not royal decree.
So long as there are enough Democrats to prevent the bad laws from being replaced, this is the best that can be done.
Times they are a changin’ as Bob Dylan once wrote.
The rascals in Washington are in the process of being thrown out on their big fat asses and all this crap is going to be reversed.
However, the reversal will be only a short term reversal if Trump and the GOP controlled Congress don’t take care of business as they promised to do in last month’s election. Keep inflation under control, produce lots of cheap energy, get rid of stupid stultifying regulations, and overseas make sure that we are protecting American interests first and foremost, and not coddle those who hate us no matter what we do.
Funny that I am reading this article right after reading about the wind turbines ordered out of the Osage Nations Reservation in Oklahoma because the developer ignored and stomped all over Osage mineral rights. That controversy started under the Obama administration, and has more or less been concluded under the Biden administration. I guess the Democrats are okay with trampling native rights when the minerals in question are the correct ones, not hated and valuable fossil fuels.
One of the best things the Trump administration could do would be to downsize the Department of the Interior (DOI) and in particular the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Return the lions share of those federal lands to the states and let the states administer them. Better yet, open them up for private (but not megacorporate) ownership. 100 acre homesteads anyone?
Not 100 acre homesteads! You urban numbskulls!
BLM lands rightfully belong to the adjacent ranches that have developed and improved those lands for nearly 100 years through the Taylor Grazing Act of 1934. The leaseholds were granted in perpetuity. That means forever.
Those are not your lands to sell or give away. Thou Shalt Not Steal. Your greed runneth over. Put a cork in it.
Give the USFS lands back to the states, with the proviso that those lands be held in public trust. They are not claimed or developed. The states would do a much better job at forest management than the Feds. But BLM lands have been claimed. The transactions are done and cannot be voided.
Well yeah, OK, existing agreements would of course have to be honored. But that is probably the minority of federal lands. My point is that the feds should not own large swaths of state lands. If they are to be public lands then they should be state lands.
First off, how do you differentiate a “mega” corp from a merely large corp, or for that matter a large family run corp?
Secondly, why shouldn’t mega corps have the right to compete along with everyone else?
Devil is in the details. My point was that Blackrock and State street should not end up getting title. Give it to the state or give it to the people. In any event, get it out of the feds hands.
I will suggest Deb Haaland has done the same sort of thing some Catholics did with Liberation Theology—combine Native “traditional beliefs” with Green Blob environmentalism, and end up with something indistinguishable from straight Green Blob orthodoxy.
Just like progressive Catholics into Liberation Theology sound very much like Sandinistas or Castroites, Haaland is pushing “leave it in the ground” green preservationist Luddite programs. She is rationalizing her beliefs as Native Traditions, but acts just like the faculty lounge consensus at Berkeley or NYU.
Your theology is all screwed up. You want to blame Catholics because you’re some kind of horrendous atheist bigot. But it’s atheism that has the goal of destroying Creation. It’s atheists who are burning America’s heritage forests. It’s atheists who want to drive humanity off the land. The WEF globalist commie kleptocrats are atheists, or anti-theists, not Catholics.
Go back to church, Tom. It might do you and the rest of us some good.
You obviously have no idea of what Liberation Theology is. John Paul II was quite opposed to it, which was mostly Latin American efforts to reconcile Catholicism and Marxism, Bergoglio, Pope Francis, is acting as if he is affected by what I consider a rank heresy.
Your theology is up there with your ability to read minds.
How is Tom’s theology wrong?
Do you actually believe that Liberation theology has anything to do with Christianity. What is the basis for your belief that anyone who isn’t a communist is an atheist?
Deb Haaland is not a Catholic. Her policies have nothing to do with Catholicism. Her policies are Marxist through and through. Marxism is atheistic; Catholicism is not. Deb is not a Liberationist; she is an enslaver.
But rather than state the obvious and place blame it lies, you choose to flame on with religious bigotry. You blame the Pope for Deb Haaland. I call you on that. You are a bigot, prejudiced, filled with fear and hatred, and most of all, you are a ridiculous proponent of atheism — just like the Marxist Deb Haaland.
Mark, get smart, I’m calling commies atheists. Can’t you read? And atheists are commies. No values = no values, no ethics = no ethics, no morality = no morality.
Isn’t it jejune and pathetic when atheists claim knowledge of theology? What great Catholic theologians have you studied? Can you even name a theologian, much less cite one? That ignorance doesn’t faze you, though. You plow ahead armed with the emptiness of post-modernism from which you derive your empty opinions.
Meanwhile atheism marches on, full blown Marxism destroying this world, and you wave that flag blindly and stupidly. Truly pathetic.
How many of Biden’s campaign promises, especially transparency, were kept?
Of course Biden made the promises but his staff ran the show.
The tribal situation here in MT under the Biden admin has not been very good.
With an open border the Mexican Cartels have been busy setting up operations
on the reservations, flooding them with opiates and meth. One would wonder if
the Big Guy is getting some sort of a cut….The Dakota Access Pipeline has been
protested by tribal groups even though it doesn’t cross any reservation property.
Curiously crude oil from tribal owned wells on rail cars crosses the reservation
without any protest. One might wonder how much of the oil/gas money the tribes
receive ends up in the Cartels hands.
“commitment to Native American tribes”
They are Indian tribes. That’s what they prefer to be called.
Reminds me of all the white liberals who declared that “native americans” were upset by teams with Indian names. Whenever anyone asked actual “native americans” how they felt, none were upset. But white liberals were upset on their behalf, and that was all that mattered.
Exactly.
“Indigenous Knowledge of the original stewards of this area”
Stewards, riiight. If they had advanced out of the stone age on their own, they would have done as any other advancing civilization did. As it stood, they didn’t have the numbers or technology to do any real expansion.
Tell ’em Joe…
“Well I tell you what, if you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t Iñupiat ”
“Indigenous Knowledge”.
No offense meant to anybody or group of “Indigenous People”, but what groups in North or South America had invented or used the wheel?
I think one artifact was found in South America with pair of wheels on it (Incan?) but it was a toy.
Should all transportation go back to using sleds? What would pull them? There were no horses anymore in the Americas. The Spanish reintroduced them.
This entire thread is packed with a-holes. Gunga, read the post again. The Natives are calling for drilling oil. Knowledgeable indigenes want stewardship, not abandonment.
It’s the demented Brandon commies that want to lock up the resources and are using the phony phrase “Indigenous Knowledge’ as an excuse for their evil thievery.
But you Gunga went off on a bigot tangent hocking up slurs at millions of people like a Pavlovian dog. What a tool! Tell me Gunga, what did you ever invent? Or are you taking credit where no credit is due you? That’s a sure sign of inferiority, Gunga. Improve yourself first before you cast stones. At the very least, improve your reading skills.
As near as I can tell, from this and your other posts, you actually believe that you are the only sane and moral person at this site.
The truth is that you are the a-hole in this conversation, with your total intolerance towards anyone who disagrees with you and your unshakable conviction of your mental and emotional superiority.
No, Mark. I’m just sick of all the bigotry displayed. I’ve been a follower and supporter of this site since its inception, and feel some duty to keep it moving forward.
When Gunga et al start ripping on First Peoples like they’re an inferior race, it diminishes WUWT. When out of the blue Tom takes a shot at Catholicism, which has nothing to do with the topic at hand, it harms WUWT.
I’ve been fighting Warmunism for 30+ years. This site, WUWT, is and has been the premier voice and champion of climate realism, and it’s very precious to me. I don’t like it when bigots and trolls poison this site.
You should feel the same duty. You should be defending the honor, integrity, and values of WUWT. This site is not a playground for children. We’re trying to heal the world here. It’s not a game. Please treat WUWT with the respect it deserves.
“No, Mark. I’m just sick of all the bigotry displayed. I’ve been a follower and supporter of this site since its inception, and feel some duty to keep it moving forward.
When Gunga et al start ripping on First Peoples like they’re an inferior race, ”
What “bigotry” did I display?
How did I imply the American Indians were an “inferior race”?
What I believe is all the talk about “race” is just an excuse to make artificial divisions between people.
Different cultures? Sure. But one “race” being superior or one “race” being inferior? Absolutely NOT!
I’m a firm believer in;
Acts 17 26 And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;
27 That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: (KJV)
What the “F”?!?
The issue is cherry picking what, usually past, “Indigenous Knowledge” politicians use to promote their Green agenda while ignoring what present day ““Indigenous People” really want.
What I said about the wheel is a fact, not a slight.
Similar things could be said about the ““Indigenous Knowledge” of ancient civilizations in Europe, Asia, Africa and anywhere else people have populated.
The different advances the different cultures made ended up being shared because none of them needed to cross an ocean to be exposed to them.
“The different advances the different cultures made ended up being shared because none of them needed to cross an ocean to be exposed to them.”
An example:
Would you want to try to do calculus using Roman Numerals rather than “Arabic” numerals?
Another:
Last I heard, no one really knows how the Egyptians or the Mayans or Aztecs built their pyramids. Great accomplishments, but that info wasn’t shared.
(Maybe the Mayans learned from the Aztecs or vice versa. The Incas also. Maybe all of them learned from “The Mound Builders”?)
But I’m sure that if you dropped a thousand or 10 thousand modern humans in a wilderness without their cellphones, I doubt many would be able to make a canoe out of birch bark or build a teepee.
“We utilize it for subsistence hunting, for our culture”
I wrote several pithy responses then deleted them. The life advocated sounds like a difficult life.
It really is getting old how white liberals are so convinced that they speak for minorities, that they don’t even need to speak with actual minorities.
With no disrespect to the indigenous community you are not the experts concerning energy development. You are between a rock and a hard place. You are forced to deal with inept no nothing government officials indoctrinated into bad policy. You want the convenience of flipping a switch and having light or turning a knob and having heat or a ready cooking appliance. You don’t appreciate some crackpot from the government coming in and telling you what you want and need anymore than the rest of us. However for any of us to have these conveniences available to us we must all contribute the resources we have to make it possible.