Sarah Agnes James - Protector of Porcupine Caribou Herd & Alaskan Wildlife - Gwich’in Benefit, 1992

Sarah Agnes James, as board chair and a spokesperson for the Gwich’in Steering Committee, has educated Alaskans, other Americans, Congress, and peoples from around the world about the Gwich’in Nation, the Porcupine Caribou Herd and the importance of protecting “ the Sacred Place where Life Begins” from oil exploration and drilling. The goal of the Gwich’in is to permanently protect the coastal plain calving and nursing grounds of the caribou in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as wilderness.
Raised in Alaska’s far north in a traditional lifestyle, she did not begin speaking English until she was about 13 years old. Living in the small community of Arctic Village, she has traveled widely, from Washington, D.C. to foreign countries, speaking out for the rights of indigenous peoples through grassroots activism. She has received many awards in recognition of her leadership.
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Arctic National Wildlife Refuge - an ancient eco-system under peril.
The question of whether to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) has been an ongoing political controversy in the United States since 1977. As of 2017, Republicans have attempted to allow drilling in ANWR almost fifty times, finally being successful with the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.
ANWR comprises 19 million acres (7.7 million ha) of the north Alaskan coast. The land is situated between the Beaufort Sea to the north, Brooks Range to the south, and Prudhoe Bay to the west. It is the largest protected wilderness in the United States and was created by Congress under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980. Section 1002 of that act deferred a decision on the management of oil and gas exploration and development of 1.5 million acres (610,000 ha) in the coastal plain, known as the "1002 area". The controversy surrounds drilling for oil in this subsection of ANWR.
The coastal plain is the most contentious area of the Arctic Refuge, where disputes between fossil fuel developers and the Gwich’in originate. The sensitive ecosystem there serves as the primary calving ground of the Porcupine caribou herd, upon which the Gwich’in people rely for food and around which their culture revolves. The Gwich’in people refer to the 1002 Area as “the sacred place where life began,” or “Iizhik Gwats’an Gwandaii Goodlit.”
The Arctic Refuge and its coastal plain are home to the most diverse wildlife in the Arctic. According to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Arctic Refuge is home to at least 42 fish species, 37 land mammal species including the endangered polar bear, eight species of marine mammals, innumerable numbers of insects, and more than 200 species of migratory and stationary birds (USFWS 2013)
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