Purchase Hal Shepherd’s new book “Return to Ekeunick’s Time – Defending Waters and Tradition in the Arctic”
From the beginning, Hal’s contribution to this blog have pointed out the challenges Alaskans face in safeguarding the State’s natural landscape and Native traditions. His newly released book, “Return to Ekeunick’s Time – Defending Waters and Tradition in the Arctic” expands on this theme with a deep dive into the role of environmental policy in shaping early statehood policies and the difficulty in holding true to this vision in the face of extractive politics.
One of the primary motivations behind the campaign for Alaska’s statehood was the impact of large canneries on salmon which used fish traps and wheels to drain returning runs. At the same time, due to the lack of the Territory’s regulatory authority, and because federal authorities were under the control of corporate interests, these canneries avoided paying taxes and laws to protect the fishery.
As the 49th state to enter the union, Alaska had the benefit of observing the mistakes made by other states that were beginning to experience environmental degradation due to industrial extraction. As such, in the early years after statehood, the State was a leader in creating and enforcing environmental policy which, together with the emerging activism of Alaska Native communities, played a part in the birth of the nationwide environmental movement.
Eventually, however, the lure of riches, particularly from the discovery of oil in Prudhoe Bay, became too much for Alaska’s political leadership, and over the past 50 years, the extraction industry has dominated state policies. Today, under a series of conservative politicians in power at both the federal and state levels (as championed particularly by the former Trump administration), resource extraction corporations are once again having substantial impacts on water and subsistence resources relied upon by Alaska Native communities.
At the same time, after a campaign led by powerful industrial interests and conservative politicians to discredit the environmental movement, today tribal leaders and everyday citizens in Alaska are hailing a new era of protecting water resources by emphasizing traditional values and management strategies in the face of existential threats from climate change and politics. According to Alaska Native author William Oquilluck, during the time of Ekeunick – the legendary leader of the Inupiat people of long ago - “the Eskimo’s ancestors did not use their minds like later times when they invented tools, clothes, houses, boats, and weapons. They had no worries about living.”
Could the return to traditional values as a means of addressing the impacts of climate change and mismanagement of natural resources, help to move the needle towards a return to times when Alaska Native people will no longer have to worry about the survival of their traditions and culture?