9MayJune04ProphetOfAlaskanWilderness

PROPHET OF THE ALASKAN WILDERNESS An Interview with Father Trimble Gilbert

BY RUTH GORING

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The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is under threat.The Bush administration has repeatedly introduced regulations and legislation riders that would open up this region of Alaska to oil and natural-gas drilling. So far the Senate has resisted, but administration pressure is ongoing, in spite of the fact that the coastal plain of the refuge constitutes the only remaining 5 percent of Alaska’s northern slope that is not already open to drilling.What’s more, a 1998 U.S. Geological Survey reported that drilling in this area was likely to provide no more than a six-month supply of oil for the United States.

The refuge, which has been called “America’s Serengeti,” shelters musk oxen, polar bears, wolves, migratory birds, caribou, and hundreds of other species. Drilling on its coastal plain would damage the calving grounds of the Porcupine River herd of caribou, on which the indigenous Gwich’in nation depends.The Gwich’in—numbering about 7,000— are part of the Athabascan peoples of eastern Alaska and northwestern Canada.

Some call the administration’s proposal an expression of environmental racism—a disregard for the habitat and health of people of color. But the Gwich’in are speaking up for the protection of their land and its wildlife.

Trimble Gilbert, age 68, lives in Arctic Village (population 150), which lies on the Yukon River just above the Arctic Circle, 200 miles north of Fairbanks.A Gwich’in tribal leader who is a leading voice in the opposition to drilling, Gilbert is also a musician, a great-grandfather, a hunter and protector of caribou, and an Episcopal priest.

knew each other.When she was dying, a wolf howled near the village for a long time.

It’s part of the Gwich’in connection to the land. The caribou are our main source of food. When we have to be away in the city, our spirit becomes weak.We need caribou meat, we need fish, we need to be in our land.

Farther south in Fort Yukon, people catch salmon and beaver, and in other areas the main animal is moose. We sometimes trade caribou for these other meats. Sometimes we have suffered famines, with no caribou for several years.

Then our people had to move to Fort Yukon, where residents shared their food with us.The same happens when they run low on food; we help each other.

PRISM: How did Christianity come to your region?

TG: The gospel came in by dog team when an English Anglican minister was sent from Canada in the 1840s. He visited many communities, spreading news about Christ, baptizing, and celebrating Holy Communion in a tent set up in the woods.

William Lolia was the first Gwich’in ordained a deacon; he was based in Fort Yukon. Albert Trit was another church leader who taught his own people. He would come to a community to do ministry even when the temperature was -70º F. People would travel long distances for church, with snowshoes and dog sleds.

The influx of Europeans increased greatly in 1898, with the Gold Rush to the area around Dawson City.These outsiders brought diseases such as tuberculosis and the flu.The Episcopalians stayed with us and comforted us with the gospel.

Bob Harbison

PRISM: Why do the Gwich’in people care so much about the caribou?

Trimble Gilbert: We have a special relationship with the Porcupine River herd of caribou. In the spring the herd migrates north through our land, over the Porcupine River to the north shore of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

In July and August the caribou return, and people gather to hunt and share the meat.

Traditionally our elders have known through dreams when the caribou are coming.The weather also signals their coming.

When I was young my father used to sit outside for hours with a spotting scope, watching the caribou’s movements.

As old people lie dying, in their moments of consciousness they often begin talking about the caribou. And some caribou come close to the village at those times. There is a mutual, mystical connection between us. My grandmother had a similar connection to the timber wolf. Somehow they Fr. Gilberts uses a stole and altar cloth made of beaded caribou skin which many women donated their time to make.

Chip Duncan (DuncanEntertainment.com)

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The Anglican Church helped to build the first hospital in our region.

Our culture anticipated the gospel in many ways. Our oral tradition taught that one great Being had created the world.

There was also a story of a great flood and other stories paralleling those of the Old Testament. Our moral teachings paralleled the Ten Commandments. Somehow we had always known that Someone was in charge.We had been aware of the existence of deep evil, too.

We had a story about a person who would work with animals and have a special bond with them. It was like the Jews’ anticipation of the Messiah.When we heard about Jesus, we recognized him as this Unnamed One. God had been with our people all along.

That doesn’t mean things had been perfect. Before the gospel arrived we had conflicts with each other.The gospel brought a means of peace. It taught us about reconciliation.

We have images of the baby Jesus as a Gwich’in child in Alaska, to show that Christ belongs to us, too. The prayer book is now available in the Gwich’in dialect.

TG: The pipeline was started in 1974-75. It was like a war, with planes flying over all the time. People started hunting indiscriminately, and the moose population declined.We hoped that the oil would help our people—many did get jobs, and some are still making good money from oil—but the pipeline has also brought alcohol, drugs, and crime.With electricity came TV, and kids are learning both good and bad things from it. One of the worst things is gun violence.

The educational system taught our children to read and write in English, which is good. But it excluded the elders, so that their wisdom was in danger of being forgotten.We now bring in the youth to listen to our annual gathering of Gwich’in village elders.We encourage each other to hold on to our traditional ways and to abandon alcohol.

John Fredson is an example to other young Gwich’in.

He attended an Episcopal school, then went away to college.

After graduating, he returned home and began working to help his people claim their land.

All Alaskans now receive an annual check through revenue sharing [a program to encourage residence in Alaska—

PRISM: What was the traditional Gwich’in way of life, and how has it been changing?

TG: In the old days many people lived to be 100 or even 120. They worked very hard; some slept only two or three hours a night. Some couples had 18 or 19 children.

We used to be much more migratory. We couldn’t stay in one place too long, because the caribou migrated and their routes changed. The hunters would go ahead of the others and break the trail.The women would tear down the camp and collect wood with the little ones.With all the movement, they had to constantly repair their caribou-skin moccasins!

We always sought the Holy Spirit’s guidance on our long journeys.

There is only a short growing season along the Yukon River farther south. People in that area grow vegetables like potatoes and cabbage. In the Arctic Circle, though, we have permafrost, and the soil is not good for gardening.

We had two political parties, which corresponded to two main bloodlines. Marriages were always across party lines.

There were medicine men or shamans who did traditional curing of people’s illnesses. Used in the right way, their practice helped people. But there was a dark side, too; used wrongly, the shamans’ practices brought evil.

Since about 1960, life has been easier, but it isn’t healthy for us. Our life span is shorter now.

Gwich’in Christian Tribal Values • See connections: All things are related (Psalm 104 & Colossians 1:15-20).

• Show respect to others: Each person has a special gift (1 Corinthians 12).

• Share what you have: Giving makes you richer (2 Corinthians 8-9).

• Know who you are:You are a reflection on your family (1 Peter 2).

• Accept what life brings:You cannot control many things (Matthew 6:25-34).

• Have patience: Some things cannot be rushed (Psalm 130).

• Live carefully:What you do will come back to you (Galatians 6:7-10).

• Take care of others:You cannot live without them (1 John 3 & Romans 12).

• Honor your elders:They show you the way in life (Exodus 20:12).

• Pray for guidance: Many things are not known (Psalm 16 & Proverbs 3:5-6).

Compiled by Gwich’in elders, with Peter Illyn.

Used by permission; Scripture references added by Ruth Goring.

PRISM: What has the opening of the Alaska Oil Pipeline meant to your people?

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Pamela Miller

View from Arctic Village of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge tundra

PRISM: What is your vision for ministry among your people, on your land?

TG: My vision is to fight “development.” I want my people to stay healthy, to have clean water, to be able to continue with subsistence fishing and hunting. I want them to keep our language (which, by the way, shares some words with Apache and Navajo). I want us to retain our beliefs and identity as Athabascans, our values of sharing and respect.As the Scripture says, honor your father and mother so that you will have a long life.

The Gwich’in way is to live as one big family, close to each other.We can’t move away, because that would hurt the family.We have lived this way for thousands of years.

The Gwich’in gift is to listen and learn from God. We teach one another to love, show kindness and humility, treat others with equality.We are a strong spiritual people.We know that the way God created the world is good, and we look for the renewal of the world.We can remind others what it is to have a people and a place.

I even hope our whole country can be united based on these values.

instead of charging taxes, the government pays out oil/gas revenues of $1,000 or more annually to each resident]. Some use it well, but many don’t.There are many accidents in the weeks after the check comes. Alcohol especially has caused many losses for us over the years. Our graveyards have been getting bigger and bigger.

Global warming is doing great harm, too. For us it’s not abstract. With the loss of ice, whaling is harder for the people who depend on it. Polar bears are starving, even coming into towns to find food. In the last 10 years snowcaps have disappeared from some mountain peaks, and we are losing lakes and glaciers.

Another element of change has been the land-claim process. Native groups were supposed to come to an agreement among themselves, then negotiate with the government for laying claim to their territory. But too many people traded land for alcohol; lots of “whiskey deeds” were written in the Yakima name. I’m always telling people, “Don’t give up your land.”

Tribal corporations were formed to earn profit from the land.Too many times the corporation is then under pressure to make a profit through harvesting timber and mining.The Gwich’in resisted this process, and because of that we’re not getting large dividends. In 1988 all the Gwich’in came together, and we identified ourselves as a people of the land. Since then we’ve become something of a political force.

PRISM: Why are you urging fellow Christians to oppose drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge?

TG: The coastal plain of the refuge, which is the area of proposed drilling, is the primary calving grounds of the

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Porcupine River caribou. For us this area is so sacred that we avoid setting foot on it. We don’t want to see it become another Prudhoe Bay, where drilling has led to many oil spills each year and pollution of air and land has destroyed thousands of acres of animal habitat.

Bert Gildart

PRISM: What can outsiders do to help?

TG: We need help from everybody.The voice of young people is especially important to speak on behalf of future generations. Educating the general public is just as significant as contacting members of Congress to let them know you want the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to be protected.

The whole world needs to hear:Too much human activity is damaging the earth. Our land is one small place we’re trying to make a model for others, a place where wildlife, land, and water are protected. One of our goals is to be able to drink water from the Yukon River—we haven’t been able to do that for a long time now.We pray for the land and the caribou. I pray a blessing on the water of the Yukon, for the restoration of its purity.

The land is holy, and we all need it for our healing. ■ Ruth Goring is a poet, editor, and activist; her book of poems Yellow Doors was published recently (WordFarm, 2004). She is codirector of Chicagoans for a Peaceful Colombia (www.chicagoans.net).

Trimble Gilbert can be contacted at P.O. Box 22006,Arctic Village, AK 99722.

An accomplished fiddler, Gilbert is pictured here with Mary, his wife of over 40 years. Music is an important part of the priest’s ministry.

PROTECT THE REFUGE: Action Ideas Many organizations are working to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) from oil and gas drilling.

You, too, can pitch in.

Restoring Eden’s mission is “to make hearts bigger, hands dirtier, and voices stronger for God’s creation.” This group does advocacy within the Christian community at music festivals, on college campuses, and in speaking tours.

Its Indigenous Christian Environmental Network connects Christian tribal groups committed to stewardship of their land. Publications, lobbying events, and campus chapters are ways to get involved. peter_illyn@restoringeden.org / www.restoringeden.org The Alaska Coalition brings together over 700 conservation, sporting, labor, and religious groups working to protect Alaska’s wild public land. It works to “safeguard the health and wildness of Alaska’s public lands from the tundra of the ANWR to the Chugach and Tongass National Forests, the lush temperate rainforests that stretch from Kodiak to Prince of Wales Island in southeast Alaska.” Its website offers informative reports, a photo gallery, links to member organizations, and links to contact Congress. info@alaskacoalition.org / www.alaskacoalition.org Defenders of Wildlife has a Save the Arctic Refuge project that provides detailed analysis of the effects of Alaska oil drilling, email updates regarding the ANWR, and an online petition for refuge protection. info@defenders.org / www.savearcticrefuge.org

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