THE CARIBOU IS OUR LIFELINE

VM. 014

“To the Gwich'in people, the caribou is our lifeline. Our community members depend on it. Our children, our grandchildren that are yet to come. Our animals, our fish are the very existence of the Gwich'in people. Their habitats that they have migrated and depended on for millennia would be destroyed if drilling came. Growing older, I see what drilling has done to the native lands across the world.

There is a reason ANWR [Arctic National Wildlife Refuge] is being protected, and the caribou are being protected. The geese, swans, cranes, ducks, and little birds all have had the instinct to know exactly where to go to have their young. The instinct somehow in their DNA. They know where to go. And it's up here in the Arctic. Why can't our leaders down in DC respect and trust these animals?

Our ability to connect with the land and the animals through our culture and through our communities in Alaska, that's how we take care of the caribou and the waterfowl. Please help raise the awareness. Raise your voices to protecting the Arctic Refuge and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to help stand with the Gwich'in. Help protect the Arctic for future generations and protect the Porcupine caribou.”

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