Precis

In the dying weeks of summer, the indigenous Alaskan Gwich’in people do what they’ve done for millennia. Hunt the caribou, so they can feed their people over the coming winter.

“Our ancestors lived and survived off these animals, off this land, for thousands of years”, says Gwich’in elder Sarah, as she dries the caribou meat in the smokehouse.

Now the Gwich’in tribe fears a new proposal to drill for oil in Alaska’s north could endanger their fragile land and traditions.

As Alaska’s most productive oil field runs low, the Trump administration is pushing ahead with a plan to explore for new supplies in the country’s largest protected wilderness – the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve.

The Gwich’in people worry it could disrupt the caribous’ calving grounds and are fighting the proposal.

Hundreds of kilometres north, some members of the Inupiat tribe, which owns part of the land where the drilling is planned, have voted to support the plan.

“The community are for the oil companies so we can get more, better things”, says Marie, an Inupiat elder.

Alaska is dependent on oil. It provides up to 90% of its revenue, and around one third of its jobs.

The Inupiat hope the revenue from new oil fields will help support their remote communities.

In her last major trip as US correspondent and eight months in the making, Zoe Daniel travels to the remote, northern edges of Alaska to see this stunning landscape and meet its remarkable people.

She joins young Gwich’in on a hunt, tastes smoked caribou and whale meat, and flies in to visit the remote wilderness where oil exploration may soon begin.

As these two communities face a difficult debate over drilling, both are aware of the environmental risks. As climate change melts the Arctic ice sheets, polar bears are roaming closer on the hunt for food.

One young Gwich’in leader is determined to fight to protect what they have.

“I see a lot of people that never usually work together unite. And I have to hold on to that hope.”

Episode teaser

Music

00:00

ZOE DANIEL, Reporter:  Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, known as ANWR. Protected by the US government but, also contested, for decades. Here, animals roam in a pristine wilderness, in one of the last places of its kind on earth. But it’s under threat.

00:06

DONALD TRUMP, US President: ANWR in Alaska, one of the great sites of energy in the world.

00:28

ZOE DANIEL, Reporter: The Trump administration plans to allow drilling here, for oil and gas.

00:27

Bernadette:  We still live off of our land. That is our survival. That's all we know.

00:46

End Teaser

Marie: You don't live here and you are making rules for us. What are those rules doing for us?

00:55

Super:
Kaktovik, Alaska

Robert:  "We're going to go and see some bears; there's lots of them over there."

Zoe: "Let's do it."

01:18

Super:
Reporter
Zoe Daniel

01:22

Title:
At the Edge of the Earth

Music

01:29

Drone shot over Kaktovik and ocean

ZOE DANIEL, Reporter:  Clinging to the icy tundra on the shore of the Beaufort sea and the Arctic Ocean is Kaktovik. It’s an unlikely tourist hotspot at the edge of the world.

01:33

Thompson on boat with Zoe to polar bears

Music

01:46

Polar bears

ZOE DANIEL, Reporter:  A resident of more than 30 years, today local guide Robert Thompson is taking me out into the lagoon, to view the main attraction - the polar bears.

01:55

Music

02:08

Thompson interview

ROBERT THOMPSON, Guide:  They were always around, but now there are more and more now, because their habitat has gone away. The ice is melting and they got to come ashore. It’s at that point where they sink or swim. The ice that they're floating on breaks up and a lot have come ashore. Some don't make it.

02:17

Music

02:35

Polar  bears

ZOE DANIEL, Reporter:  It’s utterly breathtaking to see the polar bears in their natural environment, but it’s also

02:42

Zoe to camera

kind of sad when you consider that just a few decades ago there would have been ice right up to the edge of the village and now it's hundreds of kilometres away.

02:47

Zoe watches Polar bears

Scientists estimate that there are about 25,000 polar bears left in the wild. Here in the US, they’re listed as a threatened species and they may be extinct in Alaska by 2050.

02:57

Tourist boats

That makes Kaktovik a bleak mecca for tourists, keen to catch a glimpse and a photo of polar bears in the wild before they’re gone.

03:13

Tourists take photos of bears

03:24

Tourist vox pops

Tourist #1: Alaska has always been on my bucket list. This is my second trip to Alaska.

03:30

Tourist #2:  Polar bears! They’re incredibly adorable. You just look at them and you just want to play with them. Of course it’s not safe.

03:35

Sunset over ocean

Music

03:44

ROBERT THOMPSON, Guide:  We see these bears and they are beautiful to see, and nice and everything,

03:48

Thompson on boat

but they’re in peril. They’re going to be gone, they’ll become extinct. And people caused it. And now that we're aware of it, we should do what we could to mitigate it. But not many people are, especially the president we have now. He's taken us out of the Paris Agreement

03:52

Thompson and Zoe

and everywhere we turn around, they're trying to open up more resources for development, even here in the Arctic.

04:13

Polar bear

Music

04:19

Kaktovik and environs GVs

04:26

ZOE DANIEL, Reporter: Kaktovik and its surrounds are at the centre of a battle between big oil and conservation. Less than 200 kilometres from here is the country’s most productive oil field – Prudhoe Bay.

04:35

Music

04:49

Drone shot oil pipeline

ZOE DANIEL, Reporter:  This is the trans-Alaskan pipeline which traverses three mountain ranges and more than 500 rivers and streams across icy tundra,

05:00

Zoe to camera beside pipeline

from the top to the bottom of Alaska to deliver oil to Americans. And of course that’s what it’s all about, delivering energy to a hungry nation which even now continues to increase its consumption of crude oil.

05:11

Drone shot oil pipeline

As the oil field begins to runs low, Donald Trump has big plans to open up ANWR,

05:26

Zoe driving

but not without a fight. I’m on my way to meet the indigenous people leading the opposition.

05:35

Alaskan flags/Fairbanks GVs

Music

05:48

Super:
Fairbanks, Alaska

05:56

Boy with basketball, into Bernadette's house

06:05

ZOE DANIEL, Reporter:  The Gwich’in are made up of 15 communities across Alaska and Canada.

06:13

Zoe with Bernadette

Bernadette Demientieff is co-ordinating the campaign from the central Alaskan city of Fairbanks.

06:4

Bernadette with young son at trampoline

BERNADETTE DEMIENTIEFF:  Our ancestors lived and survived off this land for thousands of years, and now we have a government coming in and saying you can destroy

06:40

Bernadette interview

what we've held sacred for so long. We don't have the option of turning it off at five o'clock. This is not a nine to five job. We're always worried. We're not only being attacked by this government, but we're being attacked by climate change. And I worry, I worry about my children's survival. Everything that I know now, I cannot un-know, and that's why I think it's important that we use our voices.

06:48

Arctic Village GVs. Super:
Arctic Village, Alaska

Music

07:17

ZOE DANIEL, Reporter: Most Gwich’in live in remote areas, like Arctic Village, an aptly named settlement on the edge of the Arctic Circle.

07:21

The only way to get here is by air.

07:33

Zoe off plane at Arctic Village and onto bike with Bernadette

Music

07:43

ZOE DANIEL, Reporter:  It’s home to about 150 people.

07:51

Arctic Village GVs

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07:55

ZOE DANIEL, Reporter:   Everything in the remote community is flown in, and prices are high.  People here rely on hunting the caribou to get them through the long winter months.

08:07

Zoe, to camera  on quad bike

It’s a beautiful late summer night up here, but the season can and will change really soon, so it’s time for these guys to get the caribou while they’re around, and tonight they’ve been kind enough to bring us out on a hunt.

08:35

Drone shot. Zoe on bike to caribou hunt

Music

08:49

JERRALD JOHN:  When I first harvest my first caribou I was nine. Even at a young age they started teaching us only take what you need. That's when I was really introduced

08:59

Jerrald interview

to this fight, to protect these, you know, protect our land. 

09:12

Jerrald and others hunt caribou

ZOE DANIEL, Reporter:  While hunting is a rite of passage, the tribe’s young men, like Jerrald John, see themselves as custodians of the land and animals.

09:16

JERRALD JOHN: This land was set aside for us and we're doing our job, protecting it as land keepers.

09:30

Jerrald butchers caribou

When we hand it out you know we cut it up into pieces and make sure that everybody gets a good meal.

Shay: "I'll bring it to my grandma."

Jerrald: "Yeah, take it home."

Shay: "Bring it home to grandma."

09:50

JERRALD JOHN:   This is the way that we were taught, and this is the way we practice, and this is the way we can pass on our teachings.

10:09

Zoe to camera

ZOE DANIEL, Reporter:  The guys have killed this one caribou, and you can see that they're starting to process it in the field. They've pulled the entrails out, they're taking the skin off, and then they're going to pack it down to the village and cut it up and distribute it to the community, and they really pride themselves on nothing going to waste. And that's out of respect for the animal.

10:20

Zoe with Sarah James, tasting caribou

Sarah:  These are half-dried caribou strip. Little bit of fat, and that's how we eat it. To make it even taste better…

10:55

ZOE DANIEL, Reporter: Sarah James is one of the Gwich’in elders.

11:08

Sarah:  Heart is very tender, good for toothless people. So I got one piece of heart, that's how they spread it out and they smoke it.

11:12

Sarah preserving meat

ZOE DANIEL, Reporter:  Right now, as winter looms, she’s busy preserving caribou meat, which has been the staple food for the Gwich’in for generations.

11:25

Sarah interview

SARAH JAMES:  We were one whole nation of people and we call ourselves Nááts’ihch’oh Gwich'in in the bow and arrow days. And that's how we always live. We were colonised into village because they forced western education on us, to have a school or to have our kids to go to school, we have to colonise into a village where we can survive.

11:36

Sarah with caribou antlers

ZOE DANIEL, Reporter:  Sarah James has been campaigning for much of her life to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.  Her community is deeply concerned that drilling for oil and gas will disrupt the caribou migration.

12:07

Sarah sawing caribou. Family photos

SARAH JAMES:  I'm seventy-five years old and I can remember since 1950.

12:22

Sarah interview

It's always been my way of life. Protect the caribou, it's nothing new and nothing new to any one of us. It's our way of life.

12:35

Sarah and Zoe on boat

Music

12:48

SARAH JAMES:  Everywhere around us is near the oil, made by oil, or using oil. And the oil company is powerful. We had a great education to do, because they don't even know there was Gwich'in, they don't even know there was Arctic Village. Some of them don't even know there was Arctic Refuge.

12:53

Drone shots tundra

Music

13:20

ZOE DANIEL, Reporter: The oil companies want access to the area known as the 1002, a 1.5 million acre swathe of tundra, at the top of the refuge. This is where the far roaming porcupine caribou give birth.

13:27

Zoe and Sarah sit by river

SARAH JAMES:  It's a sacred ground, it's a birthplace. Like when I was going to have my baby boy,

13:10

Sarah interview

I wanted a place where it's quiet, clean, private, and every life needs that. “Iizhik gwats’an gwandaii goodlit”, that means “sacred place where the life begin”. To us, it's also our birthplace, because if it wasn't for the caribou, we won't be here today.

13:47

View of tundra and Brooks Range from plane

Music

14:10

ZOE DANIEL, Reporter:  To get to the 1002 from Arctic Village you have to cross the 1100 kilometre long Brooks Range - the highest mountains in the Arctic Circle.

14:19

Map. Alaska showing ANWR and Kaktovik and 1002 Area

Music

14:34

ZOE DANIEL, Reporter:   The more than 19 million acre Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is the largest protected wilderness in the United States. This narrow strip where the refuge meets the sea, is home to many of the Arctic's diverse wildlife species.

14:38

Drone shots. ANWR

Music

14:57

Zoe to camera at ANWR

ZOE DANIEL, Reporter:   This is the heart of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, one of the most pristine environments in the world. And it’s here that the Trump administration and the oil companies want to drill.

15:01

Drone shots. ANWR

Music

15:13

Zoe: This is where the caribou have their babies?

Fran:  This is

15:22

Zoe walks with Fran on caribou calving ground

part of  the calving grounds of the porcupine caribou herd that we're walking on right here.

15:26

ZOE DANIEL, Reporter: I’m here with retired biologist and conservationist Fran Mauer. He’s a caribou expert who’s spent more than 20 years studying this special place.

15:30

Fran shows female caribou antler

FRAN MAUER: :  This is a shed antler from an adult female caribou. When you find antlers laying on the tundra, a cow's antler, you're in a calving ground.

15:40

1002 Area GVs

ZOE DANIEL, Reporter: It’s unclear how much oil actually lies under the tundra. An exploratory well drilled in the mid-'80s  apparently delivered meagre results, but the oil companies won’t release the details. Now, the Trump administration wants to sell off the drilling leases by the end of this year.

FRAN MAUER:  In my opinion, the rush is to sell leases before there’s another election.

15:54

Fran interview

It’s as simple as that, because they know that the American people ultimately do not want this, and they’re trying to push it through while they have the votes and the power in the White House to do it. It’s a crime. Quite honestly, the American people are being robbed.

16:17

1002 Area GVs/Caribou

ZOE DANIEL, Reporter:  If the leases are approved, this landscape could be crisscrossed with airstrips, roads pipelines and treatment plants.

FRAN MAUER:  All the years working up here,

16:44

Fran interview

I feel that the land is speaking for them through us. I think that's what's happening. I'm sorry.

ZOE DANIEL, Reporter:  Your emotion comes from deep concern?

FRAN MAUER:  Absolutely. Yes.

ZOE DANIEL, Reporter:  And what is that?

FRAN MAUER:  The colossal disaster if we lose this precious place.

17:12

Drone shot. Tundra

It's a great loss to all of mankind.

17:53

Kaktovik town GVs. Super:
Kaktovik, Alaska

18:07

ZOE DANIEL, Reporter:  Kaktovik is the only town within the refuge. It’s home to the Inupiat people.

18:18

The majority of residents here support drilling for oil in the 1002.

18:28

Whale hunting preparations

18:40

For generations, the Inupiat have hunted bowhead whales.

18:48

On boat

MARIE REXFORD:  The waters are a lot warmer than usual.

18:58

Marie interview

We don't have any icebergs like we should. And it's been happening for how many years in a row now? It’s really weird not to see icebergs out there.

19-04

Marie and Zoe on boat

ZOE DANIEL, Reporter:   Fifty-six year old Marie Rexford has gone whaling most of her life.

MARIE REXFORD:   I've been going out since I was 16; it teaches you patience.

19:16

You learn to control your fear, adrenaline. (laughs)

19:29

Whale remains

ZOE DANIEL, Reporter:  They have the right to kill three whales each year which they divide up to feed the community.

19:36

Marie interview

What does it taste like?

MARIE REXFORD:   Whale. (laughs)

19:45

Marie eats whale meat.

Mmm. You gotta have a bite. It’s good, finger licking good.

19:55

Zoe tries meat

You can stick your finger in there and try. It's tangy. We like tangy food… It's tangy, it's good.

Zoe:  Actually it’s all right.

Marie:  Yeah, it's good.

20:07

Polar bear walks within town. Shots fired. Bear Patrol

20:34

ZOE DANIEL, Reporter:  The whale meat attracts the polar bears into the village, and the locals run a 24/7 polar bear patrol.

20:40

MARIE REXFORD:  They're smelling it. And they want to get to it.

20:53

Marie interview

And there's no way to get their seal right now. They got no ice to hunt seal, so they're coming in to try and get whatever they can.

20:57

ZOE DANIEL, Reporter: Do you feel sorry for the bears?

MARIE REXFORD:  No.

ZOE DANIEL, Reporter:  Why not?

21:08

MARIE REXFORD:  I live with them all my life. They're a nuisance for me. They get my good food. I could make money off of their fur. (laughs)

21:13

Kaktovik GVs

Music

21:25

ZOE DANIEL, Reporter:  There’s not much money here in Kaktovik; the oil industry is the main source of income, helping fund the school, and basic services like power and sewerage. 

21:41

Music

21:51

Driving to ice cellar

ZOE DANIEL, Reporter:  Recently, the oil companies paid for an ice cellar to keep whale meat safe from the polar bears.

21:59

Zoe at Matthew at ice cellar

Matthew Rexford is president of the Kaktovik Inupiat Corporation.

22:16

Inside ice cellar

MATTHEW REXFORD:  With all these heavy metals and stainless steel and all this heavy equipment, it tends to be more bear-proof.

22:24

ZOE DANIEL, Reporter:   Yes. I don't think any bear's getting in there. Also, if it did, getting it out might be quite difficult.

MATTHEW REXFORD: Oh, yes. Yes.

22:32

Driving back to Kaktovik from ice cellar

Music

22:41

Zoe walks with Marie

ZOE DANIEL, Reporter:  Marie Rexford is Matthew’s mum.  She is pragmatic about the choices they’ve made.

MARIE REXFORD:  The community are for the oil companies wanting to drill. When I first heard about it

22:51

Marie interview

I didn’t like it at all, but I saw the opportunities, what it can do for our young kids. I think it’ll help us.

23:06

Kaktovik GVs

ZOE DANIEL, Reporter:  When the refuge was established, the Inupiat of Kaktovik weren’t consulted. After generations of government interference, Marie is clear on who should make decisions about her land.

MARIE REXFORD:   God gave us this land to live on.

23:25

Marie interview

For us to do, right. Not the government. We're the people that live here. So why should they all get involved in how we live up here. We're doing fine. Everything's still here.

ZOE DANIEL, Reporter:  Except the ice.

MARIE REXFORD:  Except the ice. That's not us. It's whatever they're doing down there that's coming up here.

23:48

Everybody's getting involved in our problems. We live here. We make the rules. Not them. You don't live here. We do.  We shouldn't have to listen to them.

24:18

ZOE DANIEL, Reporter:  Wouldn't not drilling for oil help protect your way of life?

MARIE REXFORD:  Probably.

ZOE DANIEL, Reporter: But you're saying, 'do it anyway'.

24:38

MARIE REXFORD:  It's going to happen. They say it's just going to happen. It's happening already. As much as we don't want it to.

DONALD TRUMP, US President: ANWR in Alaska,

25:00

Drone shots. Kaktovik

one of the great sites of energy in the world. And I didn't think it was a big deal, and then one day a friend of mine who was in the oil business called, 'Is it true that you have ANWR in the bill?' I said 'I don't know, who cares'. He said, 'Well you know, Reagan tried. Every single president tried, and not one president was successful in getting it. The Bushes, everybody.' I said 'You got to be kidding, I love it now.' And after that we fought like hell

25:08

Capitol building

to get ANWR.

Bernadette:  Creator, we ask you for guidance today. We ask you to guide us in the right direction, provide us the knowledge that we need

25:35

Bernadette leads group prayer, Washington, DC

to protect our homelands and protect the porcupine caribou herd and all the animals that make their way to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

ZOE DANIEL, Reporter: Gwich’in leader Bernadette Demientieff takes the fight to Washington, DC.

25:51

Bernadette and Gwich'in Nation members outside Capitol building

BERNADETTE DEMIENTIEFF:  I'm always away from my family and trying to educate the world on what my elders told us.

26:06

Bernadette interview

They're the ones who lived and survived off these lands. They're the ones who got knowledge from thousands and thousands and thousands of years of being here. Of living here.

26:14

Bernadette speech, Washington

"We are not only here to use our voices for our people, but for all people. For your children and your grandchildren.  We are here to speak for our animals, because they can't tell us when they're sick, they can't tell us when they're hungry. And they can't tell us about the impacts that they're dealing with, with climate change.  We should not have to trade our culture for oil and gas."

26:24

Capitol building

ZOE DANIEL, Reporter:  Recently the Democrat held house voted to prevent drilling, but while the administration is determined to push ahead, the fight isn’t over yet.

26:49

Zoe and Bernadette walk

Music

27:00

BERNADETTE DEMIENTIEFF:  I think we're going to come together to stand up against this administration.

27:05

Bernadette interview

I see it. I see a lot of people that never usually work together, unite. And I have to hold on to that hope.

27:12

Bears at sunset

Music

27:30

Credits [see below]

27:57

Outpoint

29:00