Year: 2024

Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat (VOICE) and its 21 members object to today's release from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) of the final Record Of Decision (ROD) for the Coastal Plain Oil and Gas Leasing Program Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) and announcement of a minimized second lease sale for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge's (ANWR) Coastal Plain.

Today, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) released the final supplemental environmental impact statement (SEIS) and announced the second lease sale for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) Coastal Plain. As part of the SEIS, BLM and USFWS continue to ignore the North Slope Inupiat in favor of groups that do not reside in the region. Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat (VOICE), along with the people and elected leadership of Kaktovik, the only community within all of ANWR, are unified in opposition to this hasty policy move by the Biden administration.

A statement from Nagruk Harcharek, President of the Voice of Arctic Iñupiat (VOICE). VOICE is a nonprofit organization established in 2015 by the region's collective elected Iñupiat leadership and is dedicated to preserving and advancing North Slope Iñupiat cultural and economic selfdetermination. Its members include local governments, Alaska Native Corporations, federally recognized tribes, and tribal non-profits across the North Slope of Alaska.

A statement from Nagruk Harcharek, President of the Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat (VOICE). VOICE is a nonprofit organization established in 2015 by the region's collective elected Iñupiat leadership to speak with a unified voice on issues impacting the North Slope Iñupiat, their communities, their economy, and their culture. Its members include local governments, Alaska Native Corporations, federally recognized tribes, and tribal non-profits across the North Slope of Alaska.

A statement from Nagruk Harcharek, President of the Voice of Arctic Iñupiat ("VOICE"). VOICE is a nonprofit organization established in 2015 by the region's collective elected Iñupiat leadership and is dedicated to preserving and advancing North Slope Iñupiat cultural and economic self-determination. Its members include local governments, Alaska Native Corporations, federally recognized tribes, and tribal non-profits across the North Slope of Alaska. VOICE filed a lawsuit this year against the federal government to challenge its National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A) Rule and the process through which it was produced.

Today, on behalf of its 23 members and their North Slope constituents, Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat (VOICE) filed a suit to challenge the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) final rule for the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A). This rule, which was crafted without meaningful engagement with those who live on the North Slope and therefore will be most affected, will significantly hinder economic development in the region and presents serious risks to Indigenous communities and Iñupiaq culture.

After years of stonewalling the North Slope Iñupiat by declining or ignoring at least eight meeting requests, Department of the Interior (DOI) Secretary Deb Haaland met today with the region's Indigenous elected leadership to discuss the federal government's unprecedented mandates affecting their ancestral homelands, including the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A) and Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).

Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed HR 6285, "Alaska's Right to Produce Act," introduced by Rep. Pete Stauber (R-MN) in response to the Biden administration's unprecedented, unilateral September 2023 decisions impacting North Slope Iñupiat homelands within the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A) and Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). The bill would reverse the federal government's mandates in NPR-A and ANWR and reflect overwhelming opposition to the Department of the Interior (DOI)'s actions by North Slope Iñupiat communities, whose voices have repeatedly been ignored by the administration.

Today, Indigenous elected leaders from Alaska's North Slope are unified in their outrage over the Biden administration's decision to advance its September 2023 Proposed Rule from the Department of Interior (DOI) to "protect" 13 million acres of our ancestral homelands and waters located within the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A) from the very people that live there. The federal government's unilateral mandates will stymy decades of progress for the Indigenous North Slope Iñupiat, who have stewarded their homelands, which completely encompass the NPR-A, for over 10,000 years.

A statement from Nagruk Harcharek, President of the Voice of Arctic Iñupiat ("VOICE"). VOICE is a nonprofit organization established in 2015 by the region's collective elected Iñupiaq leadership and is dedicated to preserving and advancing North Slope Inupiaq cultural and economic self-determination. Its members include local governments, Alaska Native Corporations, federally recognized tribes, and tribal non-profits across the North Slope of Alaska. VOICE's Board of Directors previously passed a resolution in opposition to the federal government's Proposed Rule affecting the NPR-A, the ancestral homelands of the North Slope Iñupiat.

A statement from Nagruk Harcharek, President of the Voice of Arctic Iñupiat ("VOICE"). VOICE is a nonprofit organization established in 2015 by the region's collective elected Iñupiat leadership to speak with a unified voice on issues impacting the North Slope Iñupiat, their communities, their economy, and their culture. Its members include local governments, Alaska Native Corporations, federally recognized tribes, and tribal non-profits across the North Slope of Alaska.