*FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE*
Date: August 16, 2024
Contact: Brian Dusek, bdusek@marathonstrategies.com or John Hogan, John@marathonstrategies.com
Anchorage, AK – 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.
“This week’s bipartisan delegation to the North Slope, including Rep. Pete Stauber, Gov. Mike Dunleavy, Sen. Dan Sullivan, Rep. Mary Peltola, and members of the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources, underscores strong state and national support for North Slope Iñupiaq selfdetermination in our homelands. We unequivocally back their efforts to support economic opportunities for our communities — including Rep. Stauber’s authorship of the Alaska’s Right to Produce Act — and thank them for traveling thousands of miles to visit the lands which we have called home for generations, but for which outsiders claim superior knowledge.
“The delegation’s visit comes after months of unprecedented and unilateral action by the Biden administration’s Department of the Interior, which directly impact our ancestral homelands in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A) and Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). These actions violate the self-determination of the North Slope Iñupiat which is essential to our region’s long-term economic security, survival of our communities, and the preservation of North Slope Iñupiat culture. By visiting our communities, this bipartisan delegation witnessed firsthand the benefits of economic development and the impact of the administration’s flawed policies and their potential to stunt the economic future of the North Slope Iñupiat.
“This delegation of statewide elected leaders and congressional members to the North Slope culminates years of engagement with state and congressional lawmakers, including multiple testimonies by North Slope Indigenous leaders before the U.S. House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources led by Rep. Stauber. We look forward to continued engagement with legislative and executive officials about the North Slope’s communities, economy, culture, and self-determination.”
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About Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat
Voice of Arctic Iñupiat (“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. VOICE’s Board of Directors previously passed a resolution in opposition to the federal government’s Proposed Rule affecting the North Slope Iñupiat’s ancestral homelands in NPR-A.