A welcome sign is pictured in Utqiagvik on Aug. 2, 2022. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
Leaders are defined by their capacity to leave behind a legacy that yields lasting, positive change. As Alaska’s North Slope Iñupiat reflect on the Biden administration, we are certain its legacy in our region will be that of an inconsistency, particularly in its approach to engaging with our people on decisions impacting our homelands. This shortcoming creates significant opportunity for the Trump-Vance administration to cement a more positive legacy with Indigenous communities, including the North Slope Iñupiat.
The past 30 days have underscored the importance of our North Slope homelands to the Trump-Vance administration’s agenda. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, in particular, should play a central role in driving a more consistent approach that includes and respects Indigenous voices throughout the policymaking process. It is imperative that federal decisionmakers, as well as congressional representatives, meet early and often with North Slope Iñupiat elected leaders to create durable laws that meaningfully address our communities’ unique challenges.
We know the importance of consultation – and what happens when the federal government ignores our voices in the policymaking process – through our experiences with the Biden administration. In September 2023, the U.S. Department of the Interior stunned our region by announcing new policies affecting our ancestral homelands in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. We have lived on these lands for thousands of years, and they are essential for our economy, our communities, and the strength of our Iñupiaq culture. Yet we were left wholly out of the policymaking process and blindsided by the new policies, only finding out about them in the news.
This announcement was jarring after the same administration reauthorized the Willow Project. The initial authorization heavily involved our communities and their elected leadership, a process which was characterized by strong engagement with the North Slope Iñupiat — including 215 days of public comment and 25 public meetings in which we actively participated to ensure our voice was heard. The final record of decision made it clear that DOI respected our feedback and approved a process that reflected our communities’ interests.
There are other isolated examples of inclusive policy processes by the federal government that yielded positive outcomes for our people. Our communities cheered when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced a grant providing $2.5 million to clean up contaminated lands conveyed by Washington to Alaska Native communities, including the former Naval Arctic Research Laboratory in Utqiaġvik. We and other Indigenous communities across the country were heartened by former Secretary Haaland’s “Road to Healing” that acknowledged the terrible pain and long-term consequences of forced cultural assimilation in U.S. Indigenous boarding schools in the 19th and 20th centuries. These were unequivocal wins for our people that showed the federal government was listening to our concerns.
Yet these positive developments also highlighted a disturbing truth. In its wildly inconsistent policy approach to Indigenous lands and people, the Biden administration seemed to only value our voices in the policy process when they were in agreement with the administration’s preferred outcome.
Because the North Slope Iñupiat disagreed with the federal government concerning our NPR-A and ANWR homelands, we were blocked from the policymaking process and left unheard.
Similarly, the federal government rejected out of hand a formal appeal by our tribal government for emergency support following a broadband outage that left most of our region, an area roughly the size of Minnesota, without telecommunications for over three months, choosing not to even engage with us to understand this incident’s severe impact on community services.
The previous administration’s fair-weather relationship with laws and procedures regarding engagement with the North Slope Iñupiat and other Indigenous communities across the country gives the Trump-Vance administration and Secretary Burgum an opportunity to succeed where their predecessors failed. They are already seizing this chance with their response to our second broadband outage in two years, with the Bureau of Land Management, as well as stakeholders in the Federal Emergency Management Agency, working toward approval of permits for a terrestrial fiber-optic line redundancy — though the clock is ticking to be able to meet deadlines for this summer’s construction season.
This promising response to an ongoing crisis in our region represents a first step in building a stronger partnership between our region and the federal government. An important second step is for the new administration to follow the law where the last administration chose not to: namely, meaningful engagement and consultation with the North Slope Iñupiat on all issues affecting our lands and people. This includes more complex issues that require direct feedback from the communities most affected by the policies in question, not just on issues we agree.
Going forward, it is important that the Trump-Vance administration and Secretary Burgum enshrine in their policy process direct and regular engagement with Indigenous communities. Consultations with our elected leadership is not a matter of convenience, but rather essential to crafting successful, enduring policy. We have stewarded our Indigenous homelands for thousands of years and know them better than anyone. It’s finally time to recognize our knowledge by creating space for the North Slope Iñupiat at the policymaking table.
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