Thomas Campion0:00
Washington native, third generation Washingtonian. I've been on the board of this organization for 19 of our 25 years. We were created for moments like this. Trump just put us in a position where, having done this since the late nineties, we invented this refuge. I can't see you—come up here and stand next to me. You're on the board too, and Bernadette. These are courageous women. I've lobbied with them in DC. It's hard to imagine in 2018 that you can go around the world and use your technology for these villages that have been on the Yukon River—five tribal villages on the Yukon for thousands of years. The majority of their food security and protein comes from hunting caribou when they migrate up to the coastal plain of the Arctic in spring and come back in fall. Now imagine—you fly into these villages, there are no roads. You hunt, and that's how you provide your food. That's how food has been provided to the Gwich'in Nation for thousands of years. But we're going to change that so we can export some oil to Saudi Arabia. There this week—it's insane. That's why this league was created. One of our founding board members, Jimmy Carter—President Jimmy Carter—was a passionate Alaska conservationist. These are serious times, but also maturity times. The first time we had this gathering was in honor of another great American president, the one on the Arctic: George W. Bush, in 2001. Why? Because in my living room—Sonya, my wife, was there—that was our living room. Everybody was like, 'Oh my god, we're really in trouble here.' And we're still here, and still nobody's touching the birthing grounds of the porcupine caribou. But that night, it was a winter night in hell. And Helen, surely you're up in the front of the room with me, with Schumacher and Banerjee. I had done my first trip to the Arctic that previous summer, maybe my second trip, and I said, 'Has anybody been up there?' And in the back of the room, the big D boys—we've been up there. It was a couple named Ward and Lois. They told their story that in 1969, they were in a snowstorm on the Kongakut on the coastal plain, had to forgo today, and wrote a letter to President Dick Nixon. Much like Trump, Dick Nixon didn't listen to them either. Over all these years—think back, 1969 is 49 years ago—she's still in here doing the fight. She met President Obama, talked about it. President Obama was a champion of protecting this place, but couldn't get it done with our Congress. So the fight kind of is just beginning. This is what we were created for. The whole Congress economy is more important than ever. And on the legal side, with our attorneys and the Gwich'in steering committee, the Gwich'in Nation's attorneys, we've got a plan B. We've got a plan. We've been tough. We've got a whole hour of lecturing stuff. The champion from this state is Maria Cantwell. We've been up there camping with her. After visiting the refuge with me in 2005, she led a filibuster. Last time this Republican Congress had this idea, it was funding the Iraq war. Now it's going to go for tax cuts—they don't really go for tax cuts, but go to Alaskans. So the fight kind of is just beginning, and it's for all of us. Thank Maria and keep pressure on all of our electives. Elect people who want to protect the heritage of public lands like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. So I'm humbly asking you, as I've done for 20 years doing this now, to give your support. It's going to go to the legal, it's going to go to get more activists back, get the Gwich'in back talking to leaders, going to Interior to say, 'Can't do this, this is wrong. This is going to destroy us as a people from the standpoint of food security.' And of course, they are very ignorant about how it actually works up there. So it's a big lift, but this country's been around for a long time, and the Gwich'in have been around for a lot longer. We've been a country for thousands of years. So I'm honored to work with you guys and proud to stand up again despite the safest place. So support us if you have before—we've got a lot of our great supporters in the room. If not, help us as we continue this go. Thank you.
