Sacred Steps: Fighting For What’s Sacred In The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

For most of her life, Neets’aii Gwich’in leader Sarah James has worked to protect her homelands, including the coastal plain of the nearby Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. But, now the U.S. government wants to lease some of the area for oil exploration and drilling. In this story from The Spiritual Edge we hear how the Gwich’in tribal government is challenging those plans, which threaten land that they call sacred.

Interview by Daysha Eaton. Provided by KALW Public Radio’s Spiritual Edge Program.