Othniel Art Oomittuk: Drilling threatens our Native way of life

Traditional food from the ocean and the land provide the Inupiat with all the nutrition they need. For example, whale blubber and whale skin, eaten as muktuk, is full of vitamin C and D. Replacing a Native diet with Western food requires vegetables and fruit. All food has to be flown into the villages, and fresh food especially is extremely expensive. What is the U.S. government going to do when the Inupiat can’t live off the land and the ocean anymore? Set up a relief food supply to feed all the villagers?

Native food is more than healthy nutrition. It is a way of life. It is an essential part of the Inupiaq’s identity. It not only feeds the body, it feeds the spirit. Take that away and you cut the heart out of the Inupiat culture.

After seven years of legal battles, the Native Village of Point Hope pulled out of the court case in the spring of 2015. The majority of the people now feel that it is useless to fight. Drilling will happen anyway. And if they don’t hop on that boat they might be left with nothing. Shell is promising jobs and infrastructure. Shell is offering grants and scholarships.

“Shell is committed to being a good neighbor, minimizing the social and environmental impacts of our activities and delivering benefits for Alaskans,” as they state in a leaflet left in the village of Point Hope. Well, everybody will need a good job if they are to afford a $10 bell pepper.

I sincerely ask that Shell reconsider drilling in the Arctic, which will endanger the traditional food supply, the environment and culture of the Inupiat. I strongly urge any good neighbor to not expose people to these enormous risks to a sustainable future.