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Banner day: Activists display anti-drilling message throughout state

Published 10:30 pm Tuesday, October 20, 2020

By Peter Segall

A banner protesting resource extraction in the Arctic was hung from a building in downtown Juneau on Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2020. Similar banners were hung in cities around the state and nation, part of a protest mounted by Alaska Native activists. (Peter Segall / Juneau Empire)
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A banner protesting resource extraction in the Arctic was hung from a building in downtown Juneau on Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2020. Similar banners were hung in cities around the state and nation, part of a protest mounted by Alaska Native activists. (Peter Segall / Juneau Empire)

A banner protesting resource extraction in the Arctic was hung from a building in downtown Juneau on Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2020. Similar banners were hung in cities around the state and nation, part of a protest mounted by Alaska Native activists. (Peter Segall / Juneau Empire)
A banner protesting resource extraction in the Arctic was hung from a building in downtown Juneau on Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2020. On social media, activists posted photos of the banner in cities around the state and nation, and even as far away as London. (Peter Segall / Juneau Empire)

Activists displayed a banner from a downtown building Wednesday, declaring Alaska’s Northwest Arctic Refuge “not for sale.”

Part of an effort coordinated by two Alaska Native activist groups, Defend the Sacred Alaska and Native Movement, banners were placed in downtown Juneau, Anchorage, Fairbanks in Alaska. They were also unfurled in cities across the nation and even as far away as the United Kingdom, where activists placed a banner inside the British Museum.

The text of the banner reads “Sacred Lands Not For Sale — Stop Arctic Oil Extraction” and is a reference to the Trump administration’s decision in August to begin leasing tracts of land in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for resource development.

[Lawsuits challenge drilling plan in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge]

“Extraction on the coastal plain has been opposed for decades by both Gwich’in and Iñupiaq advocates. Known as ‘The Sacred Place Where Life Begins’ to the Gwich’in Nation, the coastal plain is vital to the health of the Porcupine caribou herd. This land has also sustained the Iñuit since time immemorial and continues to sustain the Kaktovik People today,” the groups said in a joint news release.

The release said banners were scheduled to be dropped in Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Denver, Chicago, Houston, Dallas, Charlotte, Washington, D.C. and Boston. Photos of the banners hanging in cities around the state and nation are being posted on social media.

“Indigenous leaders and allies across the country will join the efforts of Alaskans in calling on corporations and the Trump administration to put a stop to this fast-tracked sham of a process to extract Arctic oil with a blatant disregard for Indigenous human rights,” the release said.

Native Movement Juneau did not immediately respond to request for comment.

• Contact reporter Peter Segall at psegall@juneauempire.com. Follow him on Twitter at @SegallJnuEmpire.

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