"Will US Budget Cuts Destroy A Key Arctic Wildlife Area?"

"Bernadette Demientieff says it is a 'very scary time' for the Gwich'in indigenous nation as proposed US budget legislation would open a key section of a nearly 20-million acre wildlife refuge in the Arctic up to oil-and-gas development.

The coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), a largely protected wilderness reserve in northeastern Alaska, is a key point on the migratory route of porcupine caribou herds: it is where female caribou give birth and nurse their young.

The Gwich'in - about 9,000 indigenous peoples living in more than a dozen communities in northern Canada and the United States - fear oil-and-gas drilling will threaten that delicate habitat."

Jillian Kestler-D'Amours reports for Aljazeera November 13, 2017.