The Gwich'in and Oil Development
Arctic Village, one of most remote communities in the United States, sits at the edge of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge on the southern slopes of the Brooks Range.
The Gwich'in Athabaskan subsist on the Porcupine caribou herd that migrate through this region and historically calve on the coastal plain of ANWR.
Perennially, Alaskan politicians endeavor to open a portion of ANWR to oil drilling. However, the inhabitants of Arctic Village have remained loyal to 15,000 years of subsistence from caribou and unite with the 15 other Gwich'in villages in Alaska and Canada to protect the herd and their calving grounds from oil exploration.
These images reflect on the oft unseen lives of some of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge's closest human inhabitants.
Body of work originally contracted by Al Jazeera America with words by Julia O' Malley. http://projects.aljazeera.com/2015/03/arctic-village/