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It appears that the people living near the Yukon Flats are resistant to trade land with Doyon Ltd. because oil drilling may diminish subsistence opportunity.

Before the oil boom and its effect on the economy of Alaska, we were a poor state and a poor people. It was hard to get a job. Now, because of the oil boom, we have a $40 billion savings account from which we draw a Permanent Fund Dividend check. We have resources to support public services. We have jobs for our young people so they can proudly earn a living.

The oil came from areas referred to as “the wasteland.” Some were concerned that the habitat would be destroyed. For 30 years now, this land still provides. Land once traveled by few and valued worthless by many now not only bring us a healthy economy, but also a greater population of wildlife (per state and federal reports). Subsistence opportunities remain favorable.

In my younger years, I witnessed the oil and mining industry being destructive and wasteful. Today, we have stringent laws and regulations and require greater compliance — with severe penalties for violations. This raises my confidence that if any additional lands were to be developed, there would be protection and those lands will continue to provide for our people, not only through subsistence but through much-needed employment.

An increasing population requires more jobs and an increasing supply of wildlife. Those who live near the Yukon Flats will benefit, just as people near the North Slope oil fields have done. People who want to work have jobs, homes, businesses, lower heating costs, cheaper electricity and other benefits; yet they also have continuing subsistence opportunity. When the oil is gone, the land will still be there with all its provisions. I am confident that the Yukon Flats people will fare as well.

Can our land provide for all our needs? I don’t get around up the Yukon any more, so I don’t really know just how much the people there really use the land for their “way of life” and “as the land provides.” I assume it’s the same there as it is in the area I live and am familiar with. In our villages, I see mostly government-built homes. Some people do what they can to catch a few fish, maybe get a moose and very few are setting traps. I see an increasing dependence on government handouts: housing, energy assistance, food stamps and welfare. In comparison to when I was younger — when people really depended on the land to survive — there is very little activity on that same land today.

In the Yukon Flats maybe there lives another pair of 93-year-old eyes; I wonder if the observations of those eyes and the stories they hold can compare to mine. I know this land here; I know that it cannot provide for all of our needs. We do not have enough wildlife or fish, and if we did, we would not have enough money to buy the gas to get them. We need other resources to survive. We need education and jobs. We need less expensive energy and a greater food supply.

Please don’t take me wrong. While some of the most memorable and enjoyable parts of my life were those early years on the Koyukuk and Yukon living off the land, those years were also the most difficult. In those days, many times, the land did not provide. We experienced famine and even starvation. There were no moose, few caribou and some fish, rabbits, muskrats and birds. If someone came across a brown bear track, it was hunted down, even if it took weeks, in order to feed a village.

We cannot expect to go back to the “old ways.”

God gave us brains and what is necessary to survive. Let’s use that gift and use it wisely toward a perspective that will help us “survive” in rural Alaska. As was the value of our ancestors, where abundance exists, the concern for others must be considered. We continue to need the help of those in abundance, the Inupiaq of the North, the Yupik and yes, even the non-Native. Tomorrow we will need others who have lands that are rich with resources. Could it be that what’s available in the Yukon Flats will one day bless many?

I conclude that it would be wise and the way of our ancestors to support the Doyon/National Wildlife Refuge land trade.