♪♪♪ zoe daniel: alaska's arctic national wildlife refuge known as anwr, protected by the us government, but also contested for decades. here, animals roam in a pristine wilderness in one of the last places of its kind on earth, but it's under threat. [gunshot] donald trump: anwr in alaska, one of the great sites of energy in the world. zoe: the trump administration plans to allow drilling here for oil and gas.

bernadette demientieff: we still live off of our land. that is our survival. that's all we know. marie rexford: you don't live here and you're making rules for us. what are those rules doing for us? ♪♪♪ [engine running] robert thompson: hey, we're going to go see some bears, there's lots of them over there. zoe: let's do it. ♪♪♪ zoe: clinging to the icy tundra on the shore of the beaufort sea in the arctic ocean is kaktovik. it's an unlikely tourist hotspot at the edge of the world.

♪♪♪ robert: i'll go over there, i'm sure we'll see some bears there. zoe: a resident of more than 30 years, today, local guide robert thompson is taking me out into the lagoon to view the main attraction, the polar bears. ♪♪♪ robert: they were always around, but they're more and more now because their habitat's going away. the ice is melting out there, and they got to come ashore, come to the point where they got to sink or swim. the ice that they're floating on breaks up, lot of them come ashore. some don't make it. ♪♪♪ zoe: it's utterly breathtaking to see the polar

bears in their natural environment, but it's also kind of sad when you consider that just a few decades ago, there would have been ice right up to the edge of the village, and now it's hundreds of kilometers away. zoe: scientists estimate that there are about 25,000 polar bears left in the wild. here in the us, they're listed as a threatened species, and they may be extinct in alaska by 2050. that makes kaktovik a bleak mecca for tourists keen to catch a glimpse and a photo of polar bears in the wild before they're gone. [camera shutters clicking] male: close up, you don't see as much of a difference in-- female: alaska has always been on my bucket list. this is my second trip to alaska. female: polar bears, they're incredibly adorable. i mean, you just look at them, you just want to play with them. of course, it's not safe.

robert: we see these bears and they are beautiful to see and nice and everything, but they're in peril. they're going to be gone. they'll become extinct. and people caused it. and now that we're aware of it, we should do what we could to mitigate it, but not many people are, especially the president we have now. he's taking us out of the paris agreement, and everhere we turn around, they're trying to open up more resources for development, even here in the arctic. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ zoe: kaktovik and its surrounds are at the center of a battle between big oil and conservation.

less than 200 kilometers from here is the country's most productive oil field, prudhoe bay. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ zoe: this is the trans-alaskan pipeline which traverses three mountain ranges and more than 500 rivers and streams across icy tundra from the top to the bottom of alaska to deliver oil to americans. and of course that's what it's all about, delivering energy to a hungry nation, which even now continues to increase its consumption of crude oil. zoe: as the oil field begins to run low, donald trump has big plans to open up anwr, but not without a fight. ♪♪♪

zoe: i'm on my way to meet the indigenous people leading the opposition. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ zoe: the gwich'in are made up of 15 communities across alaska and canada. bernadette: this one is sealskin. zoe: bernadette demientieff is coordinating the campaign from the central alaskan city of fairbanks. bernadette: baby! [both laughing] bernadette: our ancestors lived and survived off this land

for thousands of years, and now we have a government coming in and saying that you can destroy what we've held sacred for so long. and we don't have the option of turning it off at 5 o'clock. this is not a 9 to 5 job. like, we're always worried. we're not only being attack by this government, but we're being attacked by climate change. and i worry, i worry about my children's survival. everything that i know now, i cannot unknow. and that's why i think it's important that we use our voices. zoe: most gwich'in live in remote areas like arctic village, an aptly named settlement on the edge of the arctic circle. the only way to get here is by air. ♪♪♪

♪♪♪ zoe: it's home to about 150 people. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ everything in the remote community is flown in and prices are high. people here rely on hunting the caribou to get them through the long winter months. girl: bye-bye, bye-bye, bye-bye. [engine running] [engine running] zoe: it's a beautiful late summer night up here, but the season can and will change really soon. so it's time for these guys to get the caribou

while they're around, and tonight they've been kind enough to bring us out on a hunt. ♪♪♪ gerald john: when i first harvest my first caribou, i was nine. even at a young age, they started teaching us only take what you need. that's when i was really introduced to, you know, this fight, you know, to protect these--you know, to protect our land. zoe: while hunting is a rite of passage, the tribe's young men like gerald john see themselves as custodians of the land and animals. gerald: this land was set aside for us, and we're doing our job, you know, protecting it, you know, as land keepers.

[gunshot] gerald: we hand it out, you know, we cut it up into pieces and make sure that, you know, everybody gets a good meal. male: yeah, i'll bring it to my grandma. gerald: oh yeah, take it home. male: i'll bring it home to grandma elsie. gerald: this is the way that we were taught, and this is the way we practice, and this is the way we pass on our teachings. zoe: the guys have killed this one caribou, and you can see that they're starting to process it in the field. they've pulled the entrails out, they're taking the skin off, and then they're going to pack it down to the village, and cut it up, and distribute it to the community. and they really pride themselves on nothing going to waste, and that's out of respect to the animal.

[wind blowing] sarah james: get all ready, and then we eat, then we go to sleep. these are half dry caribou strip. little bit of fat, and that's how we eat it. they make it even taste better. zoe: sarah james is one of the gwich'in elders. sarah: heart is very tender and it could be good for toothless people, and--so i got a--one piece of heart. that's how they spread it out, and they smoke it. zoe: right now as winter looms, she's busy preserving caribou meat, which has been the staple food for the gwich'in for generations. sarah: we were one whole nation of people, and we call ourself nááts'ihch'oh gwich'in during the bow and arrow days.

and that's how we always live. we were colonized into village because they forced western education on us. and to have a school or to have our kids to go to school, we have to colonize into a village where we can survive. zoe: sarah james has been campaigning for much of her life to protect the arctic national wildlife refuge. her community is deeply concerned that drilling for oil and gas will disrupt the caribou migration. [sawing and chopping] sarah: i'm 75 years old and i can remember since 1950, and it's always been my way of life, protect the caribou. it's nothing new, and nothing new to any one of us.

it's our way of life. ♪♪♪ sarah: ♪♪♪ zoe: the oil companies want access to the area known as the 1002, a 1.5 million acre swathe of tundra at the top of the refuge. this is where the far-roaming porcupine caribou give birth. sarah: it's a sacred ground, it's a birth place, a place--like, when i was gonna

have my baby boy, i wanted a place where it's quiet, clean, private. and every life needs that. [speaking in foreign language] that means a sacred place where the life begin. and to us it's a--it's also our birthplace because if it wasn't for the caribou, we won't be here today. ♪♪♪ zoe: to get to the 1002 from arctic village, you have to cross the 1100 kilometer-long brooks range, the highest mountains in the arctic circle. ♪♪♪ the more-than-19 million acre arctic national wildlife refuge is the largest protected wilderness in the united states.

this narrow strip where the refuge meets the sea is home to many of the arctic's diverse wildlife species. ♪♪♪ zoe: this is the heart of the arctic national wildlife refuge, one of the most pristine environments in the world, and it's here that the trump administration and the oil companies want to drill. ♪♪♪ zoe: this is where the caribou have their babies? fran mauer: this--part of the calving grounds of the porcupine caribou here, what we're walking on right here. zoe: i'm here with retired biologist and conservationist fran mauer. he's a caribou expert, who spent more than 20 years studying this special place. mauer: this is a shed antler from an adult female caribou.

when you find antlers laying on the tundra, you're in a--cow antlers, you're in a calving ground. zoe: it's unclear how much oil actually lies under the tundra. an exploratory well drilled in the mid-'80s apparently delivered meager results, but the oil companies won't relee the details. now, the trump administration wants to sell off the drilling leases by the end of this year. mauer: in my opinion, the rush is to sell leases before there's another election. it's as simple as that 'cause they know that american people ultimately do not want this and they're trying to push it through while they have the votes and the power of the white house to do it. it's a crime, quite honestly. the american people are being robbed.

zoe: if the leases are approved, this landscape could be crisscrossed with air strips, roads, pipelines, and treatment plants. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ mauer: over the years working up here, i feel... i feel that the land... i feel that the land is speaking for them through us. i think that's what's happening. i'm sorry. zoe: your emotion comes from deep concern? mauer: absolutely, yes. zoe: and what is that?

mauer: be a colossal disaster if we lose this precious place. it's a great loss to all of mankind. ♪♪♪ [children bouncing on trampoline and laughing] zoe: kaktovik is the only town within the refuge. it's home to the inupiat people. the majority of residents here support drilling for oil in the 1002.

gerald: got them? both of them? zoe: for generations, the inupiat have hunted bowhead whales. marie: the waters are a lot warmer than usual. we don't have any icebergs like we should. and it's been happening for how many years in a row now? it's really weird not to see icebergs out there. zoe: fifty-six-year-old marie rexford has gone whaling most of her life. marie: been going out since i was 16. it teaches you patience. you learn to control your fear, adrenaline. zoe: they have the right to kill three whales each year, which they divide up to feed the community.

zoe: what does it taste like? marie: whale. [both laughing] marie: like that? mmm, you got to have a bite. it's good, finger-licking good. you can stick your finger in there and try it. it's tangy. we like tangy food. zoe: actually, it's all right. marie: yeah, it's good. [gunshot] male: oh, baby. [gunshot] whoa. zoe: the whale meat attracts the polar bears into the village, and the locals run a 24/7 polar bear patrol.

marie: they're smelling it and they want to get to it. and there's no way to get their seal right now. they got no ice to hunt seal. so they're coming in to try and get whatever they can. zoe: do you feel sorry for the bears? why not? marie: i live with them all my life. they are nuisance for me. they get my good food. i could make money off of their fur. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ zoe: there's not much money here in kaktovik.

the oil industry is the main source of income, helping fund the school and basic services like power and sewerage. ♪♪♪ zoe: recently the oil companies paid for an ice cellar to keep whale meat safe from the polar bears. ♪♪♪ matthew rexford: as you can see, this is quite built-in. zoe: matthew rexford is president of the kaktovik inupiat corporation. matthew: with all these heavy metals, and stainless steel, and all this heavier equipment, it's--tends to be more bear-proof. zoe: yes, i don't think any bear is getting in there. also, if it did, getting it out might be quite difficult. matthew: oh, yes, yes. ♪♪♪

♪♪♪ zoe: marie rexford is matthew's mom. she's pragmatic about the choices they've made. marie: the community are for the oil companies wanting to drill. when i first heard about it, i didn't like it at all, but i saw the opportunities that--what it can do for our young kids. i think it'll help. it'll help us. zoe: when the refuge was established, the inupiat of kaktovik weren't consulted. after generations of government interference, marie is clear on who should make decisions about her land.

marie: god gave us this land to live on. for us to do, right? not the government. for the people that live here. so why should they all get involved in how we live up here? we're doing fine. everything's still here. zoe: except the ice. marie: except the ice. that's not us. it's whatever they're doing down there that's coming up here. everybody's getting involved in our problems. we live here. we make the rules, not them. you don't live here. we do. we shouldn't have to listen to them. zoe: wouldn't not drilling for oil help protect your way of life?

marie: probably. zoe: but you're saying, "do it anyway." marie: it's gonna happen, they say it's just gonna happen. it's happening already, as much as we don't want it to. president trump: anwr in alaska, one of the great sites of energy in the world, and i didn't think it was a big deal, and then one day a friend of mine who's in the oil business called, "is it true that you have anwr in the bill?" i said, "i don't know, who cares?" he said, "well, you know, reagan tried, every single president tried, and not one president was successful in getting it. the bushes weren't. everybody." i said, "you got to be kidding. i love it now." and after that, we fought like hell to get anwr. bernadette: creator, we ask you for guidance today.

we ask you to guide us in the right direction. provide us the knowledge that we need to protect our homelands and protect the porcupine caribou herd and all the animals that make their way to the arctic national wildlife refuge. zoe: gwich'in leader bernadette demientieff takes the fight to washington, dc. bernadette: i'm always away from my family, and trying to educate the world of what my elders told us. they're the ones who lived and survived off these lands. they're the ones who got knowledge from thousands and thousands and thousands of years of being here, of living here. bernadette: we are not only here to use our voice for our people, but for all people, for your children and your grandchildren. we are here to speak for our animals because they can't tell us when they're sick, they can't tell us when they're hungry, and they can't tell us about the impacts that they're dealing with with climate change.

we should not have to trade our culture for oil and gas. zoe: recently, the democrat- held house voted to prevent drilling, but while the administration is determined to push ahead, the fight isn't over yet. bernadette: i think we're going to come together to stand up against this administration. i think we're--i see it. i see a lot of people that never usually work together unite. and i have to hold on to that hope. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪

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