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Gwich’in Steering Committee wins in U.S district court

Tuesday, 8 August 2023 12:00

By Panebi Wilson @panebiwilson

Bernadette Demientieff

The U.S district court ruled in favour of the Gwich’in Steering Committee.

All claims made by the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority and the State of Alaska has been dismissed. In their legal effort to undermine the Interior Department’s suspension of an illegal drilling program on sacred lands in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the U.S district court ruled in favour of the Gwich’in Steering Committee.

In the words of Bernadette Demientieff, executive director of the Gwich’in Steering Committee, He said “AIDEA has an agenda to drill on lands sacred to the Gwich’in people and to promote a leasing program that threatens their way of life.” This development led the Steering Committee and its allies to intervene in AIDEA’s lawsuit against the Department of the Interior in March 2022.

The ruling in favour of the Gwich’in Steering Committee which took place yesterday, 7^th of August, comes as good news to the Gwich’in Steering Committee as they are resolute in their efforts to continue defending the Porcupine caribou herd and their traditional way of life from a destructive, disrespectful, needless and illegal leasing program.

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