Testimony of Matthew Rexford
Tribal Administrator, Native Village of Kaktovik
November 2, 2017
Before theCommittee on Energy and Natural Resources
United States Senate

Chairman Murkowski, Members of the Committee, thank you for theinvitation to speak to you today.
My name is Matthew Rexford and I serve as Tribal Administrator for theNative Village of Kaktovik (NVK), I am also President of Kaktovik Iñupiat
Corporation (KIC). Both NVK and KIC serve as members of the Voice of
the Arctic Iñupiat (VOICE) along with 18 other North Slope entities.
I was raised and live in Kaktovik, Alaska, located inside the 1002 area ofANWR. All of the organizations I previously mentioned – NVK, KIC and
VOICE – support oil and gas development there.
Kaktovik is located 280 miles southeast of Utqiaġvik (formerly Barrow) and90 miles west of the Canadian border. Our village borders the Beaufort Sea
and is situated on the coast of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).
Approximately 92,000 acres of surface lands in and around the community
are owned by the Kaktovik Iñupiat Corporation - our Village Corporation,
established pursuant to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971.
These lands are within and are then surrounded by ANWR – so we are anisland in the middle of the largest wildlife refuge in America. Spanning morethan 19 million acres, ANWR’s lands cover an area larger than 10 U.S.
states.
This vast expanse is home to caribou, fox, bears and other species. Much ofthat land is also home to the Iñupiat, and our people have used theresources it has blessed us with for more than 10,000 years. One of thosenatural resources lies beneath this great land — oil and gas, and lots of it.
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The residents of Kaktovik and their ancestors are the indigenous inhabitantsof the region. They rely on the bounty of the land and find sustenance within
ANWR. The bowhead whale, caribou, Dall sheep, muskoxen and the fish of
the region are a vital food source to the Kaktovikmiut.
The debate over opening ANWR to drilling gained national attention in
1980, when the Congress set aside less than 8 percent of the refuge forpotential oil and gas development. This section of ANWR became known as
the 1002 area, after Section 1002 of the Alaska National Interest Lands
Conservation Act. This is the home of the Kaktovikmiut.
Since then, we have fought unsuccessfully to open the 1002 area to drilling,which literally requires an act of Congress. At the same time, some Lower
48 lawmakers and special interest groups across the country have waged war
on the idea, citing the disruption of wildlife and the pristine Arcticenvironment.
The Arctic Iñupiat will not become conservation refugees. We do not
approve of efforts to turn our homeland into one giant national park, whichliterally guarantees us a fate with no economy, no jobs, reduced subsistence
and no hope for the future of our people. We are already being impacted by
restrictions of access to the federal lands for subsistence purposes – this isreally disturbing to us since we have lived here long before there ever was a
refuge designated.
As ANWR debates occur, the views of the Iñupiat who call the area homeare oftentimes left out. The wishes of the people who live in and around therefuge’s coastal plain frequently are drowned out. In fact, that was why
VOICE was established in 2015 because our people were tired of others –outsiders who live thousands of miles away – speaking on our behalf anddriving Arctic policy decisions that directly affect us and our communities.
ANWR is a perfect example.
My fellow Iñupiat and I firmly believe in a social license to operate, andperhaps no other potential project in the history of America has called for2

such a blessing from local indigenous peoples more than this one. Attempts
to permanently block development in the 1002 – an area intentionally NOT
designated as wilderness because of its oil and gas potential – is a slap in
the face to our region and its people. It’s exactly the same as saying“it’s okay for everyone else in this country to have a THRIVING
economy, but you can’t have one at all.
Have you ever heard of Prudhoe Bay? When oil was first discovered on ourland in 1969, the Iñupiat were worried of industry activities and fought hardfor self-determination to protect our subsistence resources. So we fully
understand the trepidation from outsiders: the fear that the presence ofindustry on the coastal plain of ANWR could disrupt wildlife and affectAmerica’s manufactured perspective of our land and culture.
We Iñupiat have the benefit of decades of experience working with the oiland gas industry to implement stringent regulations to protect our lands
through best management practices and the industry consistently has lived
up to our standards. We know development in ANWR can be done safely,
because it’s already being done safely all over the Arctic. Sixty miles away
is the largest oil field on the continent, and the wildlife, including caribou,
have successfully cohabitated with industry for forty years.
The oil and gas industry supports our communities by providing jobs,
business opportunities and infrastructure investments, has built our schools,
hospitals, and has moved our people away from third-world living
conditions – we refuse to go backward in time. It has provided other basic
services most Americans may take for granted. Our region recognizes its
importance to our local and state economy, and we believe that development
can be done responsibly in a portion of the 1002 area. We are not alone.
As Iñupiat, we stand to be unarguably the most affected by oil and gas
activity in the Arctic. Therefore, we have the greatest stake in seeing thatany and all development keeps our land and subsistence resources safe. We
know it can be done, because it’s being done.
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We think that now is the time to open ANWR to MEASURED explorationand development for the benefit of our community and all of Alaska.
THANK YOU.

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