.<,":. THIS IS EXHIBIT "V" OF THE AFFIDAVIT OF CHIEF MISKOKOMON, SWORN BEFORE ME T S 8 D YOF AU UST,2013 Beulah Marlon Kechego, a Commissioner, etc., County 01 Middlesex for Chippewas of the Thames First Nation expires September 8.2014 Spill Science &: TechlHJfcKY BalJeiiH, Vol, 7, Nos, {,,2, pp, 75--£7, 2002 Pergamon @ 2002 Elsevier Sdeno: Ltd, All Tighl:;; n;wrvcd e> Pr1u:CQ in G~'!a( llri(oio nS3·2S61102 $ • sec fmn: rmdicr PH: 81353-2561(02)00054-3 The Cultural and Behavioral Impact of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill on the Native Peoples of Prince William Sound, Alaska RITA k MIRAGL1;\* US Department ~f lhe Interior, Bureau ~f I"dian Affairs, ANCSA Office, 2nd Floor, 2101 East 63rd Avenue, Anchorage, AK 99523, USA This paper explores the impact of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill and its aftermath on Tatitlek and Chenega BaY1 two small predomioantlJ Alu'utiq Native communities in Prince 'William Sound, Alaska. Specific topics discussed include: real and perceived contamination of traditional food resources, disruption of traditional subsistence practices, beach treatment and attempts at cleaning-up the oil, litigation of claims for spill-related damage, and oil spill restoration under the EXXQ" Vahic'{. Oil Spill Trustee Council including habitat acquisition. The effects of the spill are contrusted with those of the 1964 Good Friday earthquake on the same communities. @: 2002 Elsevier Sciene<' Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: on spill, Exxon Vuldez~ Maska native, su~istence, dative cultures, beliefs, traditional values Introduction Chugach Traditional-Cultural View of Animals This paper explore, tire impact of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill and its aftermath on the cultural The closest we can come (0 reconstructing the and environmental values of residents of two pre­ pre-contact Chugach view of the relationship be­ dominantly Native villages in Prince William Sound, tween humans and the natural world is through ref­ Alaska. The oil spill impacts were no! limited to the erence to information collected by anthropologist Kaj direct effects of the oil on the water, land, and other Birkel-Smith from Chugach elders in the 1930s, nearly resources of the region, but also included the effects of 200 years after the earliest kno'Wn contact 'With Euro­ the attempts to cleanup the oil, litigation over dam­ peans. ages. restoration efforts, and the increased attention of In the predominant European world-view, animals the media, government agencies, and the general exist to be under the dominion of man to be l1.<;;ed as he public. Through all of this, the residents of the region sees fit. The traditional Chugach View of animals is have struggled to interpret the event through both very difli:!rent. The power in the man-anlmal rela­ their individual life experien<.-'e and their shared tradi­ tionship belongb to the animals, who must be shown tional cultw'al values. respect by man. or they will withhold the game and other resources they provide to humans. The Chugach believed that everything in the world, including wIlflt "'TeL +l·907-271-4137~ fax: +l-907-271-l750, we call inanimate objects, is alive and therefore has its E-mail address:1..IDiflfJ;.Ii<lls;wc!ldneCdILnt..t (R.A. Milaglla). "owner", which they called "sua" meaning "irs man", 75 I jl $1 Hi' jIg: I R.A. M1RAGLlA A sua was descrjbed as looking like a buman, only they were passed on out of context and blended with more "bright" (Birkel-Smith, 1953). the clergy-approved Christian world-view. Stepan Brizgaloff, a hunter from Chenega, who was By lhe mid- to late-20th century, most Chugach one of Birket~<imith's principal informants, reported no longar talked abuut respect for animals, animal that he had met Nunatn-sua. the animal owner of all owners, or spoke of the animals as offering them­ (he animals of the 1and, on more than one occasion. selves, John Klashnikoff, a Chugach elder who was Nunam-sua gave him advice on how to conduct his raised at Nuchek and Makarka Point, expressed life and how to prepare for the hunL BrizgalofT par­ the relationship between the Chugaeh people and the tially credited his good luck in hunting to Nunam­ land and animals of the region as a kind of steward­ sua~s patronage and guidance. ship. In the traditional Chugach view, nature is cycli­ They took care of them~ they took care of the cal. Animals reincarnate. '\-nen a hnnter kHls a seal, ground, they took care of the things on it, their for example; he is not only killing the same kind of home ... the fish creeks. They wouldn't even let us hit animal his grandfather hunted and killed, he is killing birdsl you know. I mean, even crows, "'Leave them the same animal The reason he is able to do th..'1t is alone they're not bothering you. If it comes a time [hat because his grandfather treated the seal appropriately we want them, that we have to eat it, then", he says, and respectfully. He accepted the seal when it offered "we'll get one, Let 'em fly around, they want to be itself to him; he killed it quickly and efficiently; he did alive like you are. Don't destroy nothing. l,et it go", he not laugh at the animals convulsions as it died; he said, >lwe'll have more of it then. If we protect it, we'll treated the remains properly, and did not waste any of have lots. If we destroy it, we won't have any'~ the meat. If the hunter's grandfather had mistreated (Klashnikoff, 1979). the seal, it would not now offer itself to the hunter. If The ideal, as expressed in the following quote from this hunter does not treat the seal properly, it will not Nick Kornpkoff of Chenega, was for people to have as offer itself to his descendants and they will go hungry little impact on the land as possible; (Birket-Smith, 1953). In Chenega Bay today, nearly all of the residents are H, • ,any site that you find that was used by Russian Orthodox. In Tatitlek, ~ihi1e there is a size~ the people) it has always been as far back as r able born-again Christian congregationJ the majority can remember, and far back < •• my Dad and my of the residents profess the Russian Orthodox faith, C'.rrandpa ... is that when the people leave an area, Russian Orthodoxy was first introduced to Prince they always try to make sure that was the way it William Sound by Heiromonk Iuvenaly, 1 of 10 was before we ever moved there < • ," (Kompkoff, monks who came to Alaska from St. Petersburg as 1980). part of [he first Russian Orthodox mission to AmeriCil (Oleksa, 1990), who baptized 700 Chugach in 1795 'Vhile some of the principles of the traditional sys­ (Veniaminoy. 1984). tem are preserved in this phi1osophy, the idea of hu­ At about the same time they were introduced to mans as stewards OVer the land and the animals Russian Orthodoxy, the Chug'dch were also exposed to represents a significant inversion. Seeing humans as the secular Russian view of the relationship between stew.lrds of the natural world, puts man on top, \\<ith humans and the natural world. which was extrac­ the power to either conserve or destroy. tive. The Russian traders were interested in acquiring Today the Chugach people speak about the envi­ quantities of furs to lake back to Russia. To this end, ronment, the food-chain, and ecology. Gary Kompk­ they either encouraged or forced the Chugach to hunt off, Tatitlek Village Council President, often talks sea otters in much larger numhers thnn they had about how important herring are to the traditionn 1 previously. At the time, the Chugach would have as­ Chugach lifestyle in Prince William Sound. The her· sumed that regardless of how many sea oHers they ring arrive early in the spring, a time when the winter's killed, there would always be more, because as long stores of food are running out and people are getting as they were treated with respect. the animals would hungry for fresh food. The herring spawn on the simply reincarnate. When the sea otter population seaweed (fueus) in the intertidal in front of the vil­ began to decline after several years of concentrated lage of Tatitlek. The people harvest the hening and hunts, it is likely many of the more traditional the herring spawn on kelp, but they are not alone. Chugach concluded that the hunts, as organized under Kompkolf points out that seals, sea lions and ducks the Russians, displeased the animal owners. However, follow the herring. and these are also more plentiful teaching these ideas to younger generations would where herring spawn are found (Miraglia, 1993, 1994). have been discouraged by the missionaries. As time For the people of Tatitlek, the arrival of the herring went on, some themes of the earlier traditional world­ signals the start of the harvest season and the con~ view were passed on to succeeding generations, but tinuation of the traditional way of life. 76 Spill Sdence & Techn%gy Bulletin 7(1~2) IMPACT OF THE EXXON VALDEZ OIL SPILL ON TATITLEK AND CHENEGA BAY With the introduction of commercially raised and For example, one of the foods provided by the processed foods, wild resources no longcr make up the intertidal is the chiton, locally called bidarkies or entire diet of the Chugach as they did in the pre­ gumboots, and considered a delicacy by the Chugach. contact era. However, wild foods are highly valued, In 1991, a woman from Chenega Bay gathered some especially by elders, for both their nutritional and chitons during a low tide with her father.