OPINION: Racism and the fight over the Ambler Road

Editor’s note: After this commentary was published, the ADN became aware that its author has worked as a contract Community Outreach Coordinator for Ambler Metals during summer meetings with villages in the region; it has been updated to include this information. It reflects the opinion of its author and not the company.

My name is Nasruk Nay. I am Inupiaq Eskimo from Noorvik, Alaska, on the Kobuk River. I am also a retired Alaska State Trooper with more than 30 years of public safety service to our people. I have lived and raised my family in many rural communities across Alaska. have been a part of, from the inside, the great beauty and ingenuity of our Indigenous peoples. I have also witnessed the conditions seen in developing nations that many rural Alaskans live in, due to the expenses of basic food, shelter, necessary appliances, vehicles and subsistence implements, as well as lack of opportunities for careers close to home. The lack of these basics that most other people in urban Alaska and the rest of the country enjoy is due to the lack of infrastructure.

Fairbanks is 360 miles from Anchorage, rural except for one big difference: highways and a railroad that connect Fairbanks to the rest of the world. The cost and quality of living in Fairbanks and other communities connected and supplied by highway and rail is comparable to that of Anchorage. Children who grow up in these areas have ready access to resources and education that seems a world away to the child growing up in rural Alaska.

Organizations and special interest groups who campaign against the Ambler Road project are practicing and encouraging systemic racism. The people who live in the regions that would be most affected by the Ambler Road Project and the economic benefits of mining in the Ambler Mining District are almost exclusively Alaska Native.

Most opponents of the Ambler Road are not from, have not lived for a season, and could not ever thrive in this environment. Nor would they want to.

I am in the expediting business. I find the best deals on appliances, furniture, and other necessities, and I help rural Alaskans buy them at a good price so that the crushing cost of shipping by air doesn’t prevent them from having access to important quality-of-life items. I shop and deliver washers, dryers, refrigerators, freezers, couches, dining sets and more. A standard refrigerator costs $500 or more to ship from Anchorage to Kotzebue. I shipped a standard 30-inch oven from Anchorage to Ambler and it cost $821 for shipping alone. This is insane.The Ambler Road, if it were made a dedicated commercial corridor, would reduce the cost of goods, building materials and fuel to a great many people, improving quality of life for generations.

Back to the systemic racism. The people who are affected by these exorbitant costs and other socioeconomic ills are mostly Alaska Native people. Opponents of the Ambler Road have stated that the Alaska Native people of the villages in the Doyon and NANA Regions, who would be affected for better or worse by the road and mining activity, shouldn’t be subjected to having to make a decision about whether this would be beneficial to our people.

This dismissive statement is a slap in the face to all the Alaska Native people in the region, and by extension, all Indigenous peoples across the country. It implies that we are not intelligent or sophisticated enough to engage in deep serious studies and talks about our own future. It goes against the spirit of self-determination.

I support vigorous, organized self-advocation by our Alaska Native people, for the best interest of our Alaska Native people. I also support the deep analysis by us to determine what is in our best interest, and in the best interest of our grandchildren and great grandchildren.

I ask you, my fellow Alaska Native people from the NANA Region and the Doyon Region, do you want your voice replaced by special interest groups who have never been to our home, never subsisted as we do, and don’t have a concept of how we want to maximize our grandchildren’s potential? They are trying to dictate our future prosperity with a few buzzwords and a lot of outside campaign money. We are all smarter than that.

Let us engage in intelligent, meaningful dialogue. Let us determine what is good or bad for our people, together. The special interest groups who profess to have our best interest in mind by making decisions for us are wolves in sheep’s clothing. They are practicing intellectual racism by assuming and asserting that we cannot think for ourselves or choose our best future for ourselves.

Nasruk Nay is Inupiaq from Noorvik and a retired Alaska State Trooper. He is a contract Community Outreach Coordinator for Ambler Metals during summer meetings with villages in the region; this commentary reflects his own opinion and not that of the company.

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