Insuring an Arctic homeland
Mark Trahant
ICT
Bernadette Demientieff used words that are disturbing to Corporate America. She told shareholders: “Travelers is associated with past and current controversies that have alleged racial impacts on stakeholders. We believe these controversies are under-addressed, which opens the company to potential legal, reputational, and regulatory risks.”
Legal, reputational and regulatory risks are words that can sink a company’s future profits – and limit the rewards that stockholders hope to earn.
Demientieff is executive director of the Gwich’in Steering Committee and she carried a message from elders and communities some 4,300 miles to the general shareholder meeting Wednesday in Hartford, Connecticut. She was invited to present her case against oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge by the Trillium Asset Management ESG Global Equity Fund.
“We heard something we've heard before in corporate engagement, which was that Travelers won't insure in the Arctic,” said Kate Finn, Osage, executive director of First People Worldwide. Travelers told the Gwich’in Steering Committee in 2020 that the company’s insurance underwriting in the Arctic would be “de minimis” or a minor matter. “So what the Gwich’in Steering Committee is asking for is no insurance in the coastal plains of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.”
In addition to speaking at the general meeting, the Gwich’in Steering Committee also held a public rally to bring attention to their efforts to prevent oil and gas projects in the reserve.
“We want Travelers to respect the rights of the Gwich’in and protect the Arctic Refuge, so that we can continue to live and thrive off the land Creator blessed us with,” Demientieff told shareholders. “The Gwich’in will not allow the destruction of our homelands. We will always protect our ways of life.”
She said she wanted to convey the message to Travelers – and other financial institutions – that it’s time to think about the communities involved.
“When you contribute to projects that you know are part of the problem. You know that projects that are causing destruction. Basically, we've been going to Washington, D.C. for years and getting nowhere. So we decided to go to the banks and to the insurance companies.”
The Gwich’in Steering Committee said 18 insurance companies, including most recently Chubb, and 29 global banks, including every major American and Canadian bank have committed to not finance or insure oil and gas projects in the Arctic Refuge. ExxonMobil informed shareholders that it has no plans for drilling in the Arctic Refuge, and Chevron, Hilcorp, and 88 Energy canceled leases. Chubb became the first U.S. insurer to issue policy that protects the Arctic Refuge.
The formal request to Travelers (and other major insurance companies) includes a public refusal to insure or invest in “any energy exploration, development, production, and transportation in the Arctic Refuge.” A formal policy to prohibit insurance products that support oil and gas. And to rule out investments in companies developing the Arctic. And, finally, to “operationalize” Indigenous Peoples’ right to free, prior and informed consent, or FPIC.
The steering committee news release said there are continued threats because one remaining leaseholder intends to drill for oil on land considered sacred. U.S. law mandates a second lease sale by the end of next year.
Read More
Bernadette Demientieff, executive director of the Gwich’in Steering Committee, told shareholders that Travelers’ approach to environmental justice lacks clarity and transparency. (Zoom photo)
“This is our homeland,” Demientieff told ICT. “This is our way of life, our identity as it is not just about us. We may lead the fight, but we have 42 federally recognized tribes” working for the same goal.
However at least two Alaska Native Corporations have been in support of oil and gas drilling saying it would create jobs. Arctic Slope Regional Corporation posted on its website that it’s with the “overwhelming majority of Alaskans in calling for resource production in a small portion of the refuge. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the non-wilderness area of ANWR’s Coastal Plain is believed to hold a mean estimate of 10.4 billion barrels of recoverable oil.”
What’s interesting about the Gwich’in Steering Committee’s action is that it’s pushing markets – not governments – to rule out the project based on economics and especially risks to their investments. Demientieff said it’s that plus the impact of development on a community. “I witnessed today a lot of profit over people,” she said. “And that really hurts, you know, like, it's emotional. Because this is an emotional fight, because we're fighting for our survival, for our identity and for our culture and our traditions.”
The Arctic region is warming faster than the rest of the planet.
"We've had a tremendous amount of changes. Our seasonal hunters, there was one that actually fell through the ice. And this is a man that has known the river like the back of his hand. And we still haven't found him to this day," Demientieff said. "People are falling through the ice during times that it's supposed to be solid."
She said everything is changing. "Our caribou, they migrate and where I'm from, Fort Yukon, the caribou used to go through Fort Yukon, but now it no longer does. And our hunters have to go all the way to the border and it makes it that much more dangerous."
Much of this change is being documented by a report from the Arctic Indigenous Climate Summit where information comes from elders.
“We have 33 coastal communities eroding, two of them are being forced to move, and so I think that you know as Alaskans, we're starting to understand that this is an issue that's not going to go away.”
Demientieff said the fight will continue “and we're never going to give up. We're never going to allow people to continue to come into our homelands, divide us … I really feel that our elders and people, even other tribes in Alaska. I think they've had enough of that.”
Mark Trahant, Shoshone-Bannock, is editor-at-large for Indian Country Today. Trahant is based in Phoenix. The Indigenous Economics Project is funded with a major grant from the Bay and Paul Foundations.
Our stories are worth telling. Our stories are worth sharing. Our stories are worth your support. Contribute $5 or $10 today to help ICT carry out its critical mission. Sign up for ICT’s free newsletter.
