Sarah James

Sarah Agnes James sings a caribou welcome song to educate the world about the Gwich’in way of life. She encourages the people to “learn from each other and go forward for the earth, so we
can live.” Sarah’s life and story are inseparable from the far northern world of Interior Alaska.

Sarah is the formal spokesperson on the Arctic Refuge issue for three Neets’aii Gwich’in tribal governments—the Arctic Village Council, the Venetie Village Council, and the Native Village of Venetie Tribal Government—that own 1.8 million acres at its borders.

In 1988, Gwich’in leaders from across Alaska and Canada gathered their people in Arctic Village when oil interests threatened to invade their region. The elders issued a statement formalizing
their opposition to oil development in the Refuge: “The health and productivity of the Porcupinecaribou herd, and their availability to Gwich’in communities, and the very future of our People is endangered by proposed oil and gas exploration and development in the calving and post-calving grounds in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.”

The elders’ stand mobilized a movement among their people to find and educate allies who would help them protect the natural environments of their northern world. Sarah and others mounted a campaign against all odds, and have resolutely created formidable and, to date, successful obstacles. During the three decades since, Sarah emerged as one of those advocates who embodies and has
come to symbolize her cause.

Sarah grew up living off the land and knows the ways of surviving in the cold north country. She dedicates herself to protecting necessary lifeways, amplifying the voices of her people and beings— especially the caribou. The land is her teacher, her medicine, her sustainer, and her way to theCreator. While a student in San Francisco, she was involved during the occupation of Alcatraz Island by activists from the American Indian Movement. Still, she always emphasizes, “It was not where my activism started. I was born with it.”

Inevitably, she has received numerous recognitions and awards, including the Goldman Environmental Prize for 2002. Sarah was inducted in 2009 to the Alaska Women Hall of Fame.
She was honored by the Wilderness Society, which awarded her its Robert Marshall Award in 2015. Sarah modestly shrugs off such awards and continues to travel widely, always mobilizing her audiences with empathy for the protection of the Porcupine caribou herd and their calving grounds from oil development and climate catastrophe. Sarah works from her village and remains devoted to passing forward the ancestral values and teachings to younger generations.