WHY ESKIMOS OPPOSED AEC'S PROPOSED PROJECT CHARIOT
By HOWARD ROCK
Times Editor
(The second and concluding
part of a series.)
Along with the harvest from the
sea, the villages of Noatak, Kiva
lina and Point Hope rely heavily on
land animals and fresh-water fish.
Of these, caribou is most import
ant. Each village gets hundreds of
these animals through the year.
This animal grazes up to within
10 miles of Point Hope and is seen
in numbers at the immediate area
of Cape Thompson where the A.E.C.
had planned the nuclear experi
ment.
Inland, up to within 15 to 20 miles
of the Cape, is the Kukpuk River.
This is one of the important sources
of fish for Point Hope.
In the fall of each year Point
Hopers catch about 10,000 pounds of
grayling. Besides the caribou and
the grayling, foxes are taken at
Cape Thompson and the surround
ing areas. During the summer
ground squirrels are trapped for
their meat and parka material.
Berries are picked, not to mention
the murre eggs that are gathered
from the cliffs of Cape Thompson
itself.
The people of Noatak, Kivalina,
and Point Hope rely heavily on
land and sea, from which their
forefathers wrested an existence and
survived for countless generations.
Attuned Society
We have attuned ourselves to our
surroundings and have developed
an ecological compatability with
the animals we hunted through the
ages.
This economy could be bettered
without too many complications
through informed and learned as
sistance in obtaining seasonal em
ployment for the men, adult educa
tion, vocational schools, and better
housing.
The Eskimos of the Arctic have
developed some needs through con
tact with civilization and can only
be met by cash earnings. As we
have said earlier the Eskimos have
absorbed some gcod things of civil
ization and developed a semi-cash
economy that works harmoniously.
But at the same time we will not
readily give up our traditional ways
of living. “It's in our blood,-’ as
the saying goes. We want to keep
i alive the good things of our culture.
The established culture of the
Arctic should be preserved. It
should never have to be endangered
by probable adverse effects.
Danger Admitted
The Atomic Energy Commission
admitted in a series of meetings
with the people of the three villages
that radiation would have escaped.
In the excavated depths, where the
nuclear devices were to have been
placed for the shot, the character
of the elements immediately next
to the devices is mudstone.
It was presumed that this mud
stone would have disintegrated into
minute particles under shock and
heat and would have been vented
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| into the atmosphere up to 30.000
! feet. Since the shot was presumably
1 to be triggered in the thawing
months of April and May, or fall of
the year, it was thought that radio
active hot steam from the explo
sion would have mixed with cold
air and would have created snow
fall.
Hot Snow Fall
This snow fall could have been
extensive. The falling snow would
pick up the contaminated particles
and fall to the ground. AEC pre
dicted that 80 per cent of the fallout
would be parried downwind for 30
miles. It can be presumed, as well,
that the minimum of miles the
cloud would travel downwind would
not be made available for public
consumption by the Commission.
Scientists have found that surface
winds and the winds in the upper
atmosphere often travel in opposite
directions. It is very common know
ledge to the Eskimos in the area
that winds at Cape Thompson
reach hurricane force. It is also
known that a direction of wind at
that area can whip around to
another direction in a matter of 15
minutes.
Under these conditions the fall
out area could have been many
more miles than the 30 miles the
AEC predicted and a sheer of wind
direction can scatter fallout par
ticles into a much greater area.
As for March and April, which
were thought to be the months of
the year for the shot, the scientists
who researched and recommended
those months must have purposely
left out the fact that hunting still
went on. There may be a slight
relaxation on hunting in March
and April, and that is due to prepa
rations for Point Hope's greatest
food-getting activity that starts
around the middle of April —
whaling.
Lulled, Wheedled
Since 1958 there were attempts
to lull us. the people of Noatak.
Kivalina. and Point Hope. We were
wheedled with rewards of acclaim
from science and the peoples of the
world if we would agree to go
along with Project Chariot.
Model housing programs were
dangled before our eyes if we would
move for a year into a newly built
housing center, either at Nome or
Kotzebue. After a year we would
be moved back, not to our home
villages, but to a combined spank
ing new housing center close to the
exploded and alleged harbor area.
Stood Firm
We, the people of the three vil
lages, did not go for the entice
ments. We chose to remain in our
home villages come what may. The
love for our homes, however hum
ble. and the deep sense of heritage
prevailed.
We. the Eskimos directly con
cerned with the proximity of the
proposed explosion, are citizens of
the United States. We are deeply
loyal to our country and flag.
We are God-fearing people. To
have to fight against an agency of
our government was galling to us.
We have nothing against experi
ments that might prove useful to
humanity. But at the same time we
asked, "Why didn't they pick an
other place—why Ogotoruk?"
Trice Too Great
We know also that we were never
consulted at the initial stages of
Project Chariot. We felt that we
had been taken for granted, we who
had so much to lose if anything
had gone wrong.
We were fully aware that some
thing may have gone wrong to de
stroy our food sources we have lived
on for ages. We felt that, to stand
to lose a way of life was too great
a price to pay for a project that
was admittedly, an experiment.
We wanted our disturbing prob
lem to be made known to the hum
ble. learned and Christian peoples of
the United States. Through their
help the project was finally called
off.
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FACE THE FACTS ON NOVEMBER 6
You can vote in the General Election without previous registration if you
have lived in Alaska for one year and in your district for 30 days.
When you go to the polls you will be handed a ballot listing four bonding
propositions along with Initiative No. 1 ballot and the General Election candidates
ballot.
Bonding Proposition No. 1 concerns necessary improvements to the heat
ing plant, fire protection facilities and other buildings at the University of Alaska.
Alaska Needs the l nicer si tv!
Bonding Proposition No. 2 concerns building, equipping and improving
elementary and high schools in 25 different communities throughout Alaska.
Alaska Needs These Schoolsl
Bonding Proposition No. 3 concerns building, improving and modernizing
trunk airports at Sand Point, Barrow, Sitka, Savoonga and the lower Yukon.
Alaska Reeds These Airports!
Bending Proposition No. 4 concerns building the Vocational School in the
Kcdiak-Aleutian District approved by the last Legislature.
Alaska Reeds Vocational Schools!
These four bonding propositions ask you to improve existing towns and
villages throughout the whole State of Alaska.
Initiative No. 1 asks you to build a new city "somewhere" and abandon
our present State Capital.
_Alaska cannot afford both. Vote YES for the bonds, vote AGAINST Ini
tiative No. 1.
rm m
BONDS NO tZH
INITIATIVE NO.D tor I—I
.MB' X •
This ad sponsored by Fairbanksans United, Edmund Hinke, chairman, Fairbanks, Alaska