Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share Finis Dunaway. "Defending the Arctic Refuge: A Photographer, an Indigenous Nation, and a Fight for Environmental Justice" (UNC Press, 2021)
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
Finis Dunaway. "Defending the Arctic Refuge: A Photographer, an Indigenous Nation, and a Fight for Environmental Justice" (UNC Press, 2021)
In far northeastern Alaska lies one of the most remarkable, and contested, places in North America: the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. This coastal arctic region is a place of great natural beauty, ecological importance, as well as being considered sacred by the Gwich'in people. It's also thought to contain massive fossil fuel wealth, making it a site of fifty years and more of political contestation.
In the award-winning book, Defending the Arctic Refuge: A Photographer, An Indigenous Nation, and a Fight for Environmental Justice (UNC Press: 2021), Finis Dunaway explains how Indigenous people teamed up with the activist, photographer, and jazz drummer Lenny Kohm to build a grassroots movement to protect this sacred place from extractive industry. Using a humble photo slide show, Kohm and other activists, both Native people from the region and outsiders, marshaled the power of everyday people to convince critical and powerful actors that this was a place that deserved federal protection. While this fight is ongoing, Dunaway's book shows that sometimes power can be found in unexpected places, and that environmental history is not a simple story of decline and hopelessness.
Defending the Arctic Refuge website and teaching tools are here.
Dr. Stephen R. Hausmann is an assistant professor of history at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-west
View all episodes
By New Books Network
4.3
1313 ratings
In far northeastern Alaska lies one of the most remarkable, and contested, places in North America: the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. This coastal arctic region is a place of great natural beauty, ecological importance, as well as being considered sacred by the Gwich'in people. It's also thought to contain massive fossil fuel wealth, making it a site of fifty years and more of political contestation.
In the award-winning book, Defending the Arctic Refuge: A Photographer, An Indigenous Nation, and a Fight for Environmental Justice (UNC Press: 2021), Finis Dunaway explains how Indigenous people teamed up with the activist, photographer, and jazz drummer Lenny Kohm to build a grassroots movement to protect this sacred place from extractive industry. Using a humble photo slide show, Kohm and other activists, both Native people from the region and outsiders, marshaled the power of everyday people to convince critical and powerful actors that this was a place that deserved federal protection. While this fight is ongoing, Dunaway's book shows that sometimes power can be found in unexpected places, and that environmental history is not a simple story of decline and hopelessness.
Defending the Arctic Refuge website and teaching tools are here.
Dr. Stephen R. Hausmann is an assistant professor of history at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-west
More shows like New Books in the American West
View all
On the Media
9,106 Listeners
Radiolab
43,911 Listeners
This American Life
90,648 Listeners
The Moth
27,292 Listeners
Snap Judgment
11,517 Listeners
99% Invisible
26,138 Listeners
New Books in Native American Studies
104 Listeners
The Daily
111,397 Listeners
Huberman Lab
28,268 Listeners
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
10,329 Listeners
Hysterical
1,612 Listeners
Noble
4,288 Listeners