Unlike in the lower 48 states, Alaska Natives were not corralled into circumscribed reservations, but rather became incorporated into the Native Claims Settlement Act, making them shareholders of their “corporation.” Dune Lankard describes his monumental achievement in preventing the proposed clear-cut of over 700,000 trees in the wake of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill by suing his people – the Eyak Corporation – for the right to vote for conservation over development. Lankard’s many conservation triumphs are driven by his innate care for all creation, inspired by his childhood memories of a subsistence way of life in an unparalleled paradise.

This speech was given at the 2008 Bioneers National Conference.

Since 1990, Bioneers has acted as a fertile hub of social and scientific innovators with practical and visionary solutions for the world's most pressing environmental and social challenges.

To experience talks like this, please join us at the Bioneers National Conference each October, and regional Bioneers Resilient Community Network gatherings held nationwide throughout the year.

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