Gwich'in Friend-Maker Sarah James is Goodwill Ambassador for Gwich'in and Caribou

Gwich'in Friend-Maker Sarah James Talks with AIM-West, Listen

Sarah talks about the birthing place, the place where the grass grows, where the calves learn to run from the wolves

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, May 15, 2025

Watch interview with Tony Gonzales, AIM-West https://www.aim-west.org/eagleandcondor

SAN FRANCISCO -- "I grew up on the land," says Sarah James, Neets’aii Gwich’in. It was fifteen miles from the nearest neighbor.

"I spoke only Gwich'in until I was thirteen years old, when I went to school."

"At that time there was no running water, there is no running water, just healthy running water, it's a river. There are no roads into Arctic Village, we hunt, trap, fish and gather, together."

And today 75 percent of the diet is wild meat, mainly Porcupine Caribou, whose journey takes the caribou along the Porcupine River.

Sarah's home is Arctic Village, Alaska, north of the Arctic Circle.

Today there are 15 Gwich'in villages in Canada and the U.S. because they were forced to be colonized, because their children were forced to go to school.

"They forced us to be colonized, or else our kids were going to be taken away," Sarah said.

Caribou migrate through the Gwich'in homeland, and the fish are here year round.

"If we had nothing else to eat, we always had fish."

"We are caribou people."

"It is our song, we have songs, and dance, and prayer. It is our prayer."

"We dance with it, it's in our stories."

Caribou is used for food, tools, clothing.

"It means everything to us, caribou is our life."

"When we dance, we follow the sun."

Sarah describes how the Gwich'in were the last people to be contacted by the so-called Columbus Discovery. They came from the east and up the river, they came in for trapping, and the people were hit hard.

"The people almost starved to death, like all Indian people, we went through hard times."

In earlier times, they were strong people, and they migrated. They depended on the caribou because the caribou migrated through the Gwich'in lands. Today, with climate change, the land is changing, the ice is melting, and because of it the polar bears are dying, desperate for their food, the fish.

And today, Sarah said the long battle to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from oil and gas drilling continues, and she describes the complex political and corporate structures that are pushing for this destruction.

"It is the Sacred Place where Life Begins."

The battle to protect it from oil and gas drilling has been a long one, forty years.

In the 1980s, Gwich'in came together to talk about the oil industry, it was so huge and they discussed how to battle it.

They decided the way to fight it was to make friends. Four people from Canada, and four people from the U.S. were chosen.

Sarah was one of them.

When the politicians talked about 'wilderness,' it was an unfamiliar word, after all nature was doing what nature does. They decided to look at it this way, leave it the way the Creator made it, and leave it alone.

"We made many friends."

Sarah describes why she continues as a friend-maker and why she chooses not to work within a non-profit.

Sarah talks about the birthing place, the place where the grass grows, where the calves learn to run from the wolves.

Sarah James talks with Tony Gonzales, and shares the Caribou Song. She describes how the women dance gracefully, like the movement of animals. Sarah returned to San Francisco, where she lived after high school, and spoke at this year's Bioneers Conference.

Listen to Sarah's good words, and her song, the Caribou Skinhut Song

https://www.aim-west.org/eagleandcondor (one hour and thirty minutes)

We're happy to share this interview with our friend Sarah James. Sarah, Ofelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham, and I spent a wonderful week together during the U.N. Climate Summit in Cancun in 2010, inspired by the outdoor conference of La Via Campesina under the big canopy, with visits from Presidents Evo Morales of Bolivia and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. -- Brenda Norrell, publisher, Censored News

Sarah James is one of eight Indigenous women featured in Katsi Cook's book, Worlds Within Us: Wisdom and Resilience of Indigenous Women Elders, edited by Katsi Cook. Photo courtesy Worlds Within Us.

About Sarah James

Sarah James, (Neets’aii Gwich’in), an award-winning, world-renowned activist who been at the forefront of the struggle to defend the rights of the Indigenous peoples and the natural world and all its creatures in the far northern world of interior Alaska for decades, has traveled globally to advocate for the protection of the Porcupine Caribou herd from oil development and climate catastrophe. Sarah, a deeply respected Legacy Leader, still works from her village and remains devoted to passing on ancestral teachings to younger generations.

Sarah has been appointed as a spokesperson on the Arctic Refuge issue for the three Neets'aii Gwich'in tribal governments that own 1.8 million acres at its borders -- the Arctic Village Council, the Venetie Village Council and the Native Village of Venetie Tribal Government.

Sarah is one of eight Indigenous women featured in Katsi Cook's book, 'Worlds Within Us: Wisdom and Resilience of Indigenous Women Elders," edited by Katsi Cook, Tekatsi:tsia’kwa, Akwesasne Mohawk.

https://guanipress.com/products/worlds-within-us-wisdom-and-resilience-of-indigenous-women-elders

Sarah Agnes James, (Neets’aii Gwich’in), sings a caribou welcome song to educate the world. She encourages all of us to “learn from each other and go forward for the Earth, so we can live.” Sarah is inseparable from the far northern world of interior Alaska. Her mother, father, and grandparents lovingly taught her to protect the “Sacred Place Where All Life Begins”, Iizhik Gwats’an Gwandaii Goodiit. The land is her teacher, her medicine, her sustainer, and her way to the Creator.

She grew up living off the land and knows the hardships of surviving in the cold north country. Sarah dedicates herself to protecting necessary lifeways, amplifying the voices of her people and beings—especially the caribou. A strong spokesperson and powerful activist, Sarah travels globally to mobilize many into empathy to protect the Porcupine Caribou herd and, defend their calving grounds from oil development and climate catastrophe.

She educates and learns from diverse people, bringing her teachings, and also receiving theirs. Sarah works from her village and remains devoted to passing on the ancestral teaching to younger generations. She celebrates her opportunity as a Legacy Leader as a time to take care of herself and others as she works on a biography to contain her story. Her life exemplifies all that a Legacy Leader is.

-- Worlds within Us

'Worlds Within Us'

Article copyright Censored News