Editor’s note: Below are excerpts from an interview with climate leader Siqiñiq Maupin by Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! on Oct. 15, the last day of the People vs Fossil Fuels protests.
Video Still / Democracy Now
This week [of Oct. 15] over 530 climate activists were arrested during Indigenous-led civil disobedience actions in Washington, D.C., calling on President Joe Biden to declare a climate emergency and stop approving fossil fuel projects. Indigenous leaders have issued a series of demands, including the abolition of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, whose offices they occupied on Thursday for the first time since the 1970s. The protests come just weeks before the start of the critical U.N. climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, which President Biden and senior Cabinet members are expected to attend.
Amy Goodman: …And we’re joined by Siqiñiq Maupin, the executive director of Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic. She lives in Fairbanks, Alaska. She was arrested yesterday during the occupation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and that’s where we’re going to begin.
Siqiñiq, can you talk about this protest? We didn’t know if we’d have you on the show today because we didn’t know if you were going to be getting out of jail, but we got word last night that you were.
Siqiñiq Maupin: Yes. We had gathered to let Biden know that we’re not going anywhere. Signing petitions and giving them and following these laws have not gotten us where we need to be. There is a climate emergency. People are dying right now. And we needed to make a statement. And I think that we did.
Amy Goodman: So, talk about what you’re demanding of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Siqiñiq Maupin: The BIA was created to erase Indigenous people. It has always been against us. And today, or yesterday, and every day, we demand that it be abolished. We do not need a blood quantum to say how Indigenous we are or to qualify that. We know our Indigenous ways to protect this land, this Earth, this water. And we understand that the Earth is unbalanced. And we do not have time for negotiations, for compromises. We need to take this serious and take action now.
Amy Goodman: Can you talk about what happened in August, when your group, along with others, were able to get the U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason to throw out the approvals of a major oil project in your state of Alaska?
Siqiñiq Maupin: Yes. That was an extraordinary time, considering, during the heart of the pandemic in 2020, the Bureau of Land Management decided to hold the hearings for opening the Willow Master Project, located outside of Nuiqsut, where my mother lives and my family is from. And we heard testimony from tribal administrators, corporation presidents, Native corporation presidents, begging the Bureau of Land Management to stop these hearings until the pandemic was over, until we got it under control. And they, quite literally, did not listen. You can just hear sobbing, and they continued on. They made the record of decision. And it felt a little hopeless, especially with Biden’s approval of this project even though he promised he was going to take the climate crisis serious. So, having the 9th Circuit overthrow this was such a big win, especially when the corruption is so rampant within our government.
Amy Goodman: Can you talk about specifically your action yesterday? I think it was reported some 55 water protectors were arrested and taken from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. And to talk about how significant this is, the last time it was occupied was by Native Americans in the 1970s. On November 3rd, 1972, a group of 500 American Indians with the American Indian Movement took over the Interior building, the culmination of a cross-country journey that was called the Trail of Broken Treaties, intended to bring attention to Native American issues, such as living standards and treaty rights. Why did you focus on the BIA? Are you calling for it to be disbanded?
Siqiñiq Maupin: Yes. And we wanted to make a statement that we are still here. We have been fighting against the genocide of our people, colonization, since contact. And we are not going away. We came with matriarchs that led us, and that was, I think, a powerful statement to have our women come in front again and to lead us into that building. I followed their guidance. And we were able to, again, make a statement at the BIA, an organization created to, quite literally, erase us from this place, this Earth, with blood quantum. We do demand the abolishment of BIA and to also say that Indigenous people have always been the caretakers of this land, and we will continue to be the caretakers.
See the full interview on the Democracy Now! website.
