Sarah James

   Artic Village, AK Board member of the International Indian Treaty Council.
Member of the Arctic Village Traditional Council.
Recipient of the Goldman Environmental Award 2002. A native Gwich'in and lifetime member of the Gwich'in Steering Committee.

A native Gwich'in and lifetime members of the Gwich'in Steering Committee.
James,lives in Arctic Village, Alaska, and is a board member of the International Indian Treaty Council and a member of the Arctic Village Traditional Council.

The Gwich'in Steering Committee elected James as its chairperson in 1988. Since then, she has become a national and global leader in the Gwich'in campaign to save the refuge and caribou. She has continuously worked to educate Congress about maintaining ANWR's protected status. In 2000, she traveled to the international climate change talks in the Netherlands to publicize the connection between global warming and the degradation of the Arctic. James is currently coordinating the efforts of various native peoples to develop sustainable sources of energy in the region. As a result of her work, solar power was recently installed in two Gwich'in villages. James also offers inspiration and guidance to the next generation of Gwich'in. This year, she helped organize the Gwich'in Young Peoples Gathering, a five-day assembly to celebrate and to strategize about ANWR conservation.

"We are caribou people," said James. "It's our clothing, our story, our song, our dance and our food that's who we are. If you drill for oil here, you are drilling right into the heart of our existence."

bio exerpts from: http://www.goldmanprize.org/node/110 - 2002 Goldman Environmental Foundation website