Comment from Mishal Tooyak Gaede, concerned indigenous Alaskan

I am against exploratory drilling, or any type of drilling for Oil in the Chukchi Sea. I am Inupiat, an enrolled tribal member of the Native Village of Point Hope. My poeple have survived and thrived for centuries here in the Arctic. Anthropologists believe it is one of the oldest continually inhabited places in North America. Why? Point Hope is on a peninsula that juts out into the Chukchi Sea; it is rich in marine life, such as Bow head whales, bearded seals, polar bears, arctic fox, walrus and many more animals. Our ancestors have survived for centuries in the most extreme arctic environment. This did not happen by chance. As Patrick Attungana, a resected whaling captain once said: our blood is mixed with that of the animals, with the bowhead whales. Point Hope is a complex whaling society. Our identity and our social and cultural laws and customs are derived from the lands, our waters, the animals, the fish and the birds. All of this knowledge has been handed down orally through generation after generation. It is very hard to fathom, to even wrap one's brain around what it actually means to be out on the ice on the Chukchi Sea; survival is paramount. The currents, the weather conditions, the ice and the extreme force and power of the elements can never be underestimated. I do not care what sort of "technology" Shell Oil or any oil company thinks they have, it is no match for mother nature. Drill where it is safer, on land. Thank You