They Came but Could Not Conquer

The Struggle for Environmental Justice in Alaska Native Communities

Diane J. Purvis

• Publisher: Bison Books
• Year: 2024
• ISBN:
  9781496239211
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Native American Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

As the environmental justice movement slowly builds momentum, Diane J. Purvis highlights the work of Indigenous peoples in Alaska’s small rural villages, who have faced incredible odds throughout history yet have built political clout fueled by vigorous common cause in defense of their homes and livelihood. Starting with the transition from Russian to American occupation of Alaska, Alaska Natives have battled with oil and gas corporations; fought against U.S. plans to explode thermonuclear bombs on the edge of Native villages; litigated against political plans to flood Native homes; sought recompense for the Exxon Valdez oil spill disaster; and struggled against the federal government’s fishing restrictions that altered Native paths for subsistence. In They Came but Could Not Conquer Purvis presents twelve environmental crises that occurred when isolated villages were threatened by a governmental monolith or big business. In each, Native peoples rallied together to protect their land, waters, resources, and a way of life against the bulldozer of unwanted, often dangerous alterations labeled as progress. In this gripping narrative Purvis shares the inspiring stories of those who possessed little influence over big business and regulations yet were able to protect their traditional lands and waterways anyway.
 

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Introduction
• 1. Fish Camp to Picnic Bench in Áak’w Land
• 2. Aleutian Shores to Scorched Earth
• 3. Sealers to Slaves on the Pribilof Islands
• 4. Hunters to Reindeer Herders
• 5. Baleen to Bombs, Project Chariot
• 6. Boreal Forest to Floodplain, Rampart Dam
• 7. Etok versus Big Oil
• 8. A Whaling Captain and the World
• 9. When the Raven Flies with the Dove
• 10. The Day the Waters Died
• 11. Grandmother to Water Guardian
• 12. Fishing for Fines on the Kuskokwim River
• Epilogue
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• About Diane J. Purvis
• Illustrations