1 00:00:01,440 --> 00:00:05,320 Speaker 1: A trip through the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the crown 2 00:00:05,480 --> 00:00:10,240 Speaker 1: jewel of America's wildlife preserves, reveals a stunning, prime evil 3 00:00:10,360 --> 00:00:16,040 Speaker 1: world under constant threat of becoming a national sacrifice. I'm 4 00:00:16,160 --> 00:00:38,440 Speaker 1: Dan Flores, and this is the American West, where the 5 00:00:38,479 --> 00:00:44,800 Speaker 1: prime evil West abides. What wakes me is a sound 6 00:00:44,840 --> 00:00:49,200 Speaker 1: I've never heard, or to be truer to the actual experience. 7 00:00:49,720 --> 00:00:54,280 Speaker 1: Two sounds to which my memory banks cannot assign. Cause 8 00:00:55,440 --> 00:00:59,760 Speaker 1: one is a soft, gentle sort of chuffing, coming awake 9 00:00:59,800 --> 00:01:02,920 Speaker 1: to the slanting light out the tent door. I register 10 00:01:03,040 --> 00:01:07,520 Speaker 1: this one first, an auditory accompaniment to the angled light, 11 00:01:08,080 --> 00:01:10,880 Speaker 1: which lands in my foggy consciousness as a kind of 12 00:01:11,040 --> 00:01:16,280 Speaker 1: language I cannot translate. The other sound is almost as delicate, 13 00:01:16,360 --> 00:01:20,400 Speaker 1: but more percussive. It appears to reach from the faraway 14 00:01:20,600 --> 00:01:25,560 Speaker 1: to the nearby, a tinkling with a thousand source points. 15 00:01:27,240 --> 00:01:31,320 Speaker 1: It's June the twenty second, the day after summer Solstice, 16 00:01:31,480 --> 00:01:35,080 Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, and with my wife Sarah, and eight of 17 00:01:35,080 --> 00:01:39,880 Speaker 1: our friends, we're waking in what could well be primeval America. 18 00:01:40,800 --> 00:01:44,679 Speaker 1: We're in Alaska, above the Arctic Circle, at nearly seventy 19 00:01:44,720 --> 00:01:48,720 Speaker 1: degrees in north latitude, and on summer solstice that far 20 00:01:48,880 --> 00:01:52,160 Speaker 1: up the curve of planet Earth, we're experiencing a new 21 00:01:52,320 --> 00:01:57,040 Speaker 1: cosmic reality. There's a powerful sense of being slightly off 22 00:01:57,160 --> 00:02:01,920 Speaker 1: the apex of a gigantic sphere, a sphere that's spinning 23 00:02:02,000 --> 00:02:06,600 Speaker 1: underneath a light source that never switches off. No matter 24 00:02:06,640 --> 00:02:09,120 Speaker 1: how late you go to bed or how early you 25 00:02:09,200 --> 00:02:13,079 Speaker 1: wake up, the light source is there, throwing the same 26 00:02:13,320 --> 00:02:18,120 Speaker 1: fingers of dawn, sunlight and shadowing throughout the day and night. 27 00:02:19,600 --> 00:02:21,720 Speaker 2: To be geographically specific. 28 00:02:22,400 --> 00:02:25,480 Speaker 1: From our put in high up in the Brooks Range, 29 00:02:25,960 --> 00:02:29,600 Speaker 1: we've now spent nine days descending. 30 00:02:29,240 --> 00:02:30,480 Speaker 2: The Hula Hula River. 31 00:02:31,639 --> 00:02:35,760 Speaker 1: The Hula Hula is named by or four and Awaiian 32 00:02:35,840 --> 00:02:38,800 Speaker 1: islander who is either on a whaling ship or a 33 00:02:38,840 --> 00:02:44,320 Speaker 1: ship pursuing wealth and firs here two centuries ago. Nine 34 00:02:44,400 --> 00:02:48,360 Speaker 1: days from this smallish stream's headwaters, we're now out of 35 00:02:48,400 --> 00:02:52,520 Speaker 1: the mountains and in the vast coastal plain of America's 36 00:02:52,600 --> 00:02:57,919 Speaker 1: Wildlife Crown Jewel, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. And we've 37 00:02:57,960 --> 00:03:01,800 Speaker 1: been living with these oblique life light angles the whole trip. 38 00:03:02,480 --> 00:03:06,520 Speaker 1: But this far away, nearby tinkling sound and its chuff 39 00:03:06,680 --> 00:03:11,360 Speaker 1: chuff accompaniment are new Both those sounds, it turns out, 40 00:03:11,960 --> 00:03:16,840 Speaker 1: are emanating from thousands upon thousands of Cariboo who have 41 00:03:16,960 --> 00:03:20,720 Speaker 1: been migrating out of mountains filled with dinning wolves to 42 00:03:20,840 --> 00:03:24,600 Speaker 1: gather in the relative safety of the Arctic plane, where 43 00:03:24,600 --> 00:03:29,000 Speaker 1: they're coming to drop their calves. Heard after herd is 44 00:03:29,120 --> 00:03:32,480 Speaker 1: passing by within one hundred feet of our camp this morning, 45 00:03:32,800 --> 00:03:36,920 Speaker 1: conversing in a murmur that audibly rises above the flow 46 00:03:36,960 --> 00:03:40,920 Speaker 1: of the nearby Hula Hula. That's the chuffing I'm hearing, 47 00:03:41,520 --> 00:03:47,400 Speaker 1: its quiet Cariboo road trip conversation, pulling the tent fabric 48 00:03:47,440 --> 00:03:50,680 Speaker 1: aside to hear better. My first guess is that the 49 00:03:50,760 --> 00:03:54,800 Speaker 1: tinkling is the clicking of Cariboo hoofs passing through the 50 00:03:54,880 --> 00:03:59,480 Speaker 1: stiff eight inch high willows blanketing the riverside tundra. But 51 00:03:59,520 --> 00:04:03,640 Speaker 1: the more acutely I listen, well, what it actually sounds 52 00:04:03,760 --> 00:04:08,320 Speaker 1: like is an almost deliberate popping in their leg joints 53 00:04:08,600 --> 00:04:10,240 Speaker 1: as they walk past. 54 00:04:11,480 --> 00:04:13,280 Speaker 2: The truth is we've. 55 00:04:13,120 --> 00:04:16,919 Speaker 1: Been paddling down river among Caribou herds for days now, 56 00:04:17,600 --> 00:04:18,839 Speaker 1: but not in these numbers. 57 00:04:19,360 --> 00:04:19,680 Speaker 2: Now. 58 00:04:19,760 --> 00:04:23,160 Speaker 1: Everywhere we look, they're the only upright things in an 59 00:04:23,240 --> 00:04:27,839 Speaker 1: otherwise horizontal world. Tan and white bodies rocking along in 60 00:04:27,880 --> 00:04:32,080 Speaker 1: a kind of slow motion parade. They seem aim towards 61 00:04:32,160 --> 00:04:36,680 Speaker 1: an indistinct assortment of white blocks miles out that we've 62 00:04:36,720 --> 00:04:39,400 Speaker 1: been seeing for the past couple of days. And I'm 63 00:04:39,440 --> 00:04:43,400 Speaker 1: now starting to suspect our icebergs in the Arctic ocean, 64 00:04:43,800 --> 00:04:48,680 Speaker 1: elevated by mirage above the flatness of the plane. But 65 00:04:48,720 --> 00:04:51,599 Speaker 1: the caribou pulled me away from that thought. On the 66 00:04:51,680 --> 00:04:56,240 Speaker 1: opposite river bank, only yards away, herd males with antlers 67 00:04:56,240 --> 00:04:58,479 Speaker 1: and faces black at squid ink. 68 00:04:58,640 --> 00:04:59,800 Speaker 2: Clack over the rocks. 69 00:05:00,279 --> 00:05:05,080 Speaker 1: There are pregnant cows, also with antlers and posses of adolescence. 70 00:05:05,680 --> 00:05:08,760 Speaker 1: We've already seen wolves, most of them black, along with 71 00:05:08,839 --> 00:05:12,640 Speaker 1: grizzly bears and doll sheep. But the real wildlife miracle 72 00:05:12,680 --> 00:05:17,240 Speaker 1: here is in the vast numbers of cariboo. I noticed 73 00:05:17,279 --> 00:05:20,400 Speaker 1: that some herds with brand new calves, the little guys 74 00:05:20,480 --> 00:05:24,400 Speaker 1: jetting and poegoing across the tundra, have finally abandoned their 75 00:05:24,440 --> 00:05:30,520 Speaker 1: relentless march northward from the mountains. They've arrived ten days 76 00:05:30,560 --> 00:05:33,720 Speaker 1: earlier in Arctic Village on the other side of the 77 00:05:33,720 --> 00:05:38,599 Speaker 1: Brooks Range, gwitchin tribal Elder Sarah James had told us 78 00:05:38,680 --> 00:05:43,120 Speaker 1: that the Porcupine Cariboo herd is three hundred thousand strong 79 00:05:43,279 --> 00:05:47,800 Speaker 1: these days. Seventy five year old Sarah, with her long, 80 00:05:48,080 --> 00:05:52,919 Speaker 1: silver streaked hair, was funny and eloquent and committed. She 81 00:05:53,120 --> 00:05:55,960 Speaker 1: travels the world fighting to keep oil drilling out of 82 00:05:55,960 --> 00:05:59,720 Speaker 1: the refuge, a looming threat in twenty nineteen and an 83 00:05:59,760 --> 00:06:04,640 Speaker 1: even more frightening possibility in twenty twenty six. Sarah's got 84 00:06:04,640 --> 00:06:08,240 Speaker 1: the bona fides for that kind of activism. That tribal 85 00:06:08,360 --> 00:06:12,800 Speaker 1: name means people of the Cariboo. Sarah and her people 86 00:06:12,880 --> 00:06:16,960 Speaker 1: are the modern American equivalent of the Bison Indians of 87 00:06:17,040 --> 00:06:21,160 Speaker 1: the nineteenth century and earlier. The Cariboo are in our 88 00:06:21,320 --> 00:06:26,159 Speaker 1: hearts and we are in theirs, she told us. Now 89 00:06:26,240 --> 00:06:30,839 Speaker 1: standing by my tent, surrounded by thousands of Cariboo moving 90 00:06:30,920 --> 00:06:35,520 Speaker 1: slowly through a vast grassy landscape, in a scene reminiscent 91 00:06:35,600 --> 00:06:38,920 Speaker 1: of the nineteenth century Great Plains or maybe East Africa, 92 00:06:39,520 --> 00:06:42,120 Speaker 1: I'm as gobsmack as I've ever been in my life. 93 00:06:42,800 --> 00:06:46,960 Speaker 1: For the first time, I'm experiencing a version of original America. 94 00:06:47,400 --> 00:06:51,359 Speaker 1: The continent Humaniyed first marveled over more than twenty thousand 95 00:06:51,400 --> 00:06:54,320 Speaker 1: years ago. This must be what it was like to 96 00:06:54,400 --> 00:06:59,560 Speaker 1: experience bison herds to the horizon, her passenger pigeons streaming overhead, 97 00:06:59,800 --> 00:07:03,480 Speaker 1: and day long flights that blocked out the sun. Now 98 00:07:03,560 --> 00:07:06,120 Speaker 1: a quarter of the way through the twenty first century, 99 00:07:06,400 --> 00:07:10,000 Speaker 1: what's required for a primal experience of the natural planet 100 00:07:10,280 --> 00:07:13,360 Speaker 1: is being in one of Africa's grand game parks, and 101 00:07:13,480 --> 00:07:17,360 Speaker 1: parts of the Amazon are in some wildly remote piece 102 00:07:17,400 --> 00:07:20,960 Speaker 1: of North America, like this Arctic plane up at the 103 00:07:21,040 --> 00:07:24,760 Speaker 1: roof of the world in the United States of our 104 00:07:24,800 --> 00:07:29,520 Speaker 1: present century. This wild coastal plane in sight of Arctic 105 00:07:29,600 --> 00:07:33,320 Speaker 1: waters is one of the last continental places to preserve 106 00:07:33,680 --> 00:07:38,280 Speaker 1: a tantalizing echo of wild America as it waded across 107 00:07:38,320 --> 00:07:42,720 Speaker 1: the millennia for its destiny to play out. Here are 108 00:07:42,760 --> 00:07:46,160 Speaker 1: my first ten experiences of this place, as kept in 109 00:07:46,200 --> 00:07:54,440 Speaker 1: my daily Journal. June fifteenth, twenty nineteen, Arctic Village, Alaska. 110 00:07:54,720 --> 00:07:57,920 Speaker 1: Sarah James, who travels the world advocating for the Arctic 111 00:07:58,000 --> 00:08:01,680 Speaker 1: Wildlife Refuge and the Native of Life, rides up on 112 00:08:01,800 --> 00:08:04,920 Speaker 1: her Honda four wheeler to meet us on the airport 113 00:08:05,040 --> 00:08:08,640 Speaker 1: tarmac where our group is just deplaned. There are ten 114 00:08:08,720 --> 00:08:12,120 Speaker 1: of us lower forty eight ers. Our two guides who 115 00:08:12,200 --> 00:08:16,760 Speaker 1: do this float trip repeatedly when brooks range snowmelt raises 116 00:08:16,880 --> 00:08:19,560 Speaker 1: waters in the river's high enough to do it, are 117 00:08:19,600 --> 00:08:25,360 Speaker 1: from Arizona and Colorado, with one exception. The remaining eight 118 00:08:25,400 --> 00:08:28,440 Speaker 1: of us are from Santa Fe, New Mexico, most of 119 00:08:28,520 --> 00:08:34,000 Speaker 1: us longtime friends, several of us writers. Sarah, who is 120 00:08:34,040 --> 00:08:36,760 Speaker 1: addressing us from the seat of her Honda, looks to 121 00:08:36,760 --> 00:08:40,320 Speaker 1: be fifteen years younger than her actual age, and she 122 00:08:40,520 --> 00:08:45,040 Speaker 1: is naturally easy going and personable. As she starts to talk, 123 00:08:45,120 --> 00:08:48,679 Speaker 1: I noticed with some curiosity that of her fellow villagers. 124 00:08:48,720 --> 00:08:52,720 Speaker 1: I can see everyone is also moving about the airstrip 125 00:08:52,960 --> 00:08:57,120 Speaker 1: and the village streets on four wheelers. As we blink 126 00:08:57,120 --> 00:09:00,040 Speaker 1: in the bright high latitude sunlight and swat at the 127 00:08:59,880 --> 00:09:04,360 Speaker 1: occasional mosquito. Sarah is telling us about her people's situation. 128 00:09:04,960 --> 00:09:09,520 Speaker 1: I jot down a few notes. Minus seventy degrees fahrenheit 129 00:09:09,920 --> 00:09:12,920 Speaker 1: used to be our normal winters here, she's telling us, 130 00:09:13,360 --> 00:09:17,120 Speaker 1: but this last winter minus forty was the coldest. 131 00:09:16,679 --> 00:09:18,960 Speaker 2: It got, although the snow was really deep. 132 00:09:20,000 --> 00:09:24,200 Speaker 1: Their village, whose name in their language translates to village 133 00:09:24,240 --> 00:09:28,040 Speaker 1: with high banks, was founded on this spot because of 134 00:09:28,080 --> 00:09:31,479 Speaker 1: the nearby tree line and the Caribou migrations. 135 00:09:31,559 --> 00:09:32,080 Speaker 2: She says. 136 00:09:32,880 --> 00:09:36,760 Speaker 1: They follow the caribou migrations from towers they've built around 137 00:09:36,800 --> 00:09:40,600 Speaker 1: their country, which stretches from the highest place in the 138 00:09:40,640 --> 00:09:43,959 Speaker 1: Brooks Range to as far as we can see. She adds, 139 00:09:45,040 --> 00:09:48,360 Speaker 1: the caribou migrations are changing, but they still come to 140 00:09:48,400 --> 00:09:51,720 Speaker 1: this valley and to old crow flats, places with lots 141 00:09:51,720 --> 00:09:55,160 Speaker 1: of lakes and food sources. We call our herd the 142 00:09:55,280 --> 00:09:59,520 Speaker 1: Porcupine Cariboo, and we've always hunted them. We cease to 143 00:09:59,600 --> 00:10:02,680 Speaker 1: hunt in June when the new embryos form in them, 144 00:10:02,920 --> 00:10:06,160 Speaker 1: and wait until the training of the calves is finished 145 00:10:06,400 --> 00:10:09,800 Speaker 1: before we resume, she tells us. At one point the 146 00:10:09,840 --> 00:10:12,080 Speaker 1: Porcupine herd dropped to as low as one hundred and 147 00:10:12,080 --> 00:10:15,320 Speaker 1: twenty thousand, but now it's almost back to its normal 148 00:10:15,400 --> 00:10:19,600 Speaker 1: size of three hundred thousand. There are plenty of predators 149 00:10:19,640 --> 00:10:22,960 Speaker 1: other than us, she says, a great many wolves, and 150 00:10:23,080 --> 00:10:27,120 Speaker 1: also plenty of grizzlies, and there are lynks and wolverines too, 151 00:10:27,840 --> 00:10:33,320 Speaker 1: everything living to some extent on the Cariboo presence. While 152 00:10:33,400 --> 00:10:37,439 Speaker 1: Native people have hunted the refuge long before its official designation, 153 00:10:38,040 --> 00:10:43,640 Speaker 1: the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge are Anwar dates to nineteen sixty, 154 00:10:43,920 --> 00:10:48,480 Speaker 1: when the Eisenhower administration set aside eight point nine million 155 00:10:48,559 --> 00:10:52,079 Speaker 1: acres of the Brooks Range and the Coastal Plain as 156 00:10:52,160 --> 00:10:57,880 Speaker 1: the Arctic National Wildlife Range. When the epic Alaska Lands 157 00:10:57,920 --> 00:11:02,640 Speaker 1: Bill passed in nineteen eighty, the Carter administration upgraded the 158 00:11:02,840 --> 00:11:08,000 Speaker 1: range to a full refuge, expanded to a whopping nineteen 159 00:11:08,160 --> 00:11:12,760 Speaker 1: point six million acres, four times the size of Yellowstone 160 00:11:12,800 --> 00:11:18,000 Speaker 1: National Park. It overnight became the crown jeweled wildlife preserve 161 00:11:18,120 --> 00:11:21,800 Speaker 1: of the entire seventy five year old system, a true 162 00:11:21,960 --> 00:11:27,880 Speaker 1: Yellowstone of America's wildlife refuges. Ecologist Olos Murray and his 163 00:11:27,960 --> 00:11:32,560 Speaker 1: wife Marty were famous early advocates for anwar's creation and 164 00:11:32,679 --> 00:11:36,440 Speaker 1: for wilderness designation of nearly forty percent of it, But 165 00:11:36,520 --> 00:11:39,520 Speaker 1: the Alaska Lands Bill left the one and a half 166 00:11:39,679 --> 00:11:43,880 Speaker 1: million acre coastal Plane, the so called ten oh two, 167 00:11:44,600 --> 00:11:49,800 Speaker 1: open to potential oil and gas exploration. That opening, and 168 00:11:49,880 --> 00:11:53,560 Speaker 1: the threat its posed to wildlife, to the caribou, and 169 00:11:53,600 --> 00:11:58,880 Speaker 1: to the Gwitchin way of life, is what motivated Sarah's activism. 170 00:11:59,160 --> 00:12:02,480 Speaker 1: I think of my elf as an educator protecting my 171 00:12:02,600 --> 00:12:08,320 Speaker 1: way of life, not as an activist, she insists, to us, recycle, reuse, 172 00:12:08,880 --> 00:12:13,040 Speaker 1: and refuse is my motto. I first went to the 173 00:12:13,040 --> 00:12:16,880 Speaker 1: Plains Indian people because of their history with Buffalo, to 174 00:12:16,960 --> 00:12:20,000 Speaker 1: get resolutions to support us in stopping oil and gas 175 00:12:20,000 --> 00:12:20,640 Speaker 1: in anwar. 176 00:12:20,960 --> 00:12:21,679 Speaker 2: She tells us. 177 00:12:22,360 --> 00:12:25,840 Speaker 1: The National Congress of American Indians has supported the protection 178 00:12:25,960 --> 00:12:30,160 Speaker 1: of anwar with a standing resolution, but other Native people 179 00:12:30,320 --> 00:12:34,560 Speaker 1: surrounding the refuge, the coy yukon the Crees and the 180 00:12:34,600 --> 00:12:38,880 Speaker 1: people of Cactovic Village in the Beaufort Sea have supported 181 00:12:39,080 --> 00:12:43,599 Speaker 1: drilling and development. Coastal Plain people are in tougher conditions, 182 00:12:43,720 --> 00:12:48,360 Speaker 1: she says. Still, we all breathe the same air. We 183 00:12:48,480 --> 00:12:52,240 Speaker 1: need to help one another. The Republican Congress and Trump 184 00:12:52,280 --> 00:12:55,679 Speaker 1: administration is really hard, but if we keep working on 185 00:12:55,720 --> 00:13:00,760 Speaker 1: our goal for seven generations, we'll finally win and educate 186 00:13:00,800 --> 00:13:04,079 Speaker 1: the world in a good way and they'll get it. 187 00:13:06,400 --> 00:13:11,640 Speaker 1: June sixteenth, twenty nineteen, It's a stunning morning at our 188 00:13:11,720 --> 00:13:15,760 Speaker 1: first camp on the Hulahula. We arrived here by Bush 189 00:13:15,800 --> 00:13:19,679 Speaker 1: Plain around noon yesterday after what well may be the 190 00:13:19,720 --> 00:13:23,439 Speaker 1: grandest Plain ride of my life from Arctic Village north 191 00:13:23,679 --> 00:13:27,040 Speaker 1: through the Serrated peaks and defiles of the Brooks Range, 192 00:13:27,280 --> 00:13:31,520 Speaker 1: flying through valleys with knife edged peaks looming far above 193 00:13:31,600 --> 00:13:36,079 Speaker 1: us on a perfect blue sky day. No wonder olass 194 00:13:36,120 --> 00:13:40,520 Speaker 1: and Marty Murray, Sigurd Olson and William O. Douglas were 195 00:13:40,600 --> 00:13:45,319 Speaker 1: so bewitched by this country. As for me, it's entirely 196 00:13:45,400 --> 00:13:50,560 Speaker 1: revising my conception of wild America. The view of our river, 197 00:13:50,720 --> 00:13:54,679 Speaker 1: the hula hula from the air, a silver thread dissecting 198 00:13:54,720 --> 00:13:58,840 Speaker 1: an immense mountain valley carpeted in tundra, was as alluring 199 00:13:58,840 --> 00:14:01,640 Speaker 1: a scene as I've ever witness Yes, looking down on it, 200 00:14:01,720 --> 00:14:04,880 Speaker 1: the thought repeatedly formed in my mind, Holy shit, we 201 00:14:04,920 --> 00:14:07,120 Speaker 1: get to travel down that through this. 202 00:14:08,640 --> 00:14:09,560 Speaker 2: A cold wind. 203 00:14:09,360 --> 00:14:12,600 Speaker 1: Blowing from the north off Arctic Sea ice last night 204 00:14:12,720 --> 00:14:17,359 Speaker 1: belied the bright, welcoming sunshine of our arrival in the afternoon, 205 00:14:17,840 --> 00:14:21,600 Speaker 1: But today is both sunny and quiet. Basically, it's a 206 00:14:21,640 --> 00:14:25,200 Speaker 1: perfect day for a river trip into the wild unknown. 207 00:14:26,160 --> 00:14:28,120 Speaker 1: This is our first day of travel on the river, 208 00:14:28,440 --> 00:14:31,320 Speaker 1: so we got the bear talk from our guides last night, 209 00:14:31,640 --> 00:14:35,000 Speaker 1: with accounts of blonde grizzlies that know nothing of humans, 210 00:14:35,240 --> 00:14:39,120 Speaker 1: and especially of polar bears that see you and come 211 00:14:39,200 --> 00:14:42,760 Speaker 1: knocking on the door. Polar bears mean business, and these 212 00:14:42,880 --> 00:14:45,680 Speaker 1: days they come inland. We're just a couple of days 213 00:14:45,720 --> 00:14:50,120 Speaker 1: away from where other anwar travelers have had exciting experiences 214 00:14:50,160 --> 00:14:53,920 Speaker 1: with polar bears. From this put in camp, near the 215 00:14:53,960 --> 00:14:57,040 Speaker 1: Bush Plain landing Strip, which is little more than a 216 00:14:57,160 --> 00:15:00,120 Speaker 1: level couple of one hundred yards of river cobbles clear 217 00:15:00,240 --> 00:15:03,480 Speaker 1: of willows, we've so far seen a red fox trotting 218 00:15:03,480 --> 00:15:07,160 Speaker 1: along the opposite cutbank from us, and eight nine doll 219 00:15:07,320 --> 00:15:11,000 Speaker 1: sheep on the green tundra slopes of the surrounding mountains 220 00:15:11,920 --> 00:15:16,280 Speaker 1: from our guides Arizona and christa saddler with whom I've 221 00:15:16,400 --> 00:15:20,040 Speaker 1: rafted the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, and Kevin 222 00:15:20,360 --> 00:15:25,960 Speaker 1: Thursty McDermott, a burly and likable fifty something West Slope Colorado. 223 00:15:26,480 --> 00:15:30,560 Speaker 1: We're hearing accounts of Caribou herds, herds in the thousands, 224 00:15:30,680 --> 00:15:36,600 Speaker 1: the many thousands downriver. Later, on June sixteenth, in Evening Camp, 225 00:15:37,720 --> 00:15:41,080 Speaker 1: the river float commenced today not just with doll sheep, 226 00:15:41,440 --> 00:15:45,200 Speaker 1: but also a wolfback on the slopes above camp. As 227 00:15:45,200 --> 00:15:48,240 Speaker 1: we were preparing to set off, the sheep had been 228 00:15:48,280 --> 00:15:51,400 Speaker 1: in bunches of ten to fifteen. One of the flocks 229 00:15:51,480 --> 00:15:54,480 Speaker 1: was above us as we launched our rafts. Another was 230 00:15:54,560 --> 00:15:58,080 Speaker 1: near us at noon. A group of backpackers who were 231 00:15:58,080 --> 00:16:01,960 Speaker 1: also dropped off yesterday and camp nearby, though, came to 232 00:16:02,000 --> 00:16:04,680 Speaker 1: our tents before we shoved off this morning with a 233 00:16:04,720 --> 00:16:06,840 Speaker 1: one word announcement wolf. 234 00:16:07,760 --> 00:16:09,600 Speaker 2: It pulled up everyone in camp. 235 00:16:10,200 --> 00:16:13,120 Speaker 1: I got about ten seconds of glass time of a 236 00:16:13,200 --> 00:16:16,760 Speaker 1: black wolf maybe half a mile away through my binoculars, 237 00:16:17,240 --> 00:16:21,360 Speaker 1: then nothing, but following a lapse of twenty minutes, again 238 00:16:21,560 --> 00:16:25,280 Speaker 1: came the cry wolf, and this time we picked up four. 239 00:16:26,120 --> 00:16:30,200 Speaker 1: This pack included a black wolf that traveled second in 240 00:16:30,280 --> 00:16:34,880 Speaker 1: line behind a lead brown animal. A silver gray wolf, 241 00:16:35,160 --> 00:16:38,560 Speaker 1: hard to pick out against the gray talus slopes, moved 242 00:16:38,600 --> 00:16:42,040 Speaker 1: in and out of the line, occupying various positions, but 243 00:16:42,200 --> 00:16:46,520 Speaker 1: sometimes going its own way. Another brown wolf trotted at 244 00:16:46,560 --> 00:16:50,720 Speaker 1: the rear, usually some distance behind. The group, appeared to 245 00:16:50,760 --> 00:16:55,920 Speaker 1: be moving stalking, would not accurately express their actions, closer 246 00:16:56,000 --> 00:16:59,600 Speaker 1: and closer to a grazing flock of white doll sheep, 247 00:16:59,840 --> 00:17:03,360 Speaker 1: always one hundred yards or so below them, prompting the 248 00:17:03,400 --> 00:17:08,160 Speaker 1: sheep to move up mountain, always maintaining the same distance. 249 00:17:07,720 --> 00:17:08,480 Speaker 2: From the wolves. 250 00:17:09,600 --> 00:17:15,439 Speaker 1: This pack howled several times a faint peeling of canine expressiveness. 251 00:17:16,320 --> 00:17:19,840 Speaker 1: While it was not my situation, having lived in Montana 252 00:17:20,240 --> 00:17:24,160 Speaker 1: during and after wolf recovery there, several of our group 253 00:17:24,480 --> 00:17:29,000 Speaker 1: had never in their lives seen wolves nor heard real 254 00:17:29,080 --> 00:17:33,480 Speaker 1: wolves howl in the wild. Sadly, that's the case for 255 00:17:33,600 --> 00:17:37,160 Speaker 1: most modern Americans on a continent where wolves were once 256 00:17:37,240 --> 00:17:40,760 Speaker 1: the commonest of Keystone predators present here for more than 257 00:17:40,840 --> 00:17:45,399 Speaker 1: five million years. That's how anomalous the last one hundred 258 00:17:45,480 --> 00:17:49,920 Speaker 1: years of wolf absence has been. This is a paddle 259 00:17:49,920 --> 00:17:53,159 Speaker 1: trip down the Hula Hula. We're traveling the country in 260 00:17:53,240 --> 00:17:56,639 Speaker 1: two rafts, a guide manning the rudders of each, with 261 00:17:56,800 --> 00:17:59,680 Speaker 1: four of us providing the paddle power for each raft. 262 00:18:00,359 --> 00:18:04,359 Speaker 1: The river's shallow, rarely deeper than three feet, and fast 263 00:18:04,480 --> 00:18:08,800 Speaker 1: with snowmelt, with numerous braided channels. Looking down at the 264 00:18:08,840 --> 00:18:11,520 Speaker 1: cobbles in its bed as we slip through its waters, 265 00:18:11,840 --> 00:18:15,920 Speaker 1: the sight is of a shimmering transparency. But seen from 266 00:18:15,920 --> 00:18:20,040 Speaker 1: the banks, the Hula Hulas waters take on a mesmerizing 267 00:18:20,200 --> 00:18:24,359 Speaker 1: green turquoise hue from water's edge to the crests of 268 00:18:24,400 --> 00:18:28,600 Speaker 1: the Brooks Range peaks surrounding us. We're above timberline. The 269 00:18:28,640 --> 00:18:33,719 Speaker 1: country that rolls up the slopes is pure tundra. This evening, 270 00:18:33,760 --> 00:18:36,600 Speaker 1: we're in a fine camp among low willows along the 271 00:18:36,600 --> 00:18:40,080 Speaker 1: west bank. Cariboo tracks in the mud are in some 272 00:18:40,200 --> 00:18:43,680 Speaker 1: profusion only feet from Sarah's in my tent. But we've 273 00:18:43,760 --> 00:18:47,800 Speaker 1: not actually seen a Cariboo, at least not yet. I 274 00:18:47,840 --> 00:18:52,879 Speaker 1: should add that evening is pretty much an artificial construction. 275 00:18:53,040 --> 00:18:57,520 Speaker 1: Here above the Arctic Circle a week from summer solstice. 276 00:18:57,600 --> 00:19:02,640 Speaker 1: The sun circumnavigates our sky at a kind of inclined angle, 277 00:19:03,160 --> 00:19:06,920 Speaker 1: highest at noon when the sun is due south, lowest 278 00:19:06,960 --> 00:19:08,800 Speaker 1: at midnight when it's due north. 279 00:19:09,240 --> 00:19:10,240 Speaker 2: But it never sets. 280 00:19:10,960 --> 00:19:14,320 Speaker 1: So this is a trip that's actually taking place over 281 00:19:14,440 --> 00:19:19,800 Speaker 1: a nearly three hundred hour long single day. At least 282 00:19:19,800 --> 00:19:22,760 Speaker 1: we can tell whether it's morning or afternoon by which 283 00:19:22,840 --> 00:19:25,880 Speaker 1: side of this mountain valley the sun is. In mornings, 284 00:19:25,880 --> 00:19:29,480 Speaker 1: it skims the peaks on the east side of the valley. Afternoons, 285 00:19:29,520 --> 00:19:32,320 Speaker 1: it dodges in and out of the mountains that confine 286 00:19:32,600 --> 00:19:38,800 Speaker 1: the Hula Hula to our west. June seventeenth, twenty nineteen, 287 00:19:39,760 --> 00:19:43,040 Speaker 1: we're about to leave this Cariboo camp, which we've named 288 00:19:43,080 --> 00:19:47,360 Speaker 1: such because as we slept, Cariboo herds began to migrate 289 00:19:47,440 --> 00:19:50,960 Speaker 1: past us. It didn't take long to get among the Cariboo, 290 00:19:51,520 --> 00:19:54,399 Speaker 1: and just now a single black wolf is on the 291 00:19:54,440 --> 00:19:58,240 Speaker 1: slope above the path the herds have been taken. There 292 00:19:58,320 --> 00:20:01,120 Speaker 1: was considerable rain in the night, and this morning clouds 293 00:20:01,160 --> 00:20:04,160 Speaker 1: top all the mountains around us. The days so far 294 00:20:04,200 --> 00:20:07,280 Speaker 1: I've been in the seventies, but without the sun it's 295 00:20:07,359 --> 00:20:11,320 Speaker 1: cold enough to put on our healey hansome wetsuits today 296 00:20:11,640 --> 00:20:15,320 Speaker 1: over four or five layers of smart wool, and our 297 00:20:15,440 --> 00:20:20,919 Speaker 1: everyday footwear mid calf rubber boots. Thirsty tells us this 298 00:20:21,040 --> 00:20:23,919 Speaker 1: morning that the wolves den in these mountains, which is 299 00:20:23,960 --> 00:20:27,119 Speaker 1: why the Caribou migrate out to the coastal plain to 300 00:20:27,280 --> 00:20:31,400 Speaker 1: drop their calves. Wolf dens are commonly on high overlooks, 301 00:20:31,560 --> 00:20:35,120 Speaker 1: so the wolves can spot cariboo below. He says he's 302 00:20:35,119 --> 00:20:38,840 Speaker 1: seen a pack stampede of herd over a cutbank in 303 00:20:38,880 --> 00:20:42,840 Speaker 1: a move very similar to a bison jump. He also 304 00:20:42,960 --> 00:20:46,280 Speaker 1: told us that in summer, musk ox descend to the 305 00:20:46,440 --> 00:20:49,199 Speaker 1: edges of the rivers to sleep and cool off in 306 00:20:49,240 --> 00:20:53,080 Speaker 1: the shade of the big chunks of permafrost. We see 307 00:20:53,240 --> 00:20:58,240 Speaker 1: everywhere slewing off the cutbanks in the summer warmth. Today 308 00:20:58,280 --> 00:21:01,600 Speaker 1: is a cold, gray day with a north wind blowing 309 00:21:01,680 --> 00:21:05,800 Speaker 1: steadily up the river and in our faces. This feels 310 00:21:05,880 --> 00:21:10,359 Speaker 1: like Alaska in the Brooks Range up near the Continental Divide. 311 00:21:10,400 --> 00:21:13,520 Speaker 1: Nothing for it but to paddle and look forward to 312 00:21:13,640 --> 00:21:22,080 Speaker 1: camp and warm sleeping bags. June eighteenth, It's after seven 313 00:21:22,200 --> 00:21:26,480 Speaker 1: pm of an absolutely gorgeous day in the foothills of 314 00:21:26,480 --> 00:21:30,040 Speaker 1: the Brooks Range, and we're just down from seven hours 315 00:21:30,040 --> 00:21:34,200 Speaker 1: of hiking up to a ridgeline high above the green 316 00:21:34,359 --> 00:21:38,280 Speaker 1: Valley of the Hula Hula. Since we've been making good time, 317 00:21:38,680 --> 00:21:41,200 Speaker 1: this was a layover day and we got to watch 318 00:21:41,240 --> 00:21:44,280 Speaker 1: caribou herds heading north through the valley during much of 319 00:21:44,320 --> 00:21:48,240 Speaker 1: the morning. We made this camp late yesterday after many 320 00:21:48,320 --> 00:21:51,760 Speaker 1: miles descending the river, and are now in sight of 321 00:21:51,800 --> 00:21:56,480 Speaker 1: the final canyon and the only cataract rapids on the Hulahula, 322 00:21:56,560 --> 00:22:00,600 Speaker 1: which we'll run tomorrow. A successful run through those rapids 323 00:22:00,720 --> 00:22:03,320 Speaker 1: will take us out of the mountains and onto the 324 00:22:03,359 --> 00:22:08,000 Speaker 1: coastal plain. Yesterday was a big descent of many hours 325 00:22:08,000 --> 00:22:12,960 Speaker 1: of paddling under overcast skies and a cold wind erin 326 00:22:13,440 --> 00:22:17,320 Speaker 1: our only California, and at twenty five, the youngest member 327 00:22:17,359 --> 00:22:20,359 Speaker 1: of our party got tossed from our raft in a 328 00:22:20,400 --> 00:22:24,280 Speaker 1: boulder garden rapid late in the day. It required nearly 329 00:22:24,359 --> 00:22:27,760 Speaker 1: two hours after that mishap to find a suitable camp 330 00:22:27,760 --> 00:22:31,280 Speaker 1: for the evening, but Erin was an absolute trooper about 331 00:22:31,320 --> 00:22:33,280 Speaker 1: staying wet for so long. 332 00:22:34,640 --> 00:22:36,200 Speaker 2: Yesterday was also. 333 00:22:36,080 --> 00:22:39,760 Speaker 1: A two wolf day, both wolves black and solitary. 334 00:22:40,160 --> 00:22:42,440 Speaker 2: The second a strapping big. 335 00:22:42,240 --> 00:22:47,320 Speaker 1: Animal that ran effortlessly across the hummocky tundra before spotting 336 00:22:47,400 --> 00:22:50,440 Speaker 1: us and squaring up three to four times to look 337 00:22:50,520 --> 00:22:53,240 Speaker 1: directly at us from only a couple of one hundred 338 00:22:53,280 --> 00:22:57,280 Speaker 1: yards away. We've not seen a bear yet, but watching 339 00:22:57,400 --> 00:23:01,760 Speaker 1: caribou herds crossed his open country produces an emotion that's 340 00:23:01,840 --> 00:23:06,000 Speaker 1: difficult to put into words. Timeless keeps coming to mind, 341 00:23:06,359 --> 00:23:10,040 Speaker 1: but you shudder a little bit at that one. As 342 00:23:10,040 --> 00:23:14,600 Speaker 1: gray and cold as yesterday was, today has been a sunny, blank, 343 00:23:14,720 --> 00:23:15,920 Speaker 1: blue sky delight. 344 00:23:16,680 --> 00:23:18,520 Speaker 2: The clouds still wrapped. 345 00:23:18,200 --> 00:23:20,800 Speaker 1: The peaks as we rose and had coffee, but by 346 00:23:20,800 --> 00:23:24,080 Speaker 1: the time breakfast was done, the mist had lifted and 347 00:23:24,359 --> 00:23:31,000 Speaker 1: Arctic sunlight flooded the mountains. June twentieth, It's ten in 348 00:23:31,040 --> 00:23:34,800 Speaker 1: the evening in the Arctic wilderness, and Sarah and I 349 00:23:34,920 --> 00:23:40,640 Speaker 1: are celebrating our fifth anniversary with tequila and uncontrolled substances, 350 00:23:41,080 --> 00:23:44,000 Speaker 1: and now Earl Gray tea too hot to drink. 351 00:23:44,040 --> 00:23:46,359 Speaker 2: Almost the past. 352 00:23:46,119 --> 00:23:50,800 Speaker 1: Two days have unspooled in a country of such unblemish 353 00:23:51,000 --> 00:23:54,320 Speaker 1: natural qualities that I'm realizing I've lived a kind of 354 00:23:54,440 --> 00:23:56,720 Speaker 1: emasculated existence for much. 355 00:23:56,600 --> 00:23:57,240 Speaker 2: Of my life. 356 00:23:58,040 --> 00:24:02,399 Speaker 1: Primeval America is what this is. We've so far seen 357 00:24:02,560 --> 00:24:08,159 Speaker 1: one native hunting camp, three or four bush planes arking overhead, 358 00:24:08,600 --> 00:24:14,760 Speaker 1: and the occasional jet flying from JFK to Tokyo. Otherwise, 359 00:24:14,880 --> 00:24:19,679 Speaker 1: we're traveling through the world of our hominin origins, or 360 00:24:19,760 --> 00:24:23,960 Speaker 1: at least one hell of an approximation of it. Today's 361 00:24:23,960 --> 00:24:27,840 Speaker 1: our third straight day of gorgeous sunshine, which means we 362 00:24:27,960 --> 00:24:30,120 Speaker 1: ran the canyon and its rapids in. 363 00:24:30,160 --> 00:24:34,080 Speaker 2: Beautiful, bright light. Yesterday, the rapids. 364 00:24:33,600 --> 00:24:37,399 Speaker 1: Including the Hula Hoop rapid, we slipped through in good 365 00:24:37,720 --> 00:24:41,480 Speaker 1: morning high water. Other than sticking our raft on a boulder, 366 00:24:41,720 --> 00:24:44,600 Speaker 1: we had no incidents and took a long lunch on 367 00:24:44,680 --> 00:24:48,760 Speaker 1: a sunny, flowery hilltop where the Brooks Range opened suddenly 368 00:24:49,040 --> 00:24:51,800 Speaker 1: into low green foothills speckled with. 369 00:24:51,880 --> 00:24:55,360 Speaker 2: Caribou antler sheds. That setting. 370 00:24:55,440 --> 00:24:58,320 Speaker 1: Once we were underway after lunch was the scene of 371 00:24:58,359 --> 00:25:02,080 Speaker 1: our most exciting wildlife experience yet. I was in the 372 00:25:02,080 --> 00:25:04,840 Speaker 1: front of our lead raft so got the first glimpse 373 00:25:05,040 --> 00:25:08,600 Speaker 1: of a bulky, furred form rolling along up the right 374 00:25:08,680 --> 00:25:12,679 Speaker 1: bank of the river. It was a familiar hump shape 375 00:25:13,119 --> 00:25:16,000 Speaker 1: a grizzly, which, with a couple of bounds, was out 376 00:25:16,040 --> 00:25:19,920 Speaker 1: of sight. As we paddled a riverband towards where he 377 00:25:19,960 --> 00:25:23,880 Speaker 1: had disappeared. The sound of our voices must have bounced 378 00:25:23,960 --> 00:25:25,960 Speaker 1: off the low cutbank. 379 00:25:25,520 --> 00:25:26,840 Speaker 2: Where the bear had headed. 380 00:25:27,400 --> 00:25:30,040 Speaker 1: The result was that our raft was in the direct 381 00:25:30,080 --> 00:25:33,439 Speaker 1: line of fire. When the grizzly came galloping through the 382 00:25:33,520 --> 00:25:38,320 Speaker 1: willows to water's edge, straight for us. It looked for 383 00:25:38,440 --> 00:25:41,320 Speaker 1: all the world like a charge, except I could tell 384 00:25:41,480 --> 00:25:45,600 Speaker 1: the bear had not really seen us. Just as bear 385 00:25:45,680 --> 00:25:49,880 Speaker 1: paus hit the river's edge, Thirsty muttered something about not 386 00:25:49,920 --> 00:25:52,720 Speaker 1: wanting to share a river with a bear and loosed 387 00:25:52,800 --> 00:25:57,040 Speaker 1: a piercing whistle. The small black eyes in the grizzly's 388 00:25:57,160 --> 00:26:02,479 Speaker 1: lovely symmetrical face suddenly lost us. There was a split 389 00:26:02,600 --> 00:26:06,680 Speaker 1: second what the fuck on his face? Then a studied, 390 00:26:07,000 --> 00:26:11,879 Speaker 1: almost slow turned to his right like a nonchalant damn it, 391 00:26:12,160 --> 00:26:14,600 Speaker 1: I think I may have left the burner on back home. 392 00:26:15,400 --> 00:26:17,000 Speaker 2: Then, like a corner horse. 393 00:26:16,800 --> 00:26:20,679 Speaker 1: Under quirt, he was boundering through the willows at escape velocity, 394 00:26:21,280 --> 00:26:26,240 Speaker 1: directly away from us. It was a supreme sensory moment. 395 00:26:26,760 --> 00:26:30,280 Speaker 1: We had been privileged to see a gorgeous grizzly bear 396 00:26:30,680 --> 00:26:35,560 Speaker 1: at a distance of maybe thirty five feet. We camped 397 00:26:35,640 --> 00:26:39,840 Speaker 1: yesterday and still are today, at a spot below k 398 00:26:40,080 --> 00:26:46,159 Speaker 1: Gat Hill, which we climbed today through increasingly larger caribou herds, 399 00:26:46,200 --> 00:26:50,640 Speaker 1: all steadily pulled northward, as if by some throbbing magnet. 400 00:26:51,600 --> 00:26:54,080 Speaker 1: From here you could see the next river valley to 401 00:26:54,160 --> 00:26:57,520 Speaker 1: the west, the valley of the Saddle Roach at mountains, 402 00:26:57,800 --> 00:27:01,040 Speaker 1: and behind us the Hula Hulas at it through its 403 00:27:01,160 --> 00:27:06,160 Speaker 1: canyon out of the Brooks Range. This afternoon, another grizzly 404 00:27:06,240 --> 00:27:11,119 Speaker 1: graves past our camp, barely one hundred yards away. Wolf 405 00:27:11,160 --> 00:27:13,720 Speaker 1: tracks are on the beach behind me. As I scribble 406 00:27:13,800 --> 00:27:20,320 Speaker 1: this June twenty, first summer solstice in the High Arctic, 407 00:27:21,280 --> 00:27:24,600 Speaker 1: we're now in sight of the Arctic Ocean from a 408 00:27:24,680 --> 00:27:27,920 Speaker 1: camp where the Hula Hulas banks have begun to ice up, 409 00:27:28,480 --> 00:27:32,880 Speaker 1: far out on the coastal plain of anwar far into 410 00:27:32,920 --> 00:27:36,399 Speaker 1: the famous ten to two the part of the refuge 411 00:27:36,640 --> 00:27:41,040 Speaker 1: that's long been a target of drill baby drill politicians 412 00:27:41,840 --> 00:27:44,560 Speaker 1: and to be fair of some of the local natives 413 00:27:44,720 --> 00:27:49,840 Speaker 1: and Alaskans who see money as an ultimate value. Looking 414 00:27:49,880 --> 00:27:53,679 Speaker 1: across this vast tundra, a plane that's bursting with the 415 00:27:53,760 --> 00:27:57,840 Speaker 1: life of primeval America. The middle picture of drill baby 416 00:27:57,920 --> 00:28:01,240 Speaker 1: drill Here is a kin to a man the Lamar 417 00:28:01,440 --> 00:28:06,359 Speaker 1: Valley of Yellowstone Park, festooned with oil derricks, tank batteries, 418 00:28:06,600 --> 00:28:10,680 Speaker 1: pumping units, and litter line two tracks. Try to hold 419 00:28:10,760 --> 00:28:13,880 Speaker 1: that image in your mind. See if it doesn't fly 420 00:28:14,119 --> 00:28:20,199 Speaker 1: to escape screaming. We made big miles last foothills to 421 00:28:20,320 --> 00:28:24,520 Speaker 1: pass the ice. Today we're way ahead of schedule thanks 422 00:28:24,600 --> 00:28:28,120 Speaker 1: to great weather that's warm enough to keep snowmelt surging 423 00:28:28,160 --> 00:28:31,760 Speaker 1: in the river and glory b Despite temperatures in the 424 00:28:31,800 --> 00:28:35,840 Speaker 1: sixties and seventies, the Mosquito Hatch has not yet developed. 425 00:28:36,880 --> 00:28:40,440 Speaker 1: Two big moments today. The first was pulling over for 426 00:28:40,600 --> 00:28:44,560 Speaker 1: lunch and mounting the cutbank to find the biggest single 427 00:28:44,680 --> 00:28:48,720 Speaker 1: caribou herd yet on the opposite bank, something around six 428 00:28:48,840 --> 00:28:52,600 Speaker 1: hundred of them. We are also in Muskoks and Polar 429 00:28:52,640 --> 00:28:56,880 Speaker 1: Bear country now, although we've seen neither. There's something very 430 00:28:57,000 --> 00:29:02,040 Speaker 1: powerful though about watching big herds of ungulates in open country. 431 00:29:02,800 --> 00:29:06,840 Speaker 1: If our genes preserve memories, this has to be a 432 00:29:07,040 --> 00:29:10,120 Speaker 1: visual trigger to that this is the kind of world 433 00:29:10,200 --> 00:29:13,640 Speaker 1: we human beings evolved in and where we blinked into 434 00:29:13,680 --> 00:29:18,360 Speaker 1: consciousness then live surrounded by big animals and big herds 435 00:29:18,360 --> 00:29:23,120 Speaker 1: for forty thousand generations of our existence. No wonder it's 436 00:29:23,160 --> 00:29:28,480 Speaker 1: so moving on such a grandly sensuous level. The other 437 00:29:28,680 --> 00:29:32,360 Speaker 1: wild piece of the day was rafting through the ice 438 00:29:32,920 --> 00:29:36,280 Speaker 1: a section of the river where ice as thick as 439 00:29:36,400 --> 00:29:39,640 Speaker 1: ten feet makes up at least one bank for a 440 00:29:39,720 --> 00:29:43,720 Speaker 1: mile or more. We stopped and goofed around on blue, 441 00:29:44,080 --> 00:29:47,960 Speaker 1: dripping ice packs for half an hour in sunny, t 442 00:29:48,160 --> 00:29:54,920 Speaker 1: shirt temperatures. June twenty second, only three days of river 443 00:29:55,000 --> 00:29:57,720 Speaker 1: and ocean traveler left to take us to the island 444 00:29:57,720 --> 00:30:00,880 Speaker 1: airstrip that will be our takeout, and much of that 445 00:30:00,960 --> 00:30:04,719 Speaker 1: will involve portaging to an adjacent river to get a 446 00:30:04,800 --> 00:30:08,640 Speaker 1: straight shot at the island that will then wade to 447 00:30:09,200 --> 00:30:12,840 Speaker 1: a mile or so out across the Beaufort Sea. Weather 448 00:30:13,000 --> 00:30:17,040 Speaker 1: continues near perfect sixty one degrees on the high tundra 449 00:30:17,240 --> 00:30:21,000 Speaker 1: just now several of us stayed up till midnight last 450 00:30:21,080 --> 00:30:24,600 Speaker 1: night to watch the sun circle the horizon and to 451 00:30:24,840 --> 00:30:29,840 Speaker 1: dance its progress on summer solstice. Caribou herds are now 452 00:30:30,040 --> 00:30:34,600 Speaker 1: in sight constantly, with a vast herd migrating past camp 453 00:30:34,760 --> 00:30:39,760 Speaker 1: this morning, an entirely Africa kind of scene. The Brooks Range, 454 00:30:39,800 --> 00:30:43,360 Speaker 1: where we started this journey, is still in view, although. 455 00:30:43,080 --> 00:30:45,760 Speaker 2: A little smoke shrouded. For the past three days. 456 00:30:46,480 --> 00:30:52,400 Speaker 1: We've now been eight days without seeing any humans except ourselves. 457 00:30:54,080 --> 00:30:58,520 Speaker 1: June twenty third, within sight of the ocean. This morning, 458 00:30:58,560 --> 00:31:02,600 Speaker 1: we finally made it to the Cariboo's final destination, their 459 00:31:02,680 --> 00:31:07,040 Speaker 1: calving grounds, and now there are little ones scampering wildly 460 00:31:07,120 --> 00:31:12,160 Speaker 1: and joyously across the tundra and nearby snowbanks. Cariboo herds 461 00:31:12,280 --> 00:31:16,880 Speaker 1: presently occupy in ninety degrees of our views south of 462 00:31:16,920 --> 00:31:17,320 Speaker 1: the river. 463 00:31:18,760 --> 00:31:19,880 Speaker 2: June twenty fourth. 464 00:31:20,640 --> 00:31:24,280 Speaker 1: This afternoon, we're in a camp amongst sand dunes a 465 00:31:24,360 --> 00:31:28,200 Speaker 1: mile from the ocean, having left the Hula Hula after 466 00:31:28,240 --> 00:31:32,160 Speaker 1: portaging our rafts and gear across about a quarter mile 467 00:31:32,240 --> 00:31:35,400 Speaker 1: of tundra to this camp. It was a day of 468 00:31:35,560 --> 00:31:40,560 Speaker 1: paddling a last stretch of a widely braided cobble filled 469 00:31:40,600 --> 00:31:45,640 Speaker 1: Hulahula with cariboo perpetually in sight. On a midnight hike 470 00:31:45,800 --> 00:31:49,640 Speaker 1: last night, some of us saw what we estimated was 471 00:31:49,800 --> 00:31:54,920 Speaker 1: ten thousand cariboo from one overlook. Now we'll do two 472 00:31:55,040 --> 00:31:58,600 Speaker 1: nights here while we portage all our gear and rafts 473 00:31:58,920 --> 00:32:02,320 Speaker 1: over to the Oak Pillock River just east of us 474 00:32:02,360 --> 00:32:05,520 Speaker 1: for a straight shot at the island and its bush 475 00:32:05,600 --> 00:32:10,320 Speaker 1: plane landing strip. We saw our third grizzly yesterday evening. 476 00:32:10,720 --> 00:32:13,400 Speaker 1: A bear that was probably three quarters of a mile 477 00:32:13,440 --> 00:32:16,800 Speaker 1: away but in the open plain was clearly visible to 478 00:32:16,840 --> 00:32:20,560 Speaker 1: the naked eye as a dark lump nosing through the tundra. 479 00:32:21,240 --> 00:32:25,480 Speaker 1: Through our glasses, this bear was a glossy blond behemoth, 480 00:32:26,040 --> 00:32:29,720 Speaker 1: turning sideways in the low sun. Its fur rolled and 481 00:32:29,880 --> 00:32:34,720 Speaker 1: glistened with shades of chestnut and a silvery yellow. It 482 00:32:34,840 --> 00:32:39,200 Speaker 1: was hard to stop watching with a weather front hitting. 483 00:32:39,520 --> 00:32:42,960 Speaker 1: It's now down to forty five degrees inside the tent, 484 00:32:43,480 --> 00:32:47,280 Speaker 1: which is rattling in the wind like laundry on a clothesline. 485 00:32:49,280 --> 00:32:54,760 Speaker 1: June twenty fifth, twenty nineteen. Tonight, our final camp is 486 00:32:54,840 --> 00:32:59,440 Speaker 1: situated on the shore of the Beaufort Sea. Walls and 487 00:32:59,520 --> 00:33:03,360 Speaker 1: chunks of white ice inhabited by harbor seals or in view. 488 00:33:04,120 --> 00:33:05,680 Speaker 1: It's a thing you never. 489 00:33:05,520 --> 00:33:07,480 Speaker 2: Think you'll see. 490 00:33:07,520 --> 00:33:12,080 Speaker 1: The day was another form of adventurous ordeal. We'd been 491 00:33:12,160 --> 00:33:15,160 Speaker 1: captured in the tents for twenty four hours while a 492 00:33:15,280 --> 00:33:19,040 Speaker 1: frieze held up water from flowing down the oak pillock. 493 00:33:19,800 --> 00:33:23,920 Speaker 1: Its final two miles became a wide mud maze that 494 00:33:24,080 --> 00:33:28,800 Speaker 1: required portaging our raft while a barefoot Christa dragged the 495 00:33:28,880 --> 00:33:32,200 Speaker 1: other raft through the mud with a ropeline. It was 496 00:33:32,280 --> 00:33:35,920 Speaker 1: a cold, hard working day. But tomorrow we exit the 497 00:33:36,000 --> 00:33:39,560 Speaker 1: river and wade across to the island, a long strip 498 00:33:39,600 --> 00:33:42,600 Speaker 1: of sand and ice out in front of us. We 499 00:33:42,640 --> 00:33:46,760 Speaker 1: saw no caribou today, but there were long tailed jaggers 500 00:33:47,120 --> 00:33:53,040 Speaker 1: and huge and noisy trumpeter swans constantly overhead. This was 501 00:33:53,080 --> 00:33:56,560 Speaker 1: the final camp of our twelve day passage through the 502 00:33:56,720 --> 00:34:00,760 Speaker 1: Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and on this our last night, 503 00:34:00,800 --> 00:34:06,440 Speaker 1: our guide, Thirsty, stood and made an unexpected, impassioned speech. 504 00:34:07,480 --> 00:34:12,520 Speaker 1: Thirsty's granddad was a hard rock miner in Colorado. He's 505 00:34:12,640 --> 00:34:17,359 Speaker 1: married to Darla, his high school sweetheart. His education ended 506 00:34:17,400 --> 00:34:21,480 Speaker 1: with high school, but simply and directly he begged us 507 00:34:21,560 --> 00:34:24,759 Speaker 1: to do whatever was in our powers to save this 508 00:34:24,960 --> 00:34:29,759 Speaker 1: place from despoilation. Long before we arrived on the scene, 509 00:34:29,880 --> 00:34:32,600 Speaker 1: the ages had been at work on it. He said, 510 00:34:33,320 --> 00:34:40,000 Speaker 1: nothing we could do here would improve it a present 511 00:34:40,280 --> 00:34:45,960 Speaker 1: day coda. In October twenty twenty five, as part of 512 00:34:46,000 --> 00:34:51,759 Speaker 1: his American Energy Dominance agenda, President Trump proclaimed that he 513 00:34:51,800 --> 00:34:55,840 Speaker 1: would reinstate seven oil leases owned by the state of 514 00:34:55,880 --> 00:35:00,600 Speaker 1: Alaska in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and was now 515 00:35:00,719 --> 00:35:07,080 Speaker 1: taking bids for future drilling contracts in the refugees coastal plane. 516 00:35:07,320 --> 00:35:11,600 Speaker 1: Because of fear of public backlash, oil companies have so 517 00:35:11,760 --> 00:35:17,200 Speaker 1: far been uneasy about bidding on leases in Antwar, but 518 00:35:17,360 --> 00:35:22,279 Speaker 1: Trump's Secretary of Interior, Doug Bergham, has proclaimed that with 519 00:35:22,560 --> 00:35:30,400 Speaker 1: this announcement, Alaska is open for business. Petroleum geologists estimated 520 00:35:30,840 --> 00:35:36,280 Speaker 1: that total reserves beneath an War might satisfy America's thirst 521 00:35:36,400 --> 00:35:40,440 Speaker 1: for oil for perhaps one and a half to two years. 522 00:35:47,000 --> 00:35:52,120 Speaker 3: Sedan in this script, you're tracking this float trip through 523 00:35:54,120 --> 00:35:59,640 Speaker 3: since the North Slope Anwar, And it brought to my 524 00:35:59,760 --> 00:36:00,840 Speaker 3: question that I wanted. 525 00:36:00,600 --> 00:36:04,680 Speaker 2: To ask you sort of about your scholarship. 526 00:36:04,719 --> 00:36:09,520 Speaker 3: More generally. You made your you really made your name 527 00:36:09,680 --> 00:36:12,960 Speaker 3: with the Buffalo Article and the Journal of American History, 528 00:36:12,960 --> 00:36:15,640 Speaker 3: and I was thinking about it, that's probably one of 529 00:36:15,680 --> 00:36:18,520 Speaker 3: the few pieces I've read from you where you don't 530 00:36:18,600 --> 00:36:24,120 Speaker 3: have you don't mix your historical analysis with some story 531 00:36:24,160 --> 00:36:28,719 Speaker 3: from your own life about being on the landscape yourself. Yeah, 532 00:36:29,080 --> 00:36:33,960 Speaker 3: and clearly it's it's that shapes your thinking as a historian. 533 00:36:34,040 --> 00:36:35,439 Speaker 3: So I wonder if you can talk for a little 534 00:36:35,440 --> 00:36:40,960 Speaker 3: bit about the relationship between your research and writing and 535 00:36:41,080 --> 00:36:46,040 Speaker 3: your adventures for lack of a better term, across the West. 536 00:36:47,920 --> 00:36:49,520 Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, I think. 537 00:36:51,320 --> 00:36:55,600 Speaker 1: One of the reasons that I've done a good bit 538 00:36:55,640 --> 00:37:04,880 Speaker 1: of writing where I appear, usually fairly briefly, but at 539 00:37:05,000 --> 00:37:08,360 Speaker 1: least some as a character in some of these stories, 540 00:37:09,320 --> 00:37:12,239 Speaker 1: probably harkens back to the fact that I got my 541 00:37:12,320 --> 00:37:16,120 Speaker 1: start as a magazine writer, and I did that. I 542 00:37:16,120 --> 00:37:20,239 Speaker 1: wrote for magazines for six or seven years before I 543 00:37:20,280 --> 00:37:25,520 Speaker 1: ever got a PhD, and ended up getting professorships and 544 00:37:26,440 --> 00:37:30,840 Speaker 1: began writing for academic journals like the Journal of American 545 00:37:30,920 --> 00:37:37,000 Speaker 1: History or writing books for university presses. And so, I mean, 546 00:37:37,200 --> 00:37:40,520 Speaker 1: one of the things that I think probably has made 547 00:37:41,160 --> 00:37:46,400 Speaker 1: a podcast like this and scripts like this possible is 548 00:37:46,440 --> 00:37:48,640 Speaker 1: the fact that when I retired from the University of 549 00:37:48,680 --> 00:37:52,279 Speaker 1: Montana ten years ago, I kind of reverted back to 550 00:37:52,560 --> 00:37:56,040 Speaker 1: that sort of writing, and the books I've written since 551 00:37:56,120 --> 00:38:00,080 Speaker 1: American Serengeti, Coyotie America, Wild New World, things like that 552 00:38:00,080 --> 00:38:05,560 Speaker 1: that have all been sort of, uh, moving more back 553 00:38:05,600 --> 00:38:07,759 Speaker 1: to the sort of writing that I did before I 554 00:38:07,760 --> 00:38:10,880 Speaker 1: became an academic. I mean, I think with something like 555 00:38:11,200 --> 00:38:14,520 Speaker 1: that Buffalo piece in the Journal of American History, you know, 556 00:38:14,600 --> 00:38:21,160 Speaker 1: I mean, historians don't do that kind of writing very much. 557 00:38:21,360 --> 00:38:25,480 Speaker 1: They tend to do more the social science kind of 558 00:38:26,000 --> 00:38:30,520 Speaker 1: the author stands back as a disinterested observer. 559 00:38:30,719 --> 00:38:33,600 Speaker 3: Yeah you're not a you don't really take a clinical 560 00:38:33,640 --> 00:38:34,880 Speaker 3: approach to your subject. 561 00:38:35,080 --> 00:38:38,880 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, So it's that kind of So. 562 00:38:39,160 --> 00:38:41,680 Speaker 1: I mean, I think probably what I've done is for 563 00:38:41,760 --> 00:38:44,200 Speaker 1: a venue like that and for the sort of audience 564 00:38:44,239 --> 00:38:46,040 Speaker 1: that I knew that the Journal of American History had, 565 00:38:46,640 --> 00:38:49,680 Speaker 1: you know, I wrote a piece that I was not 566 00:38:49,880 --> 00:38:52,680 Speaker 1: involved in at all other than as a sort of 567 00:38:52,760 --> 00:38:55,840 Speaker 1: standback and let the let the evidence show what. 568 00:38:55,719 --> 00:38:56,520 Speaker 2: This story was. 569 00:38:57,440 --> 00:39:02,160 Speaker 1: But I think it's probably for a different kind of audience, 570 00:39:02,239 --> 00:39:05,120 Speaker 1: For a more general audience. It's maybe useful to do 571 00:39:05,960 --> 00:39:10,799 Speaker 1: this kind of writing where the author at least appears 572 00:39:11,080 --> 00:39:15,440 Speaker 1: some because it provides kind of eyes and feet for 573 00:39:15,600 --> 00:39:18,279 Speaker 1: the reader to be able to see the world. I mean, 574 00:39:18,320 --> 00:39:21,759 Speaker 1: I try not to do this too much, but I 575 00:39:21,880 --> 00:39:24,359 Speaker 1: generally try to get at least a story or two 576 00:39:24,960 --> 00:39:30,279 Speaker 1: into any given piece where I'm actually trying to translate 577 00:39:30,880 --> 00:39:34,600 Speaker 1: the points I want to make into being on the 578 00:39:34,640 --> 00:39:36,800 Speaker 1: ground and seeing this play out in the world. 579 00:39:37,560 --> 00:39:41,680 Speaker 3: But it's clear that that sort of deep experiential process 580 00:39:41,760 --> 00:39:44,960 Speaker 3: shapes how you think about these places. 581 00:39:45,280 --> 00:39:48,280 Speaker 1: Yeah, it does, I mean, And so that still goes 582 00:39:48,320 --> 00:39:52,360 Speaker 1: into whether I tell a story of my own presence 583 00:39:52,400 --> 00:39:56,319 Speaker 1: walking through bad lands or are floating down the Hula 584 00:39:56,400 --> 00:40:00,440 Speaker 1: Hula River through the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, whether I 585 00:40:00,520 --> 00:40:03,840 Speaker 1: tell that story through my own eyes or not, there's 586 00:40:03,880 --> 00:40:06,239 Speaker 1: no question. Because I'm sort of one of these people 587 00:40:06,239 --> 00:40:09,000 Speaker 1: who has always like to be out on the ground 588 00:40:09,040 --> 00:40:12,279 Speaker 1: and out in the world, not just in a library. 589 00:40:13,840 --> 00:40:17,680 Speaker 1: Those experiences very definitely have played a role. And what 590 00:40:17,800 --> 00:40:22,960 Speaker 1: I've written, one of the key. 591 00:40:24,200 --> 00:40:29,080 Speaker 3: Threads throughout this piece is sort of this looming threat 592 00:40:29,280 --> 00:40:33,600 Speaker 3: of energy extraction on the North Slope. And I think 593 00:40:36,120 --> 00:40:40,440 Speaker 3: one of the things that you point out several times 594 00:40:40,640 --> 00:40:45,319 Speaker 3: is that it's not simply a story of outside interests 595 00:40:46,239 --> 00:40:50,800 Speaker 3: coming in and extracting oil and gas. But there are people, 596 00:40:50,920 --> 00:40:54,120 Speaker 3: there's disagreement among Native people, and you highlight that a 597 00:40:54,160 --> 00:40:57,200 Speaker 3: couple times that it's not just Native people are the 598 00:40:57,239 --> 00:41:02,000 Speaker 3: guardians of this place, and outside interests are trying to, 599 00:41:02,360 --> 00:41:05,560 Speaker 3: you know, take advantage essentially. 600 00:41:05,239 --> 00:41:06,239 Speaker 2: Of their resources. 601 00:41:06,640 --> 00:41:10,560 Speaker 3: But there's disagreements between different communities over how this landscape 602 00:41:10,560 --> 00:41:13,680 Speaker 3: should be managed, which I think highlights a thread we 603 00:41:13,840 --> 00:41:17,120 Speaker 3: see again and again in Western history that Native people 604 00:41:17,200 --> 00:41:21,440 Speaker 3: aren't some monolithic block And that's true, you know, as 605 00:41:21,440 --> 00:41:23,799 Speaker 3: true as it was two hundred and three hundred years 606 00:41:23,840 --> 00:41:26,800 Speaker 3: ago as it is today when we're talking about anwar. 607 00:41:27,719 --> 00:41:30,960 Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's just the reality of the world we 608 00:41:31,000 --> 00:41:31,440 Speaker 1: live in. 609 00:41:31,680 --> 00:41:32,920 Speaker 2: I mean, some. 610 00:41:32,800 --> 00:41:40,680 Speaker 1: People have a take on how the world should be used, 611 00:41:41,920 --> 00:41:46,400 Speaker 1: where the idea is we need to exploit it and 612 00:41:47,239 --> 00:41:53,160 Speaker 1: help our own communities raise their standard of living, participate 613 00:41:53,239 --> 00:41:57,920 Speaker 1: more in the sort of global economic world. And there 614 00:41:57,960 --> 00:42:03,880 Speaker 1: are plenty of native peopleround and War who expressed that 615 00:42:03,960 --> 00:42:09,120 Speaker 1: particular sentiment. I mean, as I described in the account 616 00:42:09,160 --> 00:42:12,640 Speaker 1: of this, when we arrived at Arctic Village, which was 617 00:42:13,120 --> 00:42:16,040 Speaker 1: the spot where we were taking our bush planes into 618 00:42:16,400 --> 00:42:18,880 Speaker 1: the headwaters of the Hula Hula and the Brooks Range, 619 00:42:20,000 --> 00:42:23,799 Speaker 1: one of the people who we had already decided we 620 00:42:23,840 --> 00:42:27,359 Speaker 1: wanted to hear from was Sarah James, this woman who 621 00:42:27,480 --> 00:42:31,360 Speaker 1: is a spokesperson for the Gwitchen people, the people of 622 00:42:31,400 --> 00:42:36,480 Speaker 1: the Caribou, who have for thousands of years hunted caribou 623 00:42:36,560 --> 00:42:39,359 Speaker 1: and sort of feel about themselves and I think I 624 00:42:39,400 --> 00:42:43,400 Speaker 1: feel about them this way too. They're the modern analogs 625 00:42:43,400 --> 00:42:47,480 Speaker 1: of the Buffalo people of the nineteenth century, and so 626 00:42:47,520 --> 00:42:50,040 Speaker 1: we wanted to hear what she had to say, and 627 00:42:50,239 --> 00:42:52,439 Speaker 1: she met us on the tarmac when we flew into 628 00:42:52,520 --> 00:42:56,400 Speaker 1: Arctic Village and talked to us for about half an 629 00:42:56,400 --> 00:42:59,640 Speaker 1: hour or so about the concerns that she had. But 630 00:42:59,719 --> 00:43:02,759 Speaker 1: she was also quick to point out that this was 631 00:43:02,800 --> 00:43:06,520 Speaker 1: not the universal position on the part of Native people 632 00:43:07,280 --> 00:43:09,359 Speaker 1: in this part of the world, and it's not and 633 00:43:09,400 --> 00:43:13,720 Speaker 1: so that's something I think, as you pointed out, Randall, 634 00:43:13,760 --> 00:43:17,040 Speaker 1: and you're exactly right about this, this is true in 635 00:43:17,080 --> 00:43:21,560 Speaker 1: the past as well, And you can't think of Native 636 00:43:21,600 --> 00:43:27,480 Speaker 1: people as just sort of everyone uniformly has this particular 637 00:43:27,840 --> 00:43:31,600 Speaker 1: kind of idea about about how things should play out. 638 00:43:32,040 --> 00:43:36,879 Speaker 1: So Arctic, the National Arctic, I mean, the an war 639 00:43:37,360 --> 00:43:41,240 Speaker 1: is kind of a perfect modern day example of something 640 00:43:41,280 --> 00:43:43,320 Speaker 1: that's been going on in the West for a long time. 641 00:43:44,719 --> 00:43:45,200 Speaker 2: Yeah. 642 00:43:45,680 --> 00:43:50,280 Speaker 3: You point out several times that this is sort of primordial. 643 00:43:50,960 --> 00:43:55,680 Speaker 3: It's a primordial landscape, and it feels like sort of 644 00:43:55,760 --> 00:43:58,960 Speaker 3: the most ancient landscape that you've been on in North America. 645 00:44:00,200 --> 00:44:03,720 Speaker 3: And it occurs to me that this is the first 646 00:44:03,800 --> 00:44:06,120 Speaker 3: you know, it's one of those places where if I'm lucky, 647 00:44:06,160 --> 00:44:08,960 Speaker 3: I'll get to see that place as an American, But 648 00:44:09,440 --> 00:44:12,560 Speaker 3: this is the first America that anyone saw, really. Yeah, 649 00:44:13,440 --> 00:44:17,239 Speaker 3: So I wonder if you can talk a little bit 650 00:44:17,320 --> 00:44:23,560 Speaker 3: about how Alaska fits into the environmental story, the environmental 651 00:44:23,640 --> 00:44:27,239 Speaker 3: history of the United States. We sort of see it 652 00:44:28,280 --> 00:44:30,480 Speaker 3: at the beginning of our narrative of the West when 653 00:44:30,480 --> 00:44:33,799 Speaker 3: we talk about peopling this continent, and then it sort 654 00:44:33,840 --> 00:44:39,360 Speaker 3: of seems like it bubbles up again with Russian colonization instraction, 655 00:44:40,440 --> 00:44:42,880 Speaker 3: and then we kind of lose it until Jimmy Carter 656 00:44:43,000 --> 00:44:46,040 Speaker 3: and the Lands Bill, Right, So, can you tell me 657 00:44:46,080 --> 00:44:48,160 Speaker 3: a little bit about how you think of Alaska as 658 00:44:48,239 --> 00:44:49,600 Speaker 3: part of the Western story. 659 00:44:50,680 --> 00:44:55,000 Speaker 1: Well, there's no question that Alaska is central to the 660 00:44:55,040 --> 00:44:58,000 Speaker 1: Western story, because, as you point out, this is the 661 00:44:58,040 --> 00:45:01,360 Speaker 1: first part of the world in North America that humans 662 00:45:01,440 --> 00:45:06,600 Speaker 1: got to so it's the first place on the continent 663 00:45:06,680 --> 00:45:12,200 Speaker 1: that human eyes are going to see. And because of 664 00:45:12,239 --> 00:45:18,240 Speaker 1: its location as far north as it is, it's ended 665 00:45:18,400 --> 00:45:23,440 Speaker 1: up kind of doing a disappearing act from time to time. 666 00:45:24,000 --> 00:45:27,960 Speaker 1: And I think one of the reasons I wanted to 667 00:45:28,000 --> 00:45:32,200 Speaker 1: tell this particular story is I wanted to remind people 668 00:45:32,239 --> 00:45:39,200 Speaker 1: interested in the West that Alaska still probably preserves more 669 00:45:39,360 --> 00:45:44,120 Speaker 1: of the Frontier Old West character than any other part 670 00:45:44,440 --> 00:45:47,520 Speaker 1: of America. I mean, Montana makes a good stab at it, 671 00:45:47,880 --> 00:45:50,960 Speaker 1: Wyoming makes a stab at it. There's some other parts 672 00:45:51,000 --> 00:45:54,760 Speaker 1: of the Lower forty eight, to be sure, that begin 673 00:45:54,960 --> 00:45:58,000 Speaker 1: to look something like what you imagine the Frontier did. 674 00:45:58,000 --> 00:46:02,319 Speaker 1: But Alaska, there's no question, I mean, the last Frontier is. 675 00:46:02,840 --> 00:46:06,799 Speaker 1: It's Alaska, and it's the place that I think in 676 00:46:06,920 --> 00:46:10,919 Speaker 1: the mind of Alaskans, they believe this, and they think 677 00:46:10,960 --> 00:46:14,960 Speaker 1: of the place that way. But with something like the 678 00:46:15,120 --> 00:46:19,480 Speaker 1: Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, I mean, you really do have 679 00:46:19,560 --> 00:46:22,479 Speaker 1: an opportunity, if you. I mean, and to be sure, 680 00:46:22,520 --> 00:46:25,600 Speaker 1: this is a rare thing to get to do. Not 681 00:46:25,800 --> 00:46:29,560 Speaker 1: many Americans are going to get to go to the 682 00:46:29,640 --> 00:46:33,000 Speaker 1: to ann War and see this kind of world. I mean, 683 00:46:33,040 --> 00:46:35,759 Speaker 1: we floated for twelve days down the Hula Hula River. 684 00:46:36,120 --> 00:46:39,720 Speaker 1: We never saw another party. We saw one native hunting 685 00:46:39,800 --> 00:46:42,760 Speaker 1: camp just as we emerged out of the Brooks Range, 686 00:46:43,160 --> 00:46:48,200 Speaker 1: but other than a group of backpackers who flew in 687 00:46:48,320 --> 00:46:50,680 Speaker 1: the same time we did and headed off in a 688 00:46:50,719 --> 00:46:53,640 Speaker 1: different direction, we never saw anybody else. And that was 689 00:46:53,680 --> 00:46:57,279 Speaker 1: the first day we were there. So it's a thing 690 00:46:57,400 --> 00:47:02,480 Speaker 1: that is not an easy venture to have. But on 691 00:47:02,520 --> 00:47:06,080 Speaker 1: the other hand, when you do it, you can't help 692 00:47:06,200 --> 00:47:09,319 Speaker 1: but come away with this kind of feeling that you've 693 00:47:09,360 --> 00:47:13,560 Speaker 1: been privileged to see something of original America, that this 694 00:47:13,840 --> 00:47:18,520 Speaker 1: is what the continent looked like, and that I think 695 00:47:18,640 --> 00:47:22,360 Speaker 1: when you see it, instills in you a kind of 696 00:47:22,400 --> 00:47:27,400 Speaker 1: a horror that something like what happened to the Southern 697 00:47:27,480 --> 00:47:33,360 Speaker 1: high Plains might happen to this particular part of the West. 698 00:47:34,000 --> 00:47:38,400 Speaker 1: I mean, and war is four times the size of 699 00:47:38,480 --> 00:47:42,799 Speaker 1: Yellowstone National Park. It's almost twenty million acres. It is 700 00:47:42,840 --> 00:47:48,359 Speaker 1: a gigantic landscape, and you just don't have the opportunity 701 00:47:48,480 --> 00:47:52,440 Speaker 1: to be in places like that in the modern age 702 00:47:53,520 --> 00:47:57,120 Speaker 1: very often. I mean, it was the wildest place I've 703 00:47:57,520 --> 00:48:02,240 Speaker 1: ever been, and it's probably an experience in my life 704 00:48:02,320 --> 00:48:05,759 Speaker 1: that is right up there in the top one or 705 00:48:05,760 --> 00:48:08,640 Speaker 1: two or three of the things that I've ever gotten 706 00:48:08,680 --> 00:48:12,640 Speaker 1: to do was to see that particular, that particular part 707 00:48:12,640 --> 00:48:15,719 Speaker 1: of America. 708 00:48:16,360 --> 00:48:20,359 Speaker 3: In this piece, you you mentioned the Mauris and their 709 00:48:20,400 --> 00:48:23,960 Speaker 3: work in Alaska, and I feel like the Mauris are 710 00:48:25,239 --> 00:48:28,799 Speaker 3: sort of overlooked as a first family of American conservation. 711 00:48:28,920 --> 00:48:29,880 Speaker 2: I wonder if you can. 712 00:48:31,280 --> 00:48:35,640 Speaker 3: Give the audience a little bit more context around, you know, 713 00:48:35,840 --> 00:48:40,520 Speaker 3: oh else and Adolph and trying to remember the his 714 00:48:40,920 --> 00:48:44,120 Speaker 3: wife's name, Marty Maria Arti Mury, Arti Mury. 715 00:48:44,440 --> 00:48:44,680 Speaker 2: Yeah. 716 00:48:45,000 --> 00:48:49,880 Speaker 1: Uh. So, Olas and Adolph were were the brothers both 717 00:48:50,000 --> 00:48:55,279 Speaker 1: trained as as biologists. Uh. And I mean I've talked 718 00:48:55,320 --> 00:48:59,239 Speaker 1: about them, uh in some of the recent episodes, particularly 719 00:48:59,320 --> 00:49:03,880 Speaker 1: the the one on wolves, a couple of episodes back 720 00:49:04,320 --> 00:49:09,239 Speaker 1: where these two guys in the nineteen thirties were, I mean, 721 00:49:09,239 --> 00:49:11,800 Speaker 1: one of them was working for the Park Service, Adolph 722 00:49:12,239 --> 00:49:15,440 Speaker 1: and Olas Murray was working for the Bureau of Biological 723 00:49:15,480 --> 00:49:21,440 Speaker 1: Survey and they both got sent to do the first 724 00:49:22,280 --> 00:49:27,040 Speaker 1: scientific studies anyone had done about coyotes and then in 725 00:49:27,120 --> 00:49:31,200 Speaker 1: Adolph's case, about wolves. And so Adolph is the first 726 00:49:31,520 --> 00:49:34,160 Speaker 1: of the two brothers to get the visit Alaska. He 727 00:49:34,239 --> 00:49:39,000 Speaker 1: goes to Mount McKinley National Park in nineteen thirty nine 728 00:49:39,120 --> 00:49:41,800 Speaker 1: and spends about three years there studying wolves, and of 729 00:49:41,840 --> 00:49:44,400 Speaker 1: course writes that great book, The Wolves of Mount McKinley. 730 00:49:45,880 --> 00:49:49,840 Speaker 1: And so these two guys, I mean, they really were, 731 00:49:50,280 --> 00:49:54,920 Speaker 1: along with Aldo Leopold, I think, the premier ecologist and 732 00:49:55,040 --> 00:49:59,680 Speaker 1: conservation minded ecologists of the middle of the twentieth century. 733 00:50:00,640 --> 00:50:04,640 Speaker 1: Both of them ended up leaving the services that they 734 00:50:04,719 --> 00:50:08,960 Speaker 1: worked for and primarily worked for the Wilderness Society for 735 00:50:09,160 --> 00:50:12,200 Speaker 1: most of their lives, and Olas and Marty of course 736 00:50:13,160 --> 00:50:16,920 Speaker 1: became figures who were I mean, they're all over the West. 737 00:50:16,960 --> 00:50:21,760 Speaker 1: They're in Jackson Hole, They're in Yellowstone. They obviously play 738 00:50:21,800 --> 00:50:26,080 Speaker 1: a huge role in getting this particular place set aside, 739 00:50:26,120 --> 00:50:29,960 Speaker 1: the Archte National Wildlife Refuge, which is designated by the 740 00:50:29,960 --> 00:50:34,000 Speaker 1: Eisenhower administration, And they also played a role in getting 741 00:50:34,160 --> 00:50:37,000 Speaker 1: much of it about forty percent of it designated as wilderness. 742 00:50:37,400 --> 00:50:41,520 Speaker 1: I mean, Olos Murray is the primary mover behind the 743 00:50:41,600 --> 00:50:44,960 Speaker 1: Charles Russell Wildlife Refuge in Montana on. 744 00:50:44,920 --> 00:50:45,759 Speaker 2: The Missouri River. 745 00:50:46,200 --> 00:50:49,160 Speaker 1: So yeah, these are people, and I keep looking for 746 00:50:49,200 --> 00:50:53,880 Speaker 1: somebody to write a major sort of book, kind of 747 00:50:53,920 --> 00:50:57,319 Speaker 1: like Doug Brinkley did about Teddy Roosevelt a few years ago, 748 00:50:57,360 --> 00:51:00,600 Speaker 1: Wilderness Warrior. Someone needs to do a book out the 749 00:51:00,760 --> 00:51:03,480 Speaker 1: Murys and the role they've played in the American West. 750 00:51:03,600 --> 00:51:06,600 Speaker 3: Yeah. I feel the same way. I feel like whenever 751 00:51:06,640 --> 00:51:10,320 Speaker 3: I read about wildlife and wild places in the twentieth century, 752 00:51:10,320 --> 00:51:13,360 Speaker 3: their names are going to mix in somehow. And the 753 00:51:13,400 --> 00:51:17,840 Speaker 3: Craighead brothers as well, these sort of undersung heroes of 754 00:51:17,880 --> 00:51:23,759 Speaker 3: twentieth century conservation that that are behind the scenes oftentimes, 755 00:51:23,760 --> 00:51:26,160 Speaker 3: that don't maybe get their time in the in the spotlight. 756 00:51:27,239 --> 00:51:28,120 Speaker 2: Yeah, and they should. 757 00:51:28,280 --> 00:51:30,360 Speaker 3: Yeah. Well, Dan appreciate it. 758 00:51:30,640 --> 00:51:31,600 Speaker 2: Thank you, Ran, Thank you.