Kaktovik leaders urge AIDEA to weigh local knowledge in 1002 Area

Kaktovik's elected and tribal leaders used a Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026, visit by Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority board members, staff and contractors to press a single demand: any decision on oil and gas in the Section 1002 Area of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Coastal Plain must include the residents and traditional knowledge of the people who actually live inside the refuge.

Kaktovik is the only community within the roughly 19.6-million-acre refuge, and Kaktovik Iñupiat Corporation owns 92,000 acres in the 1002 Area, its only private landowner. Congress mandated Coastal Plain oil and gas development in 2017, but the program has swung back and forth since. AIDEA's seven 2021 leases were canceled by the Interior Department in 2023, then reinstated by a federal court in March 2025. AIDEA's board authorized up to $190 million in May 2026 for seismic exploration, permitting and regulatory work, and the Bureau of Land Management held a sale on June 5, 2026, drawing bids on five tracts totaling 72,049 acres.

"We want to make sure local residents are heard as decisions are made about jobs, investment and the future of the 1002 Area," said Nathan Gordon Jr., mayor of the City of Kaktovik. Matthew Rexford, tribal administrator for the Native Village of Kaktovik, said outside voices too often speak about the area "without hearing from the community that lives here." KIC's Charles Lampe and Annie Tikluk and council member Edward Rexford Sr. echoed that view, saying decisions should reflect the traditional knowledge and lived experience of Kaktovik residents. Lampe put it plainly: "this is our homelands." Tikluk said "Local voices matter, and Kaktovik deserves to be heard." During the visit, AIDEA representatives witnessed the community's first whale harvest of the year. AIDEA says development could generate long-term revenue for the state while supporting jobs, public services and the Permanent Fund.

This account of the visit comes entirely from AIDEA's own press release, which characterizes tribes far from the 1002 Area as speaking about ground they do not live on. The Gwich'in Steering Committee, whose communities depend on the Porcupine caribou herd that calves on the Coastal Plain between May and mid-June, has called the area sacred and opposes leasing there. No Gwich'in response appears in AIDEA's release.