{"id":879,"date":"2021-10-22T07:44:28","date_gmt":"2021-10-22T07:44:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/arctic-relations\/?p=879"},"modified":"2022-04-13T20:51:10","modified_gmt":"2022-04-13T20:51:10","slug":"the-slide-show-that-changed-history-an-overview-of-defending-the-arctic-refuge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/arctic-relations\/the-slide-show-that-changed-history-an-overview-of-defending-the-arctic-refuge\/","title":{"rendered":"The Slide Show That Changed History: An Overview of ‘Defending the Arctic Refuge’"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Finis Dunaway<\/em><\/p>\n

Defending the Arctic Refuge<\/em> is not the book I set out to write. When I began this project, I wanted to understand how the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge became one of the most contested lands in all of North America. Tucked away in the northeastern corner of Alaska, the refuge provides life-sustaining habitat for caribou, polar bears, birds, and other species. For decades, though, the fossil fuel industry and powerful politicians have pushed to turn this unique ecosystem into an oil field. My plan was simple. I would trace the epic political battle over the Arctic Refuge, highlighting the role of images and other cultural texts in fostering public concern for this land.<\/p>\n

And then I learned about Lenny Kohm. He was an unlikely activist\u2014a former jazz drummer and aspiring photographer who had a life-changing experience in the Arctic in 1987. Along with some friends, Kohm put together an Arctic Refuge slide show called The Last Great Wilderness<\/em><\/a> and then traveled across the United States for almost two decades, giving presentations in university lecture halls, public libraries, and church basements. The story was quirky, and I wanted to know more. I started writing Kohm a letter to ask if I could interview him, but, sadly, he passed away before I sent the note.<\/p>\n

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Title slide for the Last Great Wilderness slide show. The caribou photograph was likely taken by Lenny Kohm in the Arctic Refuge in 1987 or 1988. This title slide represents a composite of two slides\u2014one featuring the caribou photograph, the other with the title lettering\u2014that were programmed via a fade-dissolve unit to merge together on-screen for several seconds.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I continued to research his strange career, thinking that it might provide a chapter in the book. But the more I learned, the more fascinated (and, let\u2019s be honest, obsessed) I became. I relished the mysteries of his biography, but, even more, I realized that this small, seemingly quiet story cast revealing light on the entire refuge struggle.<\/p>\n

To begin, Kohm was not a traditional wilderness advocate. He spent months in Gwich\u2019in communities across northwestern Canada and northeastern Alaska and learned how drilling in the refuge would threaten the caribou that migrate through their lands. This was not simply a question of wilderness versus oil. It was a fight for Indigenous rights and cultural survival. Kohm worked closely with Gwich\u2019in leaders, who often joined him on slide show tours and helped transform the refuge debate into a struggle for environmental justice<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Gwich\u2019in Steering Committee, map, Primary Habitat of the Porcupine Caribou Herd, n.d. The two curvy lines on this map show the overlap between the homeland of the Gwich\u2019in and the migratory range of the Porcupine caribou herd. Just to the east of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge are two national parks\u2014Ivvavik and Vuntut\u2014that were created out of Indigenous land claims agreements in Canada. Although the map includes a dotted line to indicate the US-Canada border, its true focus is on the interconnections between human communities and wildlife species across arbitrary boundaries.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As I researched this story, I talked with people across the continent\u2014Indigenous leaders, environmental lobbyists, grassroots activists\u2014who all insisted that Kohm\u2019s slide show exerted an enormous impact on the movement, even influencing pivotal votes on Capitol Hill. Although skeptical at first, I kept finding clues that backed up these claims. In the book, I let readers come to their own conclusions, but I sprinkle enough evidence to suggest that the slide show\u2014and other forms of grassroots visual culture\u2014made a decisive difference in keeping oil drills out of the Arctic Refuge.<\/p>\n

Kohm\u2019s story, I found, also offered a portal into larger themes. I\u2019ve woven into the book longer histories of Indigenous resistance to colonial mega-projects, stories of the government suppression of science, and analysis of close votes, tense moments, and shifting political dynamics in Washington, DC. In addition, I look at other images that became vital tools of public outreach\u2014including the documentary film Being Caribou<\/em><\/a> and photographs by Subhankar Banerjee<\/a>.<\/p>\n