Written by Martha Wood
Updated: 50 minutes ago Published: 50 minutes ago
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I am a member of the Ivisaappat Tribal Council. I think I should set the record straight. On March 24th, a comment was posted on ADN saying that they are the presidents of our village. We don't have a president. We have our first and second Chiefs (Molly Brown and Eva Henry). There was also a false implication that our council supported Ambler Road.
In fact, ITC has long opposed Ambler Road. And in March, our Congress passed yet another resolution against the road. We already had a resolution against this road, but so much has happened in the last few years that we needed to update the resolution. Our council unanimously supports preventing further construction of Ambler Road. And we informed the Bureau of Land Management the right way.
And on April 19th, we were really happy to hear that President Joe Biden and Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland stood with the people and rejected this idea. I want to go! Our entire council thanks him! President Biden should deny this road indefinitely.
Those of us who grew up in the village know how important this is to the residents. My subordinates should never follow an outside organization. We are elected by the people. They trust us to provide leadership and make decisions that benefit our tribe.
Two members of our council, Shields Downey Jr. and Katherine Cleveland, recently passed away. They will be very happy to see this news. They were both much older than me and very knowledgeable. They were both against the road. Mr. Shields traveled all the way to Washington, D.C., for us and told Sen. Lisa Murkowski to her face, “We don't support any roads.'' We are very grateful for Shields and Catherine's leadership.
ITC has a responsibility to our tribe to protect our families and the way of life for generations to come. Our complete opposition to the Ambler Road is because we want indigenous peoples to thrive in what God has given them, to thrive and not destroy their land and resources, especially the food they eat every day. Because we must protect what is given to us.
Martha Wood is a member of the Ivisa Apartments Tribal Council and has lived in Ambler most of her life. Her parents are the late Clarence and Marie Wood. She grew up on the Hunt River, a tributary of the Kobuck River downstream from Ambler.
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