wfn.org | LWI 2009-014 FEATURE: A Battle for Cultural Survival

["LWFNews" <LWFNews@lutheranworld.org>]

>LUTHERAN WORLD INFORMATION  
>LWI News online:
>http://www.lutheranworld.org/News/Welcome.EN.html 

FEATURE: A Battle for Cultural Survival

Faith Galvanizes Indigenous Village into Action amid Dramatic
Climate Change

CHICAGO, Illinois, USA/GENEVA, 24 March 2009 (LWI) - No roads
lead to Shishmaref, a traditional Inupiaq village along the
Alaskan coast, where residents live on seals, walrus, fish,
birds, caribou and moose that they hunt themselves. Villagers,
the Inuit people of Alaska's Arctic Northwest and Bering Straits
region, date their culture back thousands of years.

Located on an island about three miles long and a quarter mile
wide (4.8 x 0.4 km) and home to some 560 people, Shishmaref is
washing out to sea. It is among the three most imperiled Alaskan
villages endangered by erosion and flooding due to climate
change, according to a report by the United States Government
Accountability Office. It could be wiped out in less than 10
years, says the United States Army Corps of Engineers, the
federal agency responsible for the development and maintenance of
water and related environmental resources.

The village leaders are disclosing to residents that they must
choose another relocation site for the town, since they learned
that the long-chosen site of Tin Creek on the nearby mainland is
plagued by degrading permafrost.

"It’s more or less ice and not anchored enough for a town,"
said Darlene Turner, village leader and president of Shishmaref
Lutheran Church, a congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America (ELCA) Alaska Synod.

"It’s disappointing,” Turner said. “This puts us back at
square one."

>Dramatic Impact

"The impact of climate change is dramatic in Alaska, and the
rest of the United States doesn’t understand that," said Bishop
Michael Keys, Alaska Synod.

Shishmaref Lutheran Church dates back to 1930 and is the
northernmost ELCA congregation. The congregation's late pastor,
Rev. Robert H. Wentzien, had voiced concerns before his death
last year about the reduction of water access at the Tin Creek
site as well as the long-term impact of any relocation. "I am
very concerned, not just about their commerce and industry, but
about their entire culture, oral traditions, family traditions
and more," he told ELCA Communication Services.

The cost of relocating the village to the mainland is estimated
at USD 180 million, while moving residents 120 miles (192
kilometers) south to a designated area in Nome is calculated at
roughly half that price.

>Traditional Values, Customs

For residents, relocation is a battle for survival as a people
as well as a village. The majority oppose moving to cities such
as Nome or Anchorage because of the dramatic lifestyle changes,
said Stanley Tocktoo, head of the Shishmaref Erosion and
Relocation Committee.

"The majority want to stay on the mainland in the area and
subsist on the land and sea like we always have," said Tocktoo.
"We don't want to be separated. We want to keep intact our
traditional values and customs."

The bishop pointed out two other villages in the synod - Wales
and Teller - may also face relocation.

"If you just move people to Nome or Anchorage, you’re losing
cultural diversity," said Keys. "You need to consider the
cultural perspective. Is there a value that this cultural
diversity exists? Is the indigenous lifestyle-culture, values and
language-valuable?" he remarked.

Shishmaref Lutheran Church, the island's only church, provided
parcels of land so that many of those immediately threatened
could move to safer ground.

"These are people of deep, deep extraordinary faith and
witness," said Keys. "It will allow them to face very, very
difficult challenges ahead of them and be a significant part of
how they respond."

The Alaska synod is one of the 65 synods of the
4.7-million-member ELCA, which joined the LWF in 1986. (606
words)

More information about the ELCA is available at: www.elca.org 
(Adapted from the original ELCA Communication Services article.)
This feature article continues the LWI series focusing on the
topic "Give Us Today Our Daily Bread," the theme of the LWF
Eleventh Assembly to be held 20-27 July 2010 in Stuttgart,
Germany.

>*        *          *

(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the
Lutheran tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund, Sweden, the LWF
currently has 140 member churches in 79 countries all over the
world, with a total membership of over 68.5 million. The LWF acts
on behalf of its member churches in areas of common interest such
as ecumenical and interfaith relations, theology, humanitarian
assistance, human rights, communication, and the various aspects
of mission and development work. Its secretariat is located in
Geneva, Switzerland.)

[Lutheran World Information (LWI) is the LWF's information
service. Unless specifically noted, material presented does not
represent positions or opinions of the LWF or of its various
units. Where the dateline of an article contains the notation
(LWI), the material may be freely reproduced with
acknowledgment.] 

>LUTHERAN WORLD INFORMATION
>P. O. Box 2100 CH-1211 
>Geneva 2 Switzerland

>Tel.: +41/22-791 63 69 
>Fax: +41/22-791 66 30
>E-mail: pmu@lutheranworld.org