InTheField: KASYYAHGEI on the Law of the Land /149

Field episode featuring Wanda Kashudoha Culp, we turn to Wanda’s longtime friend and partner in justice, Kasyyahgei, as she continues to weave the threads of story and spirit in the Tongass National Forest. Kasyyahgei is a respected Tlingit knowledge keeper, a mother and grandmother, a spruce root basket weaver, and a fierce protector of her community and village of Hoonah. In the 1980s, Kasyyahgei brought a lawsuit against the National Forest Service for logging in Hoonah and, since then, has continued to stand with unwavering integrity and courageously speak truth to power.

Through Kasyyahgei’s spellbinding stories, we are transported to the salmon-filled waters and rich forested landscapes of her home in Hoonah. Meaning “protection from the North wind,” the lands and waters of Hoonah have provided her people with sustenance for generations in an ever-turning cycle of reciprocity ruled by “the Law of the Land.” As in many communities throughout the Tongass, this delicate balance of life greatly shifted when the trees started to come down and trucks criss-crossed through the forest hauling old growth giants on their backs. Leaving a trail of splintered trees in its path, the insatiable, industrial machine of extraction has only shapeshifted in its monstrous form, as cruise ships and tourists in the thousands descend upon Hoonah’s docks every year.

Kasyyahgei’s striking account of Hoonah and the imperial history of Alaska are urgently needed to understand the political and economic battles encircling the Tongass today. Lean into Kasyyahgei’s haunting testimony of heart that bridges stories from her childhood, the incredible mycelial worlds humming beneath the forest floor, and the land of talking trees. Bear witness to the life and death that this vast place cradles within its arms and surrender to this well of wonder whose bottom is beyond the reach of the human mind. Then, reawaken and offer yourself to the future of this great mother forest and the generation of Indigenous leaders rising to defend it.   

 ♫ Music by Cary Morin, Theresa Andersson, Pura Fe, Kermit Ruffins, Lea Thomas

♦ ACTION POINTS ♦

• The most immediate action step you can take to defend the Tongass is to submit a thoughtful, effective public comment to the Forest Service. The deadline is December 17th, 2019 at midnight Alaska time. Please submit your comment below TODAY:

  • u can make a public comment directly to the Forest Service through the channels below. In your letter, please be sure to urge Secretary Perdue and Chief Christensen to “select the ‘no-action’ alternative on the Alaska-specific Roadless Rule” and describe why the Tongass and/or roadless areas are important to you. Again, the deadline is December 17th, 2019 at midnight Alaska time. 

    • Web: www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=54511

    • Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

    • Mail: USDA Forest Service, Attn: Alaska Roadless Rule, P.O. Box 21628, Juneau, Alaska, 99802

    • Fax: 907-586-7852

    • In-person delivery to Forest Service: 709 W. 9th Street, Room 535B, Juneau, Alaska 99801

    • Please share this episode and send out the above links to your friends, family, neighbors, co-workers, businesses—anyone who cares about the future of our public lands. You can also download and share Southeast Alaska Conservation Council’s Roadless Rule Toolkit: https://www.seacc.org/roadless_rule_toolkit. 

  • We request that you support Indigenous stewards of the Tongass by making a direct donation to Kasyyahgei for many years of activist work, public service, and ongoing community organizing in Hoonah and beyond. Make a donation through our PayPal link below & add a note that clearly identifies Kasyyahgei as the recipient of your donation (such as, “For Kasyyahgei”). All funds raised will go directly to Kasyyahgei. https://www.paypal.com/donate/?token=K2ZYWEvDQUKMGKEGN6YkfUnJXYsavhv-hEZWAS0qVENdK2cMw46jh24kaycqlAoxN49aFm&country.x=US&locale.x=US

  • To stay up to date and informed about issues in the Tongass, please check out the following organizations and follow them on social media:
    Southeast Alaska Conservation Council 
    Sitka Conservation Society
    Last Stands
    Women’s Earth & Climate Action Network
    Audubon Alaska
    Lynn Canal Conservation 
    Earthjustice

  • • For more resources, readings, and videos on the Tongass and issues raised in this episode, visit our updated webpage: Tongass Campaign / When Old Growth Ends

    • Beyond these points, we also recognize the need to courageously expand the existing envelope of action. We need a panoply of resistance from established tactics like public comments, advocacy and demonstrations, blockades and encampments, to even more creative gestures of resistance and daring acts of land defense. We ask that you meditate on this call to action, honor what comes alive in your spirit, and hold the complexity of all that it takes to show up in this time of often-conflicting demands asked of your body, heart, and time. What can you offer? What can you give—of your resource, your love, your gifts, your spirit—to this moment of unraveling & becoming