Alaska Native Family Scores Legal Victory Against British Petroleum

[Blue_In_AK]

From The Immoral Minority (second story down at link http://theimmoralminority.blogspot.com/

(Quoting the Anchorage Daily News http://www.adn.com/money/industries/oil/story/659429.html )

For many years, a Native family suspected a major oil company was shortchanging them for using a strategic piece of North Slope land to pump billions of dollars worth of oil.

The company, BP, as well as the federal agency that oversees Indian land holdings, had long rejected the claims of the heirs of Andrew Oenga, an Inupiat who held the 40-acre allotment on the edge of the rich Prudhoe Bay oil field.

Recently, however, the family struck what could be a costly blow against BP.

A federal judge in September ruled BP, using a drill site on Oenga's land, had been pumping oil from a Prudhoe-area oil pool known as Lisburne in violation of its lease.

As a result of the ruling, the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs reversed its prior position and on Jan. 8 sent BP a stern letter:

"BP and its contractual partners are hereby directed to immediately cease utilizing the leased premises to produce oil or gas" from Lisburne, the letter says.

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While the family has received perhaps $1 million in rent over the years, the real payoff should have been something on the order of $80 million, according to their lawyer's calculations.

Mr. Oenga spoke NO English and relied on an interpreter to help him negotiate a fair deal. One has to wonder, who paid for that interpreter.

I truly believe that this is the year that the plight of the Alaska native people is revealed to the world at large.

For those of you who have been following the story of the Emmonak crisis you are already better informed then most of the world. But you just wait. Dennis Zaki has landed in Bethel, and in this first e-mail to the Alaska progressive bloggers provided the following information.

Just got settled in here in Bethel. Blowing snow and freezing.

Just made it in before they closed the airport.

I may stay here until Tuesday then on to Emmonak.

I have a couple of interviews already lined up for tomorrow.

Just left the Bethel grocery store.

Milk - 9.89 a gallon.
A gallon of liquid Tide - 29.79.
16oz bottle of Mug rootbeer - $2.65
Subway foot long $10.89
Bland hotel room for one tired traveller - $168

Bethel is a hub city in rural Alaska. In other words a place where people from other cities and villages travel to for medical needs, dental care, and to catch a plane to Anchorage or Fairbanks. It is probably as close to a city as you can get in that area. So you have to know that if the prices for food are this high in Bethel they will be even higher in Emmonak and the other villages.

When Dennis arrives back with his footage of these villages we will make sure that the visitors to our blogs get a chance to see exactly what life is like out there in the REAL Alaska. And believe me you will be shocked. I am confident that Dennis will be able to sell some of his amazing footage to larger media outlets as well and that this story will go national. It is well past time that the world was made aware of how marginalized and oppressed these amazing people have become since the "Gussaks" came and changed their world forever.

Until then I hope you will join me in sending Dennis Zaki our prayers and wishes for a fruitful and safe trip to the villages of rural Alaska and back.