They Came but Could Not Conquer: The Struggle for Environmental Justice in Alaska Native Communities

In this striking account, historian Purvis (Ragged Coast, Rugged Coves) surveys Alaskan Native communities’ resistance to environmental interference by outsiders since the 19th century. Beginning with the U.S. purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867, she traces how over subsequent decades, Native Alaskans fought back when their rights to their land and their way of life were threatened by government and corporate efforts to exploit Alaska’s resources. Such efforts included government physicist Edward Teller’s 1950s Project Chariot plan to conduct nuclear tests on the Alaskan coast and President John F. Kennedy’s proposed hydroelectric dam on the Yukon River in the 1960s. Both projects, deceptively billed as having no environmental downsides, were thwarted by organized resistance from Native Alaskans, who had to overcame racism and crude stereotyping to succeed. The campaign against Project Chariot was later deemed as a milestone in the fight for environmental justice, Purvis explains, as was Native organizers’ response to the disastrous 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in the Prince William Sound. By placing these and other episodes into one cohesive narrative, Purvis paints a rousing and Native-focused picture of Alaska’s past that emphasizes how the battle over land use and environmental health is a central force in U.S. history. Purvis’s unique perspective is worth checking out for environmentalist activists, legal minds, and American history buffs alike. (May)