Indigenous People of Sivuqaq, Alaska Speak Out Against U.S. Military Contamination and Violation of Human Rights
Indigenous People of Sivuqaq, Alaska Speak Out Against U.S. Military Contamination and Violation of Human Rights
For Immediate Release:
Date: March 12, 2025
Media Contact: Jayla Shannon, [email protected], (240) 375-2008
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Alaska Community Action on Toxics (ACAT), with Native Village of Gambell and Native Village of Savoonga, today held a press conference at the National Press Club to announce its filing of a complaint with the UN Special Rapporteur on toxics and human rights, a Special Procedure of the UN Human Rights Council. The complaint will respond to the U.S. military’s contamination of Sivuqaq (St. Lawrence Island, Alaska) resulting from formerly used defense sites, in violation of the Indigenous Yupik people’s human rights.
Joined by the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Toxics and Human Rights, Dr. Marcos Orellana, ACAT, their legal counsel, and leaders from Sivuqaq Tribal communities described how the contamination from the formerly used defense sites has negatively affected the Native communities’ health, environment, and culture. The Sivuqaq tribal leaders demanded that the U.S. government be held accountable for these devastating long-term multi-generational harms and called on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to re-open its record of decision related to the cleanup of the former military sites at Gambell and Northeast Cape, Alaska.
“The injustices against my people by the military have been devastating to our health and well-being,” said Vi Waghiyi, Native Village of Savoogna Tribal Citizen and Environmental Health and Justice Director with ACAT. “This is very personal to me with the deaths in my immediate family and loved ones in the communities due to cancer. We are here to hold the military accountable and to seek justice for the violations of our human rights.”
“We have always been a vigilant people. Our community-based research enables us to be vigilant at the molecular level,” said Merle Apassingok, elder and leader from the Native Village of Gambell. “Sivuqaq was always known as a place of wellness prior to the contamination by the military and we are working to restore it again as a place of wellness.”
“Those before me have been protecting our lands and now I want to help protect the lands and speak for the ones who can’t speak for themselves,” said Trisha Waghiyi, youth leader and great granddaughter of Annie Alowa, a Yupik elder and environmental health advocate who began the fight seeking justice and accountability from the military.
“I am a grandmother and I am doing this for my grandchildren,” said Sandra Gologergen, Tribal Council Member of the Native Village of Savoonga. “I want them to be healthy and self-sufficient and not suffer like our generation has with the pain of all the deaths in our family and community from cancer.”
“Our community-based research in partnership with the Tribes of Sivuqaq has demonstrated the long-term and intergenerational environmental and health harms perpetrated by the U.S. military,” said Pamela Miller, Executive Director and Senior Scientist with ACAT. “The burden of proof should not have been put on the communities. However, our collective work and documentation demonstrates that the military must now be held accountable for the damages they have caused and for the responsible cleanup of the formerly used defense sites on Sivuqaq.”
In the Thematic Report on the Impact of Toxic Substances on the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples (A/77/183, 2022), Dr. Marcos Orellana, Special Rapporteur on Toxics and Human Rights stated, “Around the world, militarization inflicts environmental violence on the lands of indigenous peoples. Military bases are constructed on indigenous peoples’ land without their consent and often force their displacement. Once abandoned, these military sites leave a tragic remnant of contamination, filling these lands with hazardous and nuclear wastes affecting indigenous peoples for generations.”
The government’s incomplete cleanup of toxic military wastes on Sivuqaq, and the resulting sickness and premature death that is now common among the Yupik people, is not only morally wrong. It is illegal under U.S. and international law,” said Claudia Polsky, Director of the Environmental Law Clinic at UC Berkeley, which represents ACAT and the interests of the Sivuqaq Tribes.
Today’s press conference followed a multi-day visit to Washington, DC, by the Alaska Sivuqaq delegation, who traveled across the continent to meet with officials at the Department of Defense, Department of the Interior, Environmental Protection Agency, and U.S. Congress. In these meetings, ACAT and leaders of the Native Village of Gambell and Native Village of Savoonga offered firsthand accounts of the harms linked to the contaminated former military sites. ACAT shared studies and data documenting the health harms and persistent pollution on St. Lawrence Island.
ACAT and Sivuqaq leaders will continue to press for the U.S. government to take action to remediate the former military sites and make the communities whole again.
For media inquiries, please contact [email protected].
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ACAT Complaint to the UN Special Rapporteur
About Alaska Community Action on Toxics
Alaska Community Action on Toxics (ACAT) was founded by Pamela K. Miller in December 1997 in response to requests for assistance from Alaskan individuals and communities concerned about health harms associated with environmental pollution from existing or proposed industrial, resource extraction, or military facilities. ACAT works with communities, implementing effective strategies to limit their exposure to toxic substances and to protect and restore the ecosystems that sustain them and their way of life.