InTheField: WANDA KASHUDOHA CULP on Rooted Lifeways of the Tongass /148

Photography by Koa Kalish

With arms outstretched in gratitude for those fighting on the ground to protect life and land, we humbly offer this first episode of In The Field, For The Wild’s new place-based storytelling series and fierce prayer for a wild and free future. Join us this week as we travel to the Tongass Rainforest, the largest remaining intact temperate rainforest on earth and the traditional territory of the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian peoples. The primordial heart of this place still beats to the rhythm of life, a kaleidoscopic turning of towering old growth trees, braided rivers, jumping salmon, eagle, bear, and glacier. 

In the wake of the Trump administration’s renewed attack on the Tongass—a plan that would end Roadless Rule protections on 9.2 million acres of land—we are honored to amplify the call of those who are courageously rising to protect this great northern forest. This episode features the powerful Wanda Kashudoha Culp, an Indigenous Tlingit activist and advocate, born and raised in Juneau and Hoonah, Alaska. A self-described professional paper-pusher and artist by trade, Wanda is also a hunter, fisherwoman, and gatherer of wild foods. She is the mother of three children, and is recognized as a storyteller, cultural interpreter, playwright, and co-producer of the film Walking in Two Worlds. A long-time forest defender, Wanda currently serves as the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network Coordinator for the Tongass National Forest. 

“Highlighting the magnificent intelligence of our cultures is what is going to save this earth.”

— Wanda Culp / Episode 148

Wanda Kashudoha Culp by Koa Kalish

Make space this week to tune into this deep, visceral listening experience, as we step into the moss-cloaked forest and meditate on the scars and stories held by this sacred ground. Guided by Wanda’s indomitable revolutionary spirit, we wind through the history of the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, the Tlingit balance of Raven and Eagle, Indigenous food sovereignty, extractive tourism, and more. Wanda’s testimony moves us beyond the story of old-growth logging as it has been told, unearthing the ugly truth of colonial extraction in Alaska and the powerful resistance seeded in its wake. May her impassioned words ignite an honest reckoning of all that has been lost, all that we are losing, and all that we have left to stand for. 

♫ Music by Cary Morin, Lea Thomas, Rising Appalacia, Hana Shin, Carter Lou McElroy, and the Tlingit citizens of Hoonah, Alaska.

The Trailer

Take Action

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.

You can also 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: akroadlessrule@fs.fed.us

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. 

Support Indigenous stewards of the Tongass working on the ground by making a direct donation to Wanda Culp for her 30+ years of activist work and ongoing community organizing in Hoonah, Washington D.C. and beyond. Make a donation through our PayPal link below -or use the button- & add a note that clearly identifies Wanda Culp as the recipient of your donation (such as, “For Wanda Culp”). All funds raised will go directly to Wanda Culp. https://www.paypal.com/donate/?token=4CQdJPu7R7AczvWIx39CG5do7JmMngwO8p9-_H0VZwuvEItvsHNjFDOGqAkByrFFBoMdim&country.x=US&locale.x=US 

Consider making a donation to Hoonah Alaska Native Sisterhood Camp 12, a local organization that supported Wanda and the Women’s Delegation from the Tongass in Washington, D.C. You can send your donation by mail to PO Box 556, Hoonah, Alaska 99829. 

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?

References & Recommendations

Watch the film Wanda Culp produced, Walking In Two Worlds, https://www.walkingintwoworlds.org/about-the-film/  or listen to the adapted radio version here: https://www.radioproject.org/2015/11/walking-in-two-worlds-2/

InTheField Playlist

---