Nuclear War and Environmental Catastrophe

^{Appendix 9} Point Hope Protest Letter to JFK, March 3, 1961

The Inupiat, one of the oldest continuous communities in North America, successfully protested Edward Teller’s Project Chariot; a scheme to carve out an Alaskan harbor with nuclear explosives in the 1960s. The community faces similar risks today as Shell moves forward with its exploration for crude in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas. Critics say the extreme weather conditions of the Arctic and an inadequate oil-spill response plan is a disaster in the making.

Point Hope

Alaska

March 3, 1961

Mr. John F. Kennedy

President of the United States

Washington, D.C.

Dear Mr. President:

We the Health Council of Point Hope and the residents of the village don’t like to see the blast at Cape Thompson. We want to go on record as protesting the Chariot Project because it is too close to our homes at Point Hope and to our hunting and fishing areas.

All the four seasons, each month, we get what we need for living. In December, January, February and even March, we get the polar bear, seals, tomcod, oogrook [bearded seal], walrus, fox and caribou. In March we also get crabs. In April, May and June, we hunt whales, ducks, seals, white beluga, and oogrook. In July we collect crow-bell eggs from Cape Thompson and Cape Lisburne and store them for the summer. In the summer we get some seals, oogrook, white beluga, fish, ducks, and caribou. In the middle of September many of our village go up Kookpuk River to stay for the fishing and caribou hunting until the middle of November. In November we get seals again and we need the seal blubber for our fuel. The hair seal skin we used for trading groceries from the store.

The ice we get for our drinking water during the winter is about twelve miles off from the village towards Cape Thompson. We melt snow also to drink and for washing. In spring, May and June we used ocean ice. In the summer we get our water from the village well.

We are concerned about the health of our children and the mothers-to-be after the explosion. We read about “the accumulative and retained isotope burden in man that must be considered.” We also know about strontium 90, how it might harm people if too much of it got in our body. We have seen the Summary Reports of 1960, National Academy of Sciences on “The Biological Effects of Atomic Radiation.”

We are deeply concerned about the health of our people now and for the future that is coming. The signatures on page two accompanying this letter are the names of residents of the village of Point Hope who share this concern and wish to express their protest against Project Chariot.

Sincerely yours,

Officers and members

of Point Hope Village

Health Council

Source: US Department of Energy