Native Experience - TV script / Episode 4 "The Last Place on Earth"

Sc. #	Vision / Graphics	Audio / Text
1	00:02:00:00 Montage Native life – monochrome stills	MUSIC (Piano) The Alaska Flag Song (Official state anthem of Alaska)
2	00:02:21:00 stills – Nixon signs ANCSA CAPS: 00:02:28:xx <C001> 18^th December 1971	Archive soundtrack (00:18 – to fade start) (Presidential taped address to AFN 18.12.71) President Richard M. Nixon: I want you to be amongst the first to know, that I have just signed the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. This is a milestone in Alaska’s history, and in the way our government deals with Native and Indian peoples; it shows that institutions of government are responsive. (As we develop this bill....) <Audio fades>
3	00:02:40:xx archive film AFN 1971 aerial shot, Noatak river archive film, drilling rig 70’s Eskimo girl c/u sunset and geese	V/O #1 (00:37) President Nixon’s address to the Alaska Federation of Natives in 1971 marked the climax of a century’s colonisation of Alaska by the United States. The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act gave the Native population ownership of a small part of the Great Land. At the same time, the act extinguished all future Native Claims to land in Alaska – the state and federal government could now allow the oil industry to develop Alaska’s oilfields. In the coming decades America’s last frontier would be conquered, and life for the Native population would be changed forever.
4	00:03:26:00 TITLE SEQUENCE 00:03:46:xx <C002> NATIVE EXPERIENCE 00:03:48:xx <C003> Episode 4 00:03:50:xx <C004> The Last Place on Earth fade to black	MUSIC (Signature) (00:26) “Affairs of Importance, Part 2”
5	00:03:55:15 fade up from black skidoos on sea ice, Barrow traffic, Barrow, winter Power plant, Nuiqsut Barrow classrom (Ipalook school) Barrow lagoon, car school in bg Barrow street scene	Music – Guitar (JHP Improvisation #3) V/O #2 (01:00) In the 30 years since the passing of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, the Native population has faced many changes. ANCSA gave the Natives a share in the considerable wealth which industrial development – particularly in the oil industry – has brought to Alaska. Today’s Native communities have a wider range of employment and vocational training opportunities, better schools and health services, better housing and public amenities. Yet Native Alaska has paid a high price for these material benefits. ANCSA opened the door to an industrial and economic development which has impacted the native cultures in many ways. Whilst many of these changes would have occurred anyway, the settlement act created a political and economic climate in which development could take place on a scale and at a tempo far greater than Alaska’s population was prepared for.
6	00:04:59:xx continued scene 5 crops to letterbox 00:05:01:xx CAPS <C005> THE FIRST IMPACT fade to black	Music fades with vision
7	00:05:11:xx fade up from black archive, pipeline construction 00:05:32:xx mix to AK map (pipeline route) <C006> Prudhoe Bay 00:05:38:xx <C007> Valdez archive, pipeline construction establishing shot, Fairbanks, Chena River Bridge	MUSIC – Oil theme V/O #3 (00:45) With the question of Native land ownership resolved, the way was open for the construction of the Trans Alaska pipeline – the greatest civil engineering project in the history of America. The pipeline would run from Prudhoe Bay in the North, crossing three mountain ranges and over 800 rivers and streams on its route to the ice free port of Valdez in the South. It would take two years to build, and over 70,000 men and women – mostly from out of state – would be employed in its construction. The city of Fairbanks – midway on the pipeline route, would experience the greatest impact of the sudden influx of men and money which the pipeline project brought to Alaska.
8	00:06:02:xx 00:06:10:xx <C008> MORRIS THOMPSON cutaway 2^ndStreet, Fairbanks	Interview #1 (00:40) Morris Thompson President, Doyon Regional Corporation 1985-1999 Fairbanks was probably a town of maybe 44.000 we had the largest project in the history of the free world come right through it and we had workers who were making 2 or 3000 dollars a week, who were far from home, who were making 5 times as much money as they ever had and who were isolated for a long time and they could hit this little outpost and it had watering holes and, and movie houses and bars and, and people spent and blew their money... eh, ladies of night were imported. I mean, it was a scene right out of the wild and woolly west!
9	00:06:39:xx cutaways, Pipeline construction	Interview #2 (00:19) Dermot Cole Journalist, Fairbanks Daily News Miner ...ev- ev-everyone used war time allusions. It, it was referred to as an invasion... ...the oil companies had arrived here, and they brought with them the particular culture of the oil construction job and had, that really ehh, kinda had some sharp edges to it here...
10	00:06:58:xx cutaways, Pipeline construction 00:07:04:22 <C009> DENNY DENBROCK Oilfield safety instructor cutaways, Pipeline construction	Interview #3 (00:24) Denny Denbrock Oilfield safety instructor ... Nothing like this had ever been done before and I do think that in the early days ehm, the people that were brought here to do the job they were the right ones. They were hearty, and they were rough and they were tough some of ‘em and there was some alcohol and drugs... back then it was pretty common among some characters I think, at the time, to do the job we had to do it took that, those tough people to do it.
11	00:07:23:xx cutaways, Pipeline construction 00: <C010> DERMOT COLE Journalist, Fairbanks Daily News Miner	Interview #4 (00:21) Dermot Cole Journalist, Fairbanks Daily News Miner ... opinions about politics, opinions about ehh, you know, social activities, drug abuse, alcohol abuse there was all, there was a good deal of controversy there and the, it was sort of an overwhelming force that ehh, people here just had to accept because they couldn’t do anything about it and they certainly couldn’t change it.
12	00:07:45:xx travelling shot, Fairbanks industrial area archive shot, pipeline workers travelling shot, Fairbanks residential area	V/O #4 (00:18) Fairbanks was totally unprepared for the scale of this project, and the speed at which it took place. Public utilities and services were overwhelmed, the city’s telephone system was overloaded, and the influx of pipeline workers created a hitherto unknown housing shortage.
13	00:08:02:xx cutaways, Pipeline construction travelling shot Fairbanks, winter	Interview #5 (00:22) Dermot Cole Journalist, Fairbanks Daily News Miner One of the more, famous eh, incidents there was a two-bedroom house that had eh, 45 people living in it and... in that particular house there were beds in the kitchen beds in the living room, beds in the hall-way, beds in the basement. Eventually that boarding house was shut down by the local authorities... and there were a lot of people who slept in cars at the time and eh, that, in the summer that’s fine, it’s a little harder to do in the winter.
14	00:08:26:xx cutaways, Pipeline construction	V/O #5 (00:12) The delicate economy of Fairbanks and the surrounding Native communities was thrown out of balance by the large pay-checks which could be earned working on the pipeline.
15	00:08:35:xx cutaways, Pipeline construction	Interview #6 (00:10) Morris Thompson President, Doyon Regional Corporation 1985-1999 ...Wages were jacked up. People, the service industry couldn’t get people to work in it, you now, for 6, 7 dollars an hour ‘cause they were making 20-30 dollars an hour on the pipeline.
16	00:08:46:xx cutaways, Pipeline construction 00:09:16:xx Newspaper headline “Fairbanks becomes wild city, Prostitution up 5000 percent”	Interview #7 (00:37) Dermot Cole Journalist, Fairbanks Daily News Miner ...The pipeline jobs paid so well, that many of the people who had been working in Fairbanks in the areas that really support the community the, the and let’s use the police department as the example their, their officers just left en masse, and they all went to work as security guards for the pipeline company because it paid much better and eh, it was in, in all respects a better job, so we had a situation where crime was way up and they were all green police officers, they were just given a badge and a gun and said ”go to it!”, and pointed down-town...
17	00:09:25:xx Fairbanks, 2^nd street archive, Pipeline construction	V/O #6 (00:32) Besides the city police force, almost all of the public authorities in Fairbanks lost vital staff to the pipeline. Like a century before when the city was founded by gold-diggers and adventurers, Fairbanks was once again a frontier town. With all human resources taken by the construction project, the social impact was alarming – especially for Native communities, in which many young and able men, on whom the community traditionally had been dependent, left their hunting activities to work on the pipeline.
18	00:09:58:xx cutaways, Pipeline construction	Interview #8 (00:28) Morris Thompson President, Doyon Regional Corporation 1985-1999 ... When you have that huge type of development, it’s a magnet. People are going to get drawn to it.... That was true for the native community as well. And so, lot of people were drawn to the pipeline project made, made large sums of money fairly quick and then when the project was over people adjust to a lifestyle and it’s hard to kind of revert... So I think from that perspective it was destructive.
19	00:10:27:xx archive Pipeline construction OPEC meeting	V/O #7 (00:14) As construction of the Trans Alaska Pipeline began, America faced a crisis which underlined the importance of Alaskan oil – when the oil producing countries in the Arab world cut back production and increased the price of oil.
20	00:10:40:xx cutaway – archive – US traffic archive President Nixon speaks to the nation	Archive clip – President Richard M. Nixon (00:14) ...America’s energy demands have grown so rapidly, that they now outstrip our energy supplies, as a result we face the possibility of temporary fuel shortages and some increases in fuel prices in America...
21	00:10:55:xx cutaways, oil workers, 70’s aerial shot pipeline	Interview #9 (00:25) Dermot Cole Journalist, Fairbanks Daily News Miner ...The oil companies were in a great hurry, they were in a big hurry because the pipeline had been delayed for a long time and one of the political factors that actually... got the project approved, was the idea that oil from Alaska would help eliminate the chance of future oil embargos by the Arabs, and that we’d no longer be dependent on foreign oil.. ...the other factor in addition to that was the oil companies had invested a tremendous amount of money in Prudhoe Bay, and they weren’t gonna get a dime of it back until oil started flowing.
22	00:11:24:xx aerial shots pipeline fade to black	V/O #8 (00:43) The first North Slope crude arrived in Valdez on 28^th July 1977. Within a decade, the pipeline would be moving up to 2 million barrels of oil a day – transforming Alaska into one of the richest states in America. With the pipeline completed, the construction crews left Fairbanks as quickly as they had come. The permanent jobs which the oil companies had promised the Natives never materialised, and the cash economy to which so many had become accustomed, receded. What had happened in Fairbanks would soon be repeated in Native communities throughout the state, as Alaskans began to harness the enormous wealth of the North Slope oilfields. (Music ends with FTB)
23	00:12:14:xx cropped shot - bulldozer 00:12:16:xx <C011> TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS
24	00:12:23:xx 00:12:28:08 <C012> WILLIE HENSLEY	Interview #10 (00:13) Willie Hensley ... None of us had any business experience to speak of ...at all, and yet here we were getting saddled with, in effect, one of the most complicated institutions in this country.
25	00:12:33:22 00:12:40:xx street life – Barrow archive, construction activity 70’s archive, man works frozen oil valve aerial, north slope drilling rig archive rig deck	MUSIC (Piano) V/O #9 (00:49) The Settlement Act made Alaska’s Natives shareholders of business corporations – ensuring them a stake in the economic development which oil would bring, and forcing them, once and for all, to adopt the cash economy. Though the new corporations had capital and land, they had yet to establish themselves in business. As municipal government embarked on a massive capital improvement programme in the communities, the construction industry was a natural starting point for many of the Native corporations - here they could create employment and training opportunities – keeping the oil revenues circulating in the local economy. The greatest potential lay in the oilfields – though it was no foregone conclusion, that the oil industry would favour companies with no experience, merely because they were Native owned.
26	00:13:32:xx 00:39:05 <C013> JACK RODERICK Oil writer and investor	Interview #11 (00:36) Jack Roderick The multinational oil companies do what’s in their best interest ... ...and sometimes that doesn’t mean training and hiring local people eh, it may be cheaper to bring people in from outside to do the work they’re better trained and, you know, all these considerations that they, they have to make they will make them 97½ % of the time in what their economic interest is. They, they really won’t spend a lot of time looking at it through the eyes of the people who live in the community.
27	00:14:09:xx Montage Rig 19	V/O #10 (00:51) Today most Native corporations are active in the oilfields. The Athabascan Indian regional corporation – Doyon – operates a fleet of modern oil rigs, on which Native employees make up half the workforce. In just 20 years, Doyon Drilling has become the leading rig operator on the North Slope, competing against companies who have been in the drilling business for generations. Such success did not come easily. When the oil companies were developing the field in the 70’s the drilling contacts went to established operators from Texas and Oklahoma, who brought their crews with them to Alaska. By 1980 it was clear that the Native corporations would have to bring considerable pressure to bear, if they were to gain a foothold in the oil industry. Employment statistics proved that Native hire in the oilfields had hardly begun.
28	00:15:01:xx cutaways, Rig 19 00:15:14:13 <C014> MORRIS THOMPSON cutaways, Rig 19	Interview #12 (01:09) Morris Thompson We went down to LA and, I’m proud to say, met with...the oil companies... and said... look at these numbers. We either need to change these numbers by working with you... by using some of our capital, using some of our people, using, at that time, some of our political clout, to form a relationship, an alliance, with the industry. We can supply the people, the capital, we can help you in Juneau on your issues, but we need some assistance from you in contracting. Or, the other option is, we’re gonna have to go public because these numbers need to get better. Eh, you know, we couldn’t, we couldn’t sustain 1% Alaska hire, 2% Alaska hire, eh, in our backyards when we were growing entities. We had, as I mentioned, these assets and, and we were looking to get into longer term businesses and ... the industry recognised that there was something to be said for this alliance. And thus came out of that the alliances that we have yet today. Operating all very well and very successfully I might add.
29	00:16:09:xx cutaways Alpine oilfield Kuparuk welder Alpine construction Rig 19	V/O #11 (00:31) The Native-owned corporations could use their political position and in some cases their status as landowners to persuade the oil industry to award their companies work in the oilfields. But from there on in, these companies had to be competitive and able to deliver a professional service. Most Native corporations started out by establishing oilfield service companies handling construction, security or catering; later some were able to break into highly technical and competitive areas of work.
30	00:16:43:xx cutaways, Rig 19	Interview #13 (01:11) Morris Thompson We started out in 1982 to say we’re going to be the best drilling company on the north slope. Now, at the time, I’m proud to say, we didn’t have a drilling rig and we didn’t have a contract but, but we had a philosophy that we were going to create opportunity for Doyon shareholders to go to work in a highly technical field and it has some attractiveness. It’s year round work, it has a career opportunity, the wages are good, the food is good, it’s something that they can relate to... ...and what we did is we said: Look, when we formed the company, we’re about shareholder hire. Native hire if you… That’s one of our commitments and that’s one of our ...eh, and then we put some pride into it. And then we put some pride into it. We said we want to be number one. We wanna have, you work on the best equipment, you’re gonna work with the best crews, you’re gonna have the latest technology, you’re gonna have the best camps, you’re gonna work with more shareholders than any other company on the North Slope and we want you to have some pride in that.
31	00:17:44:xx Rig 19	V/O #12 (00:31) Doyon Drilling’s rigs are the most modern and well-maintained in Alaska. In the past 20 years their crews have set safety and productivity standards which are recognised worldwide, and today their company is respected as a leader in the industry. Their success is due in part to Doyon’s commitment to creating a working environment in which its shareholders - who make up about half of the workforce - can thrive. For Natives and non-natives alike, a job in the oilfields holds one big attraction...
32	00:18:15:23 cutaways, Rig 19 00:18:26:12 <C015> GARY ATTLA Shareholder employee, Rig 19 cutaways, Rig 19	Interview #14 (0:31) Gary Attla, Shareholder employee, Rig 19 The money!. That’s, that’s the main thing that everybody comes up here for. It’s a good living you know. It’s, it’s a good living, you have two weeks off at home... I like my time off, you know, I get to go out hunting, I get to go out to Huslia, that’s my home village and... it’s a lot better than a lot of jobs in town. If I had another job in town I’d be working, you know five days a week stuck at home all the time maybe a week off every year. I tried that before, I couldn’t, I couldn’t live like that.
33	00:18:48:xx aerial shot Kuparuk KCC/CPF1 stock shots Kuparuk base camp	V/O #13A (00:31) The oilfields of the North Slope are the workplace for over 7000 men and women – about half of whom are on duty at any time. Every two or three weeks they fly home on leave, and their alternates take over. There are at least two people employed for every job in the oil patch. The workers are employed by the oil companies or the many oilfield service companies which have contracts here. There are several large work camps which house hundreds of workers – most of whom work 12 hour shifts with no days off during their tour of duty.
34	00:19:23:12 Music montage Oilfield stock shots	“The Last Place on Earth” - verse 1 I thought the horizon would swallow me whole, thought the wind chill would tear off my face, Where existence itself is defined by the cold, you can find yourself frozen in place. Thawed out in mud-time, my eyes on the boats, fish grease and fuel oil perfume, Turned green on a weekend, it’s spring’s brief revolt, when the sun steals the sky from the moon. Chorus It’s stranger than fiction, It’s sadder than hell, There’s no way to judge what it’s worth, It’s past the last highway, across the lost hills, My God, it’s the last place on earth.
35	00:12:01:xx camp facilities Rig 19 Rig 19 accommodation module	V/O #13B (00:55) A twelve hour working day in the cold arctic environment is hard work and leaves little time for leisure – the work camps have good leisure and entertainment facilities, though most of the time not working is spent sleeping. In the early days of the oilfields, non-natives from southern Alaska or out of state made up the majority of the workforce – and this was a foreign world for any Native who came to work here. The native owned corporation companies still need to employ many non-natives, but they continue to develop the opportunities for training and maintaining a Native workforce. A drilling rig is a self-sufficient community – its crew live and work apart from the rest of the oilfield – much like a crew onboard a ship. Doyon Drilling has been successful in creating a workforce which comprises almost 50% shareholders – probably the best Native hire track record on the Slope.
36	00:21:59:xx cutaway Rig 19 accommodation module	Interview #15a (00:10) Gary Attla, Shareholder employee, Rig 19 I’m one of the older guys, and, you know, the younger guys they look up to me and they know if they need any advice or need any help with anything, I’m there to help them.
37	00:22:09:xx Rig 19	V/O #13C (00:10) Non-native employees on Rig 19 must respect that this is a Native rig, operated by a Native-owned company, drilling for oil on Native land.
38	00:22:21:xx cutaways Rig 19	Interview #15b (01:15) Gary Attla, Shareholder employee, Rig 19 One of the hardest parts of my job is eh, maintaining ethnic harmony you know, because our company Doyon has eh, 100 % Native owned and we have 48% Native hire right now. We have to get along with people here eh, living in a close quarters with other workers. Getting along that means, you know, you don’t talk bad about people and usually you don’t find Natives talking bad about other people. When you do find people talking bad about other people all it is is insecurity, you know, insecurity and that’s prejudice right there, that’s the bottom line of prejudice for me. The newcomers - half of them probably see us as professionals. The ones that didn’t, they’re not with us no more because we got rid of them. If they can’t work with us we ain’t gonna have nothing to do with them consequently they’re, they don’t last that long. Every crowd, yeah, you run into a bad apple, you know, but then we can change ‘em’ - ‘cause I’ve done it before I know I can do it and sometimes you just have to take ‘em apart, you know, one piece at a time but eh ...for the money they eventually see things our way.
39	00:23:39:xx cutaways Rig 19	Interview #16 (00:38) Morris Thompson Well, I think one of the keys to our success... from Doyon drilling’s perspective ... is having a large number of shareholders where we have that communal feeling. There’s just not on or two but we’ve got 43% of the workforce out there are Doyon shareholders and, and we can be proud of our culture, of sharing, and being communal, and being open er.. with each other and we have a commitment to our environment. We’ve lived here all our lives, this is our home, we’re not moving anywhere, we been here 10.000 years, we’re gonna be here for the next 10.000 years. So, we care about what takes place in Alaska. And in the oil field.
40	00:24:19:xx cutaways Rig 19 Alpine oilfield construction activity	Interview #17 (0:33) Gary Attla, Shareholder employee, Rig 19 I’m proud to be a DOYON shareholder. I take pride in my work. This is our business, this is our livelihood. I’d like to see more natives eh, move up the ladder you know that’s my eh, one of my goals is to see more natives go, go further up the ladder and it’s happening but it’s a long slow process, you know, and eh, right now we’re making, we’re making good money for a lot of natives people and consequently we’re having eh, you know, we’re having good families ‘n making good living. MUSIC (guitar) fades up under last part of interview
41	00:24:57:xx Alpine oilfield construction activity (Eli Nukapigak from Nuiqsut driving djb truck)	V/O #14 (00:44) ANSCA was a collective settlement by which individual Natives would receive their benefit through the business activities and profits of their regional and village corporations. To ensure that Native land and money - owned by the corporations - remained under Native control, ANCSA expressly prohibited the Natives from selling their shares or from using them as security for other investments. So, whilst an individual Native may be part owner of a billion dollar corporation, his shares have no value other than the value of the benefits which they will produce for him in his lifetime. Employment, annual dividends and the corporation’s commitment to enhancing the lives of its shareholders.
42	00:25:41:xx 00:25:54.xx <C016> JOHN SHIVELY State Commissioner of Natural Resources (1999)	Interview #18 (00:47) John Shively Commissioner of Natural Resources ...It was a western structure and that had never been tried in a, in an aboriginal settlement in this country... ...my thought always was if native leadership concentrated on the business structure... ...they sort of got lost ‘cause they got, you know, they forgot that the structure was only a tool and that they could take that tool and use their cultural values eh, which are different than western values, I mean one of the big differences between native cultures and western cultures, is that native cultures tend to put the group first. In, in our culture... ...it’s the individual that’s first. It’s a huge difference that people often miss. ...the corporations that looked at the value of the corporation for the whole group I think have done well both in business and have done well in terms of improving the culture.
43	00:26:28:xx Music montage Oilfield images fade to black	“The Last Place on Earth” – 2^nd verse It’s the last place on earth I expected to be, Believing in better or worse, Old friends quit asking what’s becoming of me, They wouldn’t look in the last place on earth. Chorus It’s stranger than fiction, It’s sadder than hell, There’s no way to judge what it’s worth, It’s past the last highway, across the lost hills, My God, it’s the last place on earth. MUSIC continues under scene transition and fades under start of next VO
44	00:27:34:xx Birds fly low over water (cropped) 00:27:37:xx <C017> TAKING CARE OF THE SHAREHOLDERS
45	00:27:49:xx Inupiat Eskimo whaling camp	V/O #15: (00:31) Each year, in April and May, the spring whaling season begins. The hunt for the bowhead whale is an important part of the Inupiat culture. In each whaling community, everyone is associated with a whaling crew. For the rest of the year, these whalers may be engineers, public administrators, geologists, bus-drivers or construction workers – but for a few weeks they leave their jobs and take to the sea-ice, to maintain a tradition which has prevailed for thousands of years.
46	00:28:22:xx 00:28:35:00 <C018> CHARLES BROWER ASRC Corporate manager cutaways Whaling camp activity	Interview #19 (00:54) Charles Brower Every year I come back for a week or two and… enjoy the hospitality of the crew and get reacquainted, re-establish ... Relationships. I think it all relates to that. It’s how we, we as a community, help each other support each other. Obviously I can go to the store her and buy meat, but it’s not quite the same as being able to have fresh Uunaliq which is boiled whale meat eh… The relationships we have here the stories we tell the interactions we have, we have a small crew here today of about 8 people, eh, the stories they tell and the experience that they’re having eh, they bring us a lot closer together. And we don’t do it the whole year. And if we’re successful in whaling, well... ...each whale that we catch is shared three times. The community as a whole gets together and, and it’s very important for us.
47	00:29:18:xx Whaling camp	V/O #16: (00:20) Like most regional corporations, Arctic Slope Region looked to the oil industry for its first business opportunities. The early years gave the leaders of the corporation an understanding of the corporate world, equipping them well for developing their investments and business activities far outside the communities of the North Slope.
48	00:29:38:xx cutaways whaling camp activity whalers paddling in umiaq Barrow DEW-line radar site whaling camp activity bowhead whale surfaces	Interview #20 (01:27) Charles Brower ...My primary job is eh, business development marketing for ASRC. So I spend quite a bit of my time travelling eh, within the US, in Asia, Singapore eh, Hong Kong, China looking for new work... ...diversifying our company so that eh, we can get more money back to Alaska, more work. See if there’s opportunities there for more of our folks here in Alaska to participate in things that are happening outside. Most of our work has been in the oil field service business, but we’ve also spent the last 5, 10 years diversifying away from that particular end of the business and going into other things, aerospace engineering, plastics manufacturing... ... we got a contract with all branches of military for US where we ... ...operate location services remote… Midway Island, Wake Island those kinds of places, well as remote locations in Alaska. We’re running radar sites, Obviously, we’ve managed to build from a, a few thousand dollar company to now almost billion dollars, just shy of billion dollars this last year. A lot of what we do translates very easily from one culture to the other business, what we do in business, based on what we feel we need to do take care of our community, our people... ...and we’re very close to what those 7000 or so shareholders we have in ASRC need and how they work and what they expect from us.
49	00:31:10:xx travelling shots – oilfield Barrow residential area sea ice l/a from sledge	V/O #17: (00:18) The challenge for the corporations is to pursue two goals – success in business – which implies pursuing activities outside the Native communities – and creating employment opportunities close to the villages, which allow shareholders to maintain their traditional way of life.
50	00:31:28:xx cutaways whaling camp activity whalers waiting by umiaq, sunset fade to black	Interview #21 (00:43) Charles Brower We’re able to do things the way we want them to happen. We kinda control, I think, a lot of our own destiny, and how things happen, where rather than working 8 till 17 every day we might work 2 hours today, 10 hours tomorrow eh, we’re able to take time off in spring-time for whaling and most of the summer off for caribou hunting... When you work with another culture eh, somebody who’re watching the clock all the time... ...they might not understand that subsistence, for us, is very important; that relationships with family are very important... ...in our culture we spend a lot of time watching out for other folks. There are so few of us that we really have to watch out for each other. That’s very important for us that we have the time to do that. MUSIC ends with FTB
51	00:32:26:00 Alaska Airlines 737 taxis in at Barrow airport at night. (cropped) 00:32:27:xx <C019> TOO FAR, TOO FAST	(MUSIC)
52	00:32:39:xx Barrow street scenes	V/O #18: (00:26) For the people of the North Slope, joining the cash economy was a baptism of fire – their society was moving too far, too fast. During the 80’s, the North Slope communities had more available income than any other rural community in Alaska. The regional and village corporations and the municipality were engaged in so many construction projects, that there was work for everyone who wanted it.
53	00:33:05:xx 00:33:10:01 <C020> ELISE SERENI PATKOTAK Borough employee 1972-2000 cutaways - children on beach, Barrow Scrapped four-wheeler on beach children on beach police car on snowed up road	Interview #22 (01:01) Elise Patkotak ...This town went from, from almost zero economy, cash economy, to people going home with pay checks that represented what their parents made in 5 years and they were making it like every 2 weeks. you know, it became a ‘throw away’ society if your Ski-doo broke you bought another one you didn’t try and fix it. If your car broke you bought another car. Even with those expenditures, even with giving kids, and, and this was not an unusual sight in the early 80s kids walking around with a $50 bill in the store to spend, their spending money! You still had money left over and unfortunately... ...anytime you’ve got that much free cash someone’s gonna come up and sell you alcohol and drugs as a way of using up that cash and having a good time. And so, at a time when culturally the town was being pulled apart because of the impact you also had a massive infusion of drugs and alcohol coming into the community ehm, and it just, it combined to create some really rough years for some families and some young people.
54	00:34:05:xx 00:34:14:16 <C021> JIM BECKHAM Barrow Police Officer cutaways Barrow street scenes travelling shots	Interview # (xx:xx) Jim Beckham The changes have been dramatic in Alaska, not just here on the North Slope, but throughout the state. After the oil development, everyone started locking their doors. Prior to that it just didn’t seem like – eh – like much of a problem; very few people throughout the state even bothered with door locks. Unfortunately with development comes the – eh – less than welcome elements – and with them come of course their own particular brand of problems, and their getting used to living in this type of environment, getting used to the people that have lived here before – the Natives. Like any community we do have a certain eh amount of eh illegal narcotics come into town. It’s not a major problem yet – thank God – but – eh – we anticipate – eh – that it will continue as the population grows and more outsiders come in that there will be – eh – additional narcotics problems.
55	00:35:11:22 travelling shot, Laura Madison Street, Barrow mix to travelling shot from boat in sea ice Kotzebue Sound, hunters in boat	V/O #19: (00:22) The strength of using corporations to receive the Lands Claims Settlement was that it was a constitutionally acceptable way of keeping the land and the money in Native hands. The fatal flaw of the corporate model is that those Natives who by choice or fate remain outside the cash economy, receive fewer benefits from the settlement.
56	00:35:32:12 00:35:33:01 <C022> RON BROWER cutaways - Hunters from Noatak, Walrus hunt in Kotzebue Sound	Interview #23 (00:52) Ron Brower ...Once you get away from Barrow which is the hub of government and get into a traditional village eh, subsistence is ...your main source of income. ...even though we’ve got millions of eh, dollars that are coming in, many of our Inupiaq people remain... ...uneducated in terms of having college degrees. They’re ha- they’re having trouble qualifying for today’s standards of getting a job, many people don’t get a job eh, for a long periods of time and they have to rely on subsistence in order to eh, survive. They may have been able to get a new house, or maybe a new snow machine, but you still gotta have some way of getting that gas so you can go hunting...
57	00:36:24:xx Montage – hunter butchering walrus, mix to - Anchorage traffic	AUDIO – Commercial radio adverts/soundtracks - montage
58	00:36:47:16 Anchorage traffic Noatak village – main street Anchorage city Anchorage airport arrival terminal Processing facility – Prudhoe Bay Control room, CPF1 Kuparuk Anchorage winter traffic Fade to black	V/O #20: (01:06) Revenue from Alaska’s growing oil industry fuelled the economic development of the state. The Native corporations and the municipalities in the rural areas were dependent on oil revenues to create employment and improve living conditions and public services. The urban communities of the south – particularly around Anchorage – relied on oil revenue to fuel a growing economy in both the public and private sector. Work in the oilfields brought thousands of newcomers to Alaska, which in turn brought rapid growth to service sector and the demand for more government services. By the mid eighties oil production had reached its peak – nearly 2 million barrels of oil flowed through the Trans Alaska Pipeline every day. The State economy was so healthy that government and public services could be financed directly from state oil revenues - without the need for Alaskans to pay income tax. By the end of the eighties, most Alaskans favoured oil development – and for a few years it seemed as if the boom would last forever...
59	00:37:56:xx Fade up from black seashore (cropped) 00:37:58:xx <C023> NATURE PAYS THE PRICE?	MUSIC – Guitar (JHP Improvisation #3)
60	00:38:11:xx Aerial shot (Day for night) Oil tanker in Prince William Sound	V/O #21: (00:21) Friday March 24^th 1989 – in the hours of darkness an oil tanker carrying 1.2 million barrels of North Slope Crude runs into trouble on its way through Prince William Sound, just hours after leaving the marine terminal at Valdez. (radio traffic in BG) Captain Joe Hazelwood calls the Marine terminal on the radio...
61	00:38:26:xx SFX: Voice of Joe Hazelwood over ships radio 24.3.89 Exxon valdez, night shot from patrol vessel	Radio transmission (00:18) (Voice of Capt. Joe Hazelwood - subtitled) We should be on your radar there... we’ve fetched up hard aground just north of Goose Island, off Bligh Reef, and er... evidently we’re losing some oil, and we’re er... gonna be here for a while....
62	00:38:48:xx Aerial shot Exxon Valdez 29-03-1989 Aerial - Exxon Valdez with Sea River Baton Rouge moored alongside Alyeska spill response barge Meeting activity High waves break on shore close ups of oil slick washing on beach and contaminated sea otter Aerial - around Exxon Valdez	V/O #22: (01:00) The Exxon Valdez had gone off course and run aground, ripping open several oil tanks. By daylight the vessel is encircled by a growing oil slick. As yet the weather remains calm and the chances of containing the spill are good. Another tanker is brought alongside to offload the remaining oil. Meanwhile, attempts at containing and collecting the spill are delayed - the emergency crews and their vessels and equipment which were intended for such an accident, were reduced with State approval in 1981 to save money. Whilst the terminal management, oil company and authorities argue about their respective legal responsibilities, the weather turns, bringing squalls which quickly spread the slick over a much wider area, making an immediate cleanup impossible. Within a days, a quarter of a million barrels of crude oil hits hundreds of miles of coastline - polluting beaches and killing marine life in its wake. The Exxon Valdez achieves worldwide fame, its name forever synonymous with the destruction of nature in the pursuit of profit.
63	00:39:57:xx Oil spill – impact images	MUSIC – “The Last Place on Earth” – 2^nd Verse It’s the home of the raven where daytime is dark, Where death takes its toll on rebirth, The mystical journey, swan flight of the heart Flutters down in the last place on earth. Chorus It’s stranger than fiction, It’s sadder than hell, there’s no way to judge what it’s worth, It’s past the last highway, across the lost hills, My God, it’s the last place on earth.
64	00:40:53:xx cutaway – aerial Exxon Valdez in white-topped seascape	Interview #24 (00:08) John Shively I think the lesson that’s been learnt is - if something can go wrong it probably will go wrong.
65	00:41:01:xx 00:41:06:22 <C024> DENNY DENBROCK Oilfield safety instructor	Interview #25 (00:24) Denny Denbrock A number of people had pointed to the fact that they thought that were we to have a disaster or one of our ships were to sink eh, we weren’t able to deal with it, but nobody would step up and take the responsibility. It was a very touchy subject and until the day that Joe Hazelwood in his ship hit that dreadful reef eh, everybody had kinda turned their head and looked the other way.
66	00:41:27:xx Anchorage traffic Evening skyline, Anchorage Pipelines, Prudhoe Bay Aerial – Prince William Sound shoreline	V/O #23 (00:25) Throughout the 70’s and 80’s, as Alaska’s economy became increasingly dependent on oil, environmental concerns voiced by Native communities, environmental organisations and even trade unions within the oil industry, went unheeded by the industry and Alaska’s political leadership, who assured the public that Alaska was prepared. Until the unthinkable – but all so inevitable happened.
67	00:41:52:xx 00:41:59:08 <C025> JOHN SHIVELY State Commissioner for Natural Resources (1999)	Interview #26 (00:18) John Shively A lot of the impact of the Exxon Valdez was a result of both the industry and government eh, thinking that the system was working very well. And so, and getting relaxed and there was a problem and, and people were not prepared to respond.
68	00:42:10:xx Volunteers salvage dead animals on beach. fishing vessels	V/O #24: (00:15) This was not only an environmental disaster – the grounding of the Exxon Valdez would soon have a devastating effect on many Alaskan communities – especially the fishing villages around Prince William Sound, where livelihoods were now at stake.
69	00:42:25:09 cutaways – public meeting in Cordova (?)	Interview #27 (00:11) Denny Denbrock Throughout Alaska everyone felt it in some way, ...that our government....wasn’t.... being responsible for.... our well being.
70	00:42:36:xx public meeting in Cordova	(SYNC) Cordova fisherman: I wanna know why Exxon and the rest o f these people were so adament about not hiring local people, with their boats, that were ready to go out and save their own fishery.
71	00:42:47:xx Fishermen working on deck public meeting in Cordova	V/O #25: (00:14) Fishermen from communities around Prince William Sound are quick to offer their boats and crews to help with the clean-up – but Exxon and the authorities ignore their offers, the oil company still maintains that everything is under control.
72	00:43:00:xx public meeting in Cordova	(SYNC) Oil company executive: “You won’t have a problem – I don’t care if you believe that or not, that’s the truth... try it!”
73	00:43:09:xx public meeting oil slick breaks on beach still – White House, Washington DC	V/O #26: (00:11) Their way of life threatened, Alaskans are angry at the complacency of the oil industry and their government. From Washington, President Bush tries to reassure the nation...
74	00:43:17:xx archive – Presindt Bush, Press conference White House, 1989 cutaway - Volunteers burn dead birds	(SYNC) Interview #28A (00:14) President George Bush Our ultimate goal must be the complete restoration of the ecology and the economy of Prince William Sound, including all of its fish, marine mammals, birds and other wildlife.
75	00:43:40:xx clean up crews collect dead marine animals clean up activity oil slick wave breaks on rocks	V/O #27: (00:33) As the oil slick spreads beyond control, it’s all hands on deck – as the federal government and US coastguard begin to coordinate the clean-up operation, which Exxon agrees to finance – at an estimated cost of over 2 million dollars per day. Eventually, the spill creates a frantic yet short-lived economic boom in Alaska, as every available fishing boat and pair of hands are hired to assist in a clean-up operation which continues for many months. Several thousand Alaskans are now asking – whyever did we wait for the oil to hit the beaches?
76	00:44:14:xx	Interview #28 (00:14) John Shively The oil actually sat very close to that ship for a couple of days and if we’d had clean-up capacity we could’ve cleaned up a lot of that oil before it ran all around Prince William Sound. We could do that today, with the capacity was not there then.
77	00:44:30:xx clean up activity courtroom inquiry c/u Gregory Cousins (Third Mate) c/u Joseph Hazelwood (Master) c/u Gregory Cousins (Third Mate) c/u Robert Kagan (Helmsman) aerial – Exxon Valdez courtroom c/u Jerzy Glowacki (Chief Engineer) c/u Joseph Hazelwood aerial – Exxon Valdez	V/O #28: (00:50) As the clean-up continues the official investigation of the accident begins – revealing a travesty of human error. When the ship ran aground, the captain was in his cabin, having left an unqualified officer in command of his ship. The helmsman, new on watch, did not notice that the ship was sailing on auto-pilot, it’s course towards the shallows of Bligh Reef. By the time the error was discovered, it was too late. Several crew members testified that Captain Hazelwood had been drinking – but in those days before mandatory alcohol tests this was never proven The real lesson lay not in the spill itself, but in the negligence of the terminal operator, the ship-owner, and the state authorities, all of whom played a part in leaving Prince William Sound unprepared and unprotected for such an event.
78	00:45:22:xx 00:45:26:14 <C026> DENNY DENBROCK Oilfield safety instructor cutaway – Valdez marine terminal activity	Interview #29 (00:27) Denny Denbrock We’ve learned a great deal. I think the whole nation has learned. All of the oil industry has learned a great deal. Ehm, we can’t turn our head and look the other way. We must be prepared and I think they’ve taken a much stronger, positive stand on these issues ...we’ve got new systems and procedures in place that we should have had back then but we didn’t... and I don’t think today the oil companies would allow that to happen anymore because we’ve learned the hard way from the, from the Exxon Valdez.
79	00:45:41:xx underwater shot, salmon hatchery aerial shot – salmon farm fishermen / cleanup fishermen / cleanup beach cleanup activity Anchorage traffic c/u gas pump c/u hand filling gas tank c/u oil slick breaks on beach oil facilities, Prudhoe Bay well head activity, Kuparuk Sea River Baton Rouge sailing in Prince William Sound Marine terminal control room c/u radar screen tanker and escort tug Navigators training activity tankers and tugs, marine terminal aerial, tanker and escort Prince William Sound	V/O #29: (01:25) The marine fisheries and wildlife of Prince William Sound suffered enormous damage, and the fishing communities and Native villages of the region faced an environmental and economic disaster from which many have not recovered over a decade later. The clean-up cost Exxon an estimated 2.1 billion dollars – which the company was able to offset against its corporation taxes for several years. This cost - combined with a temporary rise in oil prices following the spill – would ultimately be met by the American public. It is estimated that Exxon harvested a net profit of over 150 million dollars from the spill. The Exxon Valdez disaster changed the entire oil industry and led to dramatic improvements to oilfield, pipeline and marine safety in Alaska. Today’s tanker traffic in Prince William Sound is monitored by radar from Valdez, and tankers are escorted by a fleet of ocean-going tugs which are equipped for such disasters. New regulations require that tanker crews are trained and certified for navigation in Prince William Sound, and ships officers must submit to alcohol testing before they are allowed to leave the Port of Valdez. But despite these improvements, the threat to Alaska’s environment remains. The risk may have been reduced, but the stakes remain the same.
80	00:47:18:xx cutaway Native outdoor fire cooking activity mix to seal swimming on surface mix to aerial, tanker in Prince William Sound	Interview #30 (00:21) John Shively It, it was an emotional disaster for the state it was very difficult, certainly I think for, for people in the commercial fishing industry it was difficult for people that live off subsistence resources and I think there’s still some impact there, but eh,... but it’s a much bigger deal for the native community, and I do think that gives them a higher interest in protecting the environment.
81	00:47:38:xx aerial, tanker in Prince William Sound mix to eagle in flight	V/O #30 (00:19) Since the passing of the settlement act, Alaska’s Natives had put their faith in the new world. They could now see that the values of the industrial world were better suited to exploiting nature’s resources than protecting them. For all its might, the industrial world had failed to respect the land.
82	00:47:59:xx cutaway - eagle in flight <C027> GARY HARRISON Traditional Chief, Chickaloon Village cutaway oil workers on Rig 19	Interview #31 (00:32) Gary Harrison ...They don’t teach you the values of life... how come we respect nature... an’ if you don’t understand that, then you can go out just like anybody else, and it doesn’t bother you to rip up Mother Earth to take out the coal, it doesn’t bother you to suck out the oil and leave a big emptiness there, it doesn’t bother you to leave a dead pool of water for the animals to come around and, and drink and die, these type of things if you don’t learn a lot of these values, you don’t even know about them, so you... you don’t really care about things... you didn’t learn the values...
83	00:48:30:xx Drilling deck activity Rig 19	MUSIC – “The Last Place on Earth” (Instrumental BG) fade in
84	00: 48:37:xx mix to Anchorage, evening skyline Native woman preparing whale meat (Ruth Nukapigak, Nuiqsut) Landscape, Noatak Flats Native woman (Lena Jones) Anchorage, Lake Hood small aircraft landing on water	V/O #31 (00:46) Oil had brought progress to Alaska – but at what price? Overflowed with sudden wealth, some Native communities faced difficulty adapting to development. The Natives whose lands were not endowed with oil or minerals were less fortunate – their world was changing too, though they had little wealth with which to mitigate the impact of development. And the white population, many born and bred in Alaska, were also working to create progress without obliterating the land they loved. For all Alaskans it was clear that they had embarked on a journey, for which few of them were prepared – and many had come to understand that Alaska’s oil boom might not last forever.
85	00:49:23:xx cutaway (mix) oil tanker loading	Interview #32 (00:12) John Shively I believe Alaska was absolutely not prepared for Prudhoe Bay. Eh, I mean, it was a great blessing, but we did not have the internal capacity to deal with a multi million dollar a year oil field.
86	00:49:35:xx mix to Morris Thompson mix to aerial – Noatak River	Interview #33 (00:13) Morris Thompson We received 44 million acres of land that we didn’t have before. That land base is still intact. From that perspective a great success. We didn’t lose the land base.
87	00:49:49:xx mix to John Shively mix to pipeline construction activity	Interview #34 (00:08) John Shively I don’t think we were emotionally or intellectually prepared for what happened when the pipeline was constructed. We weren’t, we weren’t really prepared for that.
88	00:49:57:xx mix to Dermot Cole mix to bulldozer, Alpine oilfield	Interview #35 (00:11) Dermot Cole Looking back at it now it’s hard to see how you would sort all that out ‘cause these were massive social forces that, you know, that, no, no one entity or agency could really do much about.
89	00:50:09:xx mix to Elise Patkotak mix to ski-doos on sea ice, Barrow	Interview #36 (00:24) Elise Patkotak It was like, it was like a tidal wave coming in and you couldn’t run fast enough to outstrip it. I mean, it happened so quick. One day there was this fairly cohesive, coherent culture and then the next day everybody had a job and was pulling in thousands of dollars every couple of weeks and, and it’s like we lost all our values and our priorities got just lost.
90	00:50:34:xx mix to John Shively mix to Anchorage downtown area	Interview #37 (00:16) John Shively We weren’t prepared for all the money either. We didn’t have a system in place to, to decide, you know, what was worth spending and what was worth saving, but, you know, we got to all those things eventually. But we certainly weren’t prepared when it happened
91	00:50:50:xx mix to Morris Thompson mix to aerial, Rig 19, Alipine oilfield	Interview #38 (00:09) Morris Thompson The money, 962 million, now the corporations are worth a lot more than that. That scorecard I think we’ve improved on.
92	00:51:00:xx mix to Native (Billy Killbear) driving excavator mix to Elise Patkotak mix to Native (Billy Killbear) on beach	Interview #39 (00:14) Elise Patkotak The regional corporations for, I think the expectations were perhaps unrealistic when they were created, they are not the be all and end all. They’re corporations. They have money, they have land, they make a profit - that’s what they are.
93	00:51:14:xx mix to Morris Thompson	Interview #40 (00:09) Morris Thompson Improving the lives of the people, creating better social and economic opportunities for our native people we’ve got a long way to go there
94	00:51:22:06 c/u Billy Killbear on beach c/u “No Tresspassing” sign (S/T) l/s barge tug l/s Prudhoe Bay seen from Milne Pt. Billy Killbear on beach mix to l/s Nabors Rig, Kuparuk	Music – “The Last Place on Earth” - last chorus It’s stranger than fiction, It’s sadder than hell There’s no way to judge what it’s worth, It’s past the last highway, across the last hills, My God, it’s the last place on earth.
	Caps (dedication): <C022> This programme is dedicated to the memory of Athabascan leader, Morris Thompson fade to black
95	00:52:05:15 (fade up, end shot – seascape) <C023> CREDITS (ROLL) Lighting Cameraman ADRIAN REDMOND Sound Recordists HELENE A. SOUTHERN HANNE SØNNICHSEN Production Assistants NIELS BAK SARAH-JANE HØGH REDMOND Editor ADRIAN REDMOND Production Manager HANNE SØNNICHSEN Assistant Producer HELENE A. SOUTHERN NINA NUMAN Narrator ADRIAN REDMOND Title music P. HOPE / J.W.MEDIA MUSIC Ltd. “The Last Place on Earth” written and performed by MICHAEL FAUBION © Far Beyond Music 1996 Incidental music CARL ULRIK MUNK-ANDERSEN JESPER HENNING PEDERSEN ADRIAN REDMOND Post production sound ADRIAN REDMOND Additional Archive Material KTUU-Channel 2 Anchorage ALYESKA PIPELINE SERVICE COMPANY THE ALASKA MOVING IMAGE PRESERVATION ASSOCIATION Archive Researcher HELENE A. SOUTHERN The producers wish to thank the following for their support in the making of this programme NANA REGIONAL CORPORATION ARCTIC SLOPE REGIONAL CORPORATION ALASKA ESKIMO WHALING COMMISSION BARROW WHALING CAPTAINS’ ASSOCIATION THE NORTHWEST ARCTIC BOROUGH MAYOR’S OFFICE THE NORTH SLOPE BOROUGH MAYOR’S OFFICE NSB DEPARTMENT OF WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT STATE OF ALASKA DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES MARITIME HELICOPTERS, HOMER, ALASKA ERA HELICOPTERS, ANCHORAGE, ALASKA KBRW AM-FM, BARROW THE ALASKA FEDERATION OF NATIVES RHONDA & MIKE FAUBION TINA DALY & ROBERT DILLON INUIT CIRCUMPOLAR CONFERENCE, NUUK ALASKA AIRLINES NATIVE EXPERIENCE produced by CHANNEL 6 TELEVISION DENMARK for THE HOME RULE GOVERNMENT OF GREENLAND Department of Information / Tusagassiivik Written and directed by ADRIAN REDMOND NATIVE EXPERIENCE ©2002 Channel 6 Television Denmark
END	00: 53:00:00 Duration 00:51:00:00