Parade has a really interesting article about the Inupiat culture and the impact of drilling for oil in the Arctic could potentially have on it. Since the Gulf oil spill, Mayor Edward Itta, an Inupiat Eskimo, is uneasy about the various companies that are attempting to drill in the Arctic. An oil spill could cause the downfall of the subsistence culture.
"Offshore drilling means the risks are great to the marine mammals we depend on for subsistence. We fear it may pollute the water, cause spills, frighten off whales with noise. I'm not trying to stop the oil. But if whales disappear, so will our culture....We were here before oil, and we will be here after it. We rise and fall with the bowhead whales."
