ELCA NEWS SERVICE

January 7, 2009  

Lutheran Bishop Says Faith Galvanizes Indigenous Village in Harm's Way
09-006-SHA

     CHICAGO (ELCA) - Leaders of a northwest Alaskan coastal
village that's washing out to sea are disclosing to residents
that they must choose another relocation site for the town.
     The leaders of Shishmaref, a barrier island village of 560
people, learned recently that the long-chosen site of Tin Creek
on the nearby mainland is plagued by degrading permafrost.
     "It's more or less ice and not anchored enough for a town,"
said Darlene Turner, a leader in the traditional Inupiaq village
and president of Shishmaref Lutheran Church, a congregation of
the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA).
     "It's disappointing," Turner said. "This puts us back at
square one."
     Shishmaref is among the three most imperiled Alaskan
villages endangered by erosion and flooding due to climate
change, according to a report by the U.S. Government
Accountability Office.
     "The impact of climate change is dramatic in Alaska, and the
rest of the United States doesn't understand that," said the Rev.
Michael Keys, bishop of the ELCA Alaska Synod.
     Shishmaref Lutheran Church dates back to 1930 and is the
northernmost congregation in the 4.7-million member denomination.
The Rev. Robert H. Wentzien, the congregation's 57-year-old
pastor, died suddenly in October after a fall.
     Wentzien voiced concerns earlier last year about the
reduction of water access at the Tin Creek site as well as the
long-term impact of any relocation.
     "I am very concerned, not just about their commerce and
industry, but about their entire culture, oral traditions, family
traditions and more," he told ELCA Communication Services.
     Shishmaref could be wiped out in less than 10 years,
according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The cost of
relocating the village to the mainland is estimated at $180
million, while moving residents 120 miles south to a designated
area in Nome is calculated at roughly half that price.
     For residents, relocation is a battle for survival as a
people as well as a village. The majority oppose moving to cities
such as Nome or Anchorage because of the dramatic lifestyle
changes, said  Stanley Tocktoo, head of the Shishmaref Erosion
and Relocation Committee.
     "The majority want to stay on the mainland in the area and
subsist on the land and sea like we always have," he said. "We
don't want to be separated. We want to keep intact our
traditional values and customs."
     No roads lead to Shishmaref, where residents live on seals,
walrus, fish, birds, caribou and moose that they hunt themselves.
Villagers date their culture back thousands of years.
     The bishop said two other villages in the synod - Wales and
Teller - may also face relocation.
     "If you just move people to Nome or Anchorage, you're losing
cultural diversity," he said. "You need to consider the cultural
perspective. Is there a value that this cultural diversity
exists? Is the indigenous lifestyle -- culture, values and
language -- valuable?"
     Shishmaref is located on an island about three miles long
and a quarter mile wide. Shoreline erosion averages 3-5 feet per
year, though more extensive in storms in 1997 and 2001.
Shishmaref Lutheran, the island's only church, provided parcels
of land so many of those immediately threatened could move to
safer ground.
     "These are people of deep, deep extraordinary faith and
witness," Keys said. "It will allow them to face very, very
difficult challenges ahead of them and be a significant part of
how they respond."

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask]
http://www.elca.org/news
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