Victoria Hykes Steere, Iñupiat

 Victoria Hykes Steere is author of an essay titled “An Iñupiaq Reflection on ‘Ice,’” from Global Warming Reader, by William H. Rodgers, Jr., Jeni Barcelos, Anna Moritz, and Michael Robinson-Dorn, (in press, Carolina Academic Press, Durham). She is also a former law student of William H. Rodgers, Jr., at the University of Washington School of Law.
We are the Iñupiat and our villages begin with Unalakleet and enter into Canada. The knowledge we learn belongs to our families, communities, our world.  My families chose to teach me of weather and of laws. They sent me out to learn how the West thinks, to understand it but not to become a part of it. They sent me from the place I most love to learn, to question, to seek and to become comfortable communicating to advocate for our survival. Unalakleet is one of the villages already being impacted by changing weather so this is personal and very real.