The Bureau of Land Management opened nominations last week for the first-ever oil and gas lease auction in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or ANWR, setting the stage for development that three Gwich’in governments are now suing to stop.

Raeann Garnett, 29, is Gwich’in and the tribal chief of the Native Village of Venetie Tribal Government, representing about 200 people above the Arctic Circle in northeastern Alaska, accessible only by plane. In January, the Native American Rights Fund, or NARF, filed a lawsuit against the Department of Interior on behalf of Garnett’s government, the Arctic Village Council, and Venetie Village Council. “I’m the main protector of our land that we own and I do it for all our tribal members,” she said.

The lawsuit challenges the DOI’s plan to lease land in the refuge’s coastal plain, an area the Gwich’in …

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