From the Center for Investigative Reporting in PRX, this is Reveal. I'm Al-Letson.

We're starting this week's show on a boat near the top of the world. Reporter Amy Martin,

the podcast threshold, is about to visit a part of the United States has been fought over for decades.

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and War.

Ready to go?

Woo!

Alright, you want to come inside?

The captain of the boat is Vabion Ishana Ray Tan. Vabion's in his early 20s and lives in the

village of Cocktovic. If you look at a map of Alaska, it's way up in the northeast on a small barrier

island. Vabion's taking Amy and her colleague Nick Mott over to the mainland. It's a cloudy day,

and as they motor along, the edge of the North American continent slowly emerges from the mist.

What you see is a gray ocean, a lion of green and black that is the land, and above that big gray,

and that's the sky. The refuge is almost 10 times the size of Yellowstone National Park,

both no roads, no hotels, no souvenir shops, just wilderness. It's the largest wildlife refuge in

the country. Home to wolves, Arctic foxes, wolf arenes, Canada links, and all three types of North

American bears. And this northern part of it is known as the coastal plain. It's where tens of

thousands of caribou nurture their newborn calves. It's also where oil companies have been fighting

for the right to drill for more than 40 years. A fight they won in 2017, when they got congressional

approval, even though most Americans are still opposed to it. For Vabion, this place of

controversy is just as old. I don't think people think of it as a refuge even, we just think of it as our

is where we come from, kind of. Vabion's dad is from Norway, his mom is from

Cactobic, which is actually inside the refuge. She's from the Anupiyak Indigenous group.

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