Petroleum Development and the State in Arctic North America, 1919–1977

doi:10.1017/9781108555654.024

24 - Petroleum Development and the State in Arctic North America, 1919–1977

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 March 2023

Philip A. Wight

Edited by

Adrian Howkins and

Peder Roberts

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Adrian Howkins: Affiliation:
University of Bristol
Peder Roberts: Affiliation:
University of Stavanger

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Summary

The winds howled as the members of the First Combat Intelligence Platoon mushed their huskies through the darkness of an Arctic January day. Temperatures reached −43 degrees Celsius as the men scouted the river valleys and mountain passes of Alaska’s Brooks Range. This was no ordinary mission, and these men were no regular infantry. The platoon, comprised of soldiers from the Alaska Territorial Guard (ATG) – a military reserve force of Alaska Natives known as the ‘Eskimo Scouts’ – was the vanguard of the first reconnaissance survey of a petroleum pipeline from Alaska’s North Slope. In the early winter of 1945, three ATG patrols totalling eight men spearheaded a survey of a potential pipeline route from Livengood, north of Fairbanks, to Umiat on the North Slope. The men travelled over 3,200 km by dogsled in the middle of Arctic winter, battling snow deeper than a metre.

Keywords

Alaska colonialism military oil pipelines hydrocarbon development Indigenous environment history

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge History of the Polar Regions , pp. 593 - 620

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108555654.024 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2023

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