On the Road

This chapter follows Lenny Kohm and Gwich’in representative Glenna Frost on a slide show tour in 1991. It was a pivotal time for the Arctic Refuge struggle. As Kohm and Frost wound their way through the Midwest, the Johnston-Wallop bill (which included a controversial Arctic drilling provision) wound its way through the U.S. Senate. Frost, a citizen of the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation, had been recruited by the Porcupine Caribou Management Board to join the Last Great Wilderness tour. The chapter describes what it was like for her to leave her home community of Old Crow, Yukon, and be on the road, sharing stories of her people. The chapter emphasizes how the slide show tours built relationships across vast distances and reframed the Arctic Refuge issue for grassroots audiences.