Bernadette Demientieff said she cried when she learned of Democrat Mary Peltola's win in Alaska's U.S. House special election, making Peltola the first Alaska Native to be elected to Congress.
“I feel a little bit of relief knowing that somebody will be down there that can really relate and understand what it is to be Alaskan, to be an Alaska Native and to have that connection to our homeland,” said Demientieff, executive director of the Gwich’in Steering Committee. The indigenous Gwich’in have fought for years against efforts to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and she hopes to lay out their concerns with Peltola.
