Standing most firmly against 'big oil' and local government is George Edwardson, a flamboyant and respected elder in the Inupiat community.
With white hair flowing down his back, a ready smile and a conspiratorial wink, George was, until health intervened, president of the Inupiat Community of the Arctic Slope for 20 years.
“Shell is a bulldog that is acting on behalf of other foreign oil companies. It used to be BP until the Gulf of Mexico. Basically lease sale 193 (which gives Shell the right to acreage in the Chukchi) was illegal. The MMS (Minerals Management Service) violated the law because the right environmental impact assessments were not completed,” he says.