An Alaska Native ceremony to publicly shame Exxon Mobil, the world’s largest oil company and perpetrator of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, will be held at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, March 24, 2007, at the Masonic Hall in Cordova, Alaska. Mike Webber, an Alaska Native wood carver of Aleut and Tlingit descent, will unveil the seven-foot yellow cedar Exxon Ridicule Pole to the public following a private ceremony for Native elders. The event marks the 18th memorial of the nation’s largest oil spill.
Some Alaska Native tribes traditionally erected a ridicule pole to force a person of “high standing” to pay a debt or meet an obligation, something Webber and others say Exxon Mobil has failed to do.
In 1994, a federal court in Anchorage, Alaska, awarded $5 billion in punitive damages to fishermen, Native Alaskans, and other plaintiffs in a class action suit against the oil giant. Exxon Mobil continues to appeal the damage award and the suit lingers in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. At least 6,000 plaintiffs have died since the suit was filed.
Shame Totem Marks Anniversary of Exxon Valdez Oil Spill (Alaska Center for the Environment)
Send a fax to ExxonMobil, telling them to pay up.
See also:
- EVOS oil remains. Why? (Far North Science)
- Types of Totempoles (chapter of Monuments in Cedar, by Edward Keithahn, 1945)
- Lots of totem pole links (Cathedral Grove)
- Gas station sign generator
Update: Shame Pole mocking Exxon is planted in Cordova (Anchorage Daily News)
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