In the Gwich’in language, “Izhik Gwats’an Gwandaii Goodlit” means “the sacred place where life begins.” The term refers to the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge where some 200,000 caribou birth their young after making the longest land-based mammal migration on the planet. Where the caribou go and what happens to the Gwich’in culture are dependent upon decisions made far away from the remote Arctic. While these policy battles settle, there is a last stand being mounted, in a last place. A red line has formed, wilderness versus oil. At stake, the sacred place where life begins.