By Sonal Gupta, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada’s National Observer Pauline Frost grew up without running water, flush toilets, roads or television in Old Crow, Yukon, about 800 kilometres north of Whitehorse. Residents, mainly members of the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation, depended on the Porcupine caribou migration, which had sustained the community for generations. “Caribou was always around. I don’t recollect growing up ever being without caribou,” said Frost, now 63 and the First Nation’s chief. But in recent years, the herd has been declining: heavy snow has buried the lichen the caribou feed on, more calves are dying and the animals have remained on the Alaska side of their range. Earlier this month, the Gwich’in Steering Committee, which represents Gwich’in communities across Alaska and Canada, updated its 2020 lawsuit…
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