The groups involved in the filing are the village and city of Point Hope, the Inupiat Community of the Arctic Slope and the Resisting Environmental Destruction on Indigenous Lands (REDOIL) Network. The suit was filed in Alaska Federal Court.

The federal Minerals Management Service had planned to hold Lease Sale 193 on Feb. 6. Acting MMS deputy regional director Jeffrey Loman said he had not seen the lawsuit and could not comment about it.

When asked if motion would affect the lease sale Loman said, “If it is in court then it will be up the courts to make a decision about the lease sale.”

The 37-page lawsuit cited the potential jeopardy to animal and sea bird species that would be threatened by federal oil and gas leasing and development in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska and Beaufort Sea outer continental shelf leases.

The filing asks for injunctive relief to ensure the defendants, Interior Secretary Kirk Kempthorne and MMS director Randall Luthi comply with National Environmental Policy and the Endangered Species acts, and to prevent irreparable harm to the plaintiffs and to the environment until compliance is met.

Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental law firm representing the Alaska Native groups, filed the measure in Juneau.

The Point Hope Elders Advisory Council, the traditional Inupiat leaders of the village of Point Hope that is a federally recognized tribal government, recently passed a resolution supporting a legal challenge to prevent offshore oil and gas activities in the Chukchi Sea.

"We support a legal challenge to MMS for holding Lease Sale 193 and we encourage others to follow us. As the traditional leaders of Point Hope, we ask all Inupiaq people to join us in our opposition to leasing the Chukchi Sea to oil and gas exploration and development. Help us protect our garden and the way of life we all share," said David U. Stone Sr., president of the Point Hope Elders Advisory Council.

The approximately 30 million acres of the outer continental shelf Chukchi Sea lease area include core habitat for polar bear and Pacific walrus, and encompasses the migration route of the bowhead whale, which the Inupiaq people of the North Slope have subsisted on for thousands of years.

According to a press release issued by Alaska Wilderness League, North Slope residents are frustrated that MMS has ignored their concerns through government-to-government consultation and other public meetings.

They believe litigation is the only choice still available to them to avoid oil and gas leasing in the Chukchi Sea and hopes other Inupiat will file suit, stated the release.

Shortly following the announcement of the lawsuit filing in Alaska, the Audubon Society issued its press release.

"It's regrettable that we now must turn to the courts to protect the polar bear from our own Interior Department. Opening up Alaska's Chukchi Sea, also known as the Polar Bear Sea, to oil and gas leases is about as shameless as this administration has been on the environment,” said Betsy Loyless, senior vice president of the National Audubon Society.

"In a lopsided and telling series of decisions, this administration brazenly skipped a legal deadline to protect the bear, swore before Congress the drilling would do no harm even as their scientists warned them otherwise, and have done nothing but impede solutions to global warming,” she said. "By the government's own admission, an oil spill in the Chukchi is probable and would likely hurt polar bears. Spills in those icy rough waters are nearly impossible to clean up before doing damage to wildlife.”

Rob Stapleton can be reached at rob.stapleton@alaskajournal.com.