Bound by Oil: Gulf Coast Residents Seek Lessons from Exxon Valdez

by Jessica Ravitz.  Cross-posted from CNN

Prince William Sound, Alaska (CNN) -- Eyes closed as ice-cold water laps at the shore, one woman is transported to her bayou porch. Staring out at an enormous iceberg, some laugh, convinced it could pass for a Mardi Gras float. Inside a visitor's center, they see a decades-old photograph of an oil-slicked bird and agree: It looks just like the ones back home

They find easy ways to relate -- some comforting, some not -- as they journey to a place so foreign.

After months of living with uncertainty, a dozen Louisiana residents travel to America's last frontier to get a glimpse into what their futures may hold. They ooh and ah at breaching whales, a calving glacier and waterfalls. But they've come to Alaska because of something unsightly: spilled oil.

Traveling by ferry on the Alaska Marine Highway, they arrive in Cordova and Valdez, towns along the Prince William Sound. It was in these waters, more than 21 years ago, that the Exxon Valdez oil tanker grounded on Bligh Reef, spilling into the sound at least 11 million gallons of crude -- a fraction of the more than 205 million gallons that gushed into the Gulf of Mexico in the months leading up to their pilgrimage in early August.

Russell Dardar, who tells everyone "I used to be a fisherman," is here on a fact-finding mission, to take notes by tape and report back to his indigenous community.

Iris Brown Carter, whose loss of loved ones drives her feisty spirit, looks for fuel to bring to her fight against polluting corporations.

Rosina Philippe, whose Atakapa-Ishak tribe has lived in Grand Bayou, Louisiana, for more than 1,000 years, wants to make sure her descendants are not forced to learn their history in a museum.  Read more on CNN