When I last saw Dave Lacey, his coffee table was still stacked with comic books. It was more than five years earlier that I reclined on his smudge-brown sofa and read Sacco’s description of the war in Bosnia, as told from the perspective of a mine-sniffer. He had several of Joe Sacco’s autobiographical comics, illustrations and stories from Palestine, Vietnam and other regions of conflict.

     Dave’s table last summer seemed unchanged, as did his room, as did his house. The Juice Bar was disassembled; part of the porch still clung to the bank of the gunmetal gray Tanana. The other section, the shack where Lela created delicious organic smoothies and desserts with fresh-picked blueberries, was lying among the birch and alder, another artifact joining the 40-passenger tour boat without motors, old cars, and forgotten furniture.

     Dave is a Fairbanks fixture. As “Dr. Dave,” he spins vinyl for the college radio station, KSUA, on Saturday nights. He’s known locally as well for his uncanny dance moves and grueling Thursday yoga sessions. For years, he guided eco-tourists down the Tanana to the Yukon until the boat had troubles. He is a confidant of many village leaders and respected tribal elders. He helped write a book about sustainable village development using Steven’s Village on the Yukon as a case study.

     So, there is no doubt that Dave was in Ft. Yukon last week, sitting below a blue tarp in a circle on a spruce bench along with about 60 tribal members from Yukon Flats villages. Doyon Ltd., a Native corporation with holdings in oil and gas, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, now, under Bush, an agency of the gloomy land of Mordor, want to trade land. Doyon wants to stick its fangs into the earth to suck out oil, the Fish and Wildlife Service is giddy with the prospect of helping to facilitate global warming while getting some extra land for its “refuge.”

     The people, most of them, worry about oil spills, losing almost 100,000 acres of Native land, and the loss of subsistence food from development.

     “The land will provide for us and our future,” Fort Yukon Traditional Chief Jonathan Solomon, 74, told the Fairbanks Daily News Miner. “We cannot give it away.”

     Downstream in the other direction, the village of Galena is considering using a small nuclear-power plant.

     Last summer, as a result of the worst fire season on record, the skies around Fairbanks were choked with ash. People were told to stay indoors.

     Oil, radiation, fires.

     The neurosis of the agitated sectarians in charge requires a quick fix from Dr. Dave and his friends along the Yukon: fresh blueberries, yoga, and an indigenous lifestyle for generations. Let the machines rust in back.