Dunleavy administration lawsuit seeks to continue suppression of tribal and rural land management perspectives

The Norton Bay Inter-Tribal Watershed Council condemns the Dunleavy administration’s recent announcement that it is suing the Department of Interior (DOI), which amounts to a demand that the DOI uphold its suppression of tribal and rural perspectives.

Three days before the Trump administration came to an end in January, it attempted to remove protections from development on an area of public lands in Alaska larger than the state of South Dakota. In order to complete this massive extraction-industry land grab, the administration rushed through the analysis of the substantial impacts of removing these protections and ignored repeated requests from Alaska’s tribal leaders, local communities, businesses and conservation organizations for a fair and transparent planning process. Instead, Trump’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM), overnight and behind closed doors, disregarded all multiple-use mandates and tried to throw the door open to industry, mainly mining, on 28 million acres of lands that had previously been managed for food resources important to local people.

Mining and other extractive development in these vast and unique areas would impact multiple biologically rich salmon-bearing watersheds, as well as wetlands and spawning streams for arctic char, grayling and sheefish that are critical for traditional and customary uses for Alaska Native communities and would impact migratory pathways for the Western Arctic caribou Fortymile caribou and Nelchina caribou herds, as well as waterfowl. The removal of protections without adequate analysis or consultation with tribes is, therefore, an attack on salmon streams and caribou corridors, and on traditional and public land uses.

The Dunleavy administration knew all that when it issued its press release and filed a lawsuit in federal court, but this move was one calculated for talking points on national television, not for the needs, wishes or representation of affected Alaskans or the best interest of our public lands. These public lands are a breadbasket that allow us to hunt, fish and feed our families and ourselves.

DOI’s January decision was a response to the request of Alaska Native communities who requested that Alaska’s public lands, including critical fish and wildlife habitat, not be handed over to private corporations without adequate analysis or consultation.

In response to these requests, the Biden administration conducted a trio of government-to-government meetings and a comment period that illustrated its new commitment to inclusive processes and holistic analyses before completing broad agency actions on lands that are important to the food security and livelihoods of Alaskans around the state. The DOI also made it clear in its May 13 announcement that it will “expedite and process (Vietnam) veterans’ allotment applications across the area addressed by those orders,” contrary to the Dunleavy administration’s false claim.

We are grateful to the BLM for prioritizing a multiple-use perspective and subsistence and cultural resources on Alaska’s public lands, in ways that the previous administration did not. The State of Alaska’s lawsuit is misleading, insulting and continues a longstanding trend of undermining and ignoring Tribal and rural perspectives on our homelands.

Doug Katchatag is the president of the Norton Bay Inter-Tribal Watershed Council and a resident of Native Village of Unalakleet.

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