On June 28th, 2024, the Biden administration took final steps in rejecting a 211 mile industrial road through the Brooks Range foothills, a remote Arctic area of Northwest Alaska that would facilitate at least four large scale mining operations, hundreds of smaller mines across the region, and compromise wildlife, waterways, and people. Among concerns of Indigenous communities who have lived on these lands for thousands of years are a rapid decline in wildlife populations, and irreversible harm to the ecosystems that sustain subsistence lifestyle for thousands of Alaskans who consider it “the last frontier.” If approved, the Ambler Road project would have crossed 11 major river systems and thousands of smaller rivers, streams, and wetlands, and have devastating impacts on all fish in-migration and out-migration, spawning and rearing habitat, and will especially compromise at risk species like Chinook and other endangered wildlife. With a critical election looming, and as we’ve seen with transitions of U.S. presidential power in the past, there is a very real possibility that the rejection of the Ambler Road Project could be overturned in the coming months, and we must remain vigilant in protecting these ancestral lands here and everywhere.

In the late stages of Trump’s presidency, his administration showed support for private mining projects claiming that investments in mining infrastructure are vital to “American” prosperity and national security. As we’ve seen time and time again across Turtle Island since contact, we know these decisions have fatal consequences on the environment and font-line communities across Turtle Island and beyond. At the Republican National Convention in Milwaukie, Wisconsin this last July, Trump fired up supporters with his commitment to “drill baby drill,” doubling down on his commitment to invest in extractive industries including mineral and metal mining, and loosening regulations that limit fossil fuels extraction. As the country anxiously awaits the outcome of the upcoming election, a second term Trump presidency means the reversal of the decision to shut down the project, and that Ambler Road is a key priority under a Republican administration as outlined in an amendment to the national defense bill. Their proposed amendment to the bill removes all free, prior, and informed consent from tribes and Alaskans, and guarantees that the future of the state is decided by those with no relationship to the land or ancestral responsibility to protect it.

As tribes and communities of Alaska prepare for the upcoming election and the potential that the Ambler Road Project could resume as early as next year, it is a reminder that we must demand a seat at the table at every phase of the political process to make our voices heard. We know that a get rich quick scheme for them; a money and resource grab under the guise of new jobs and economic prosperity for the few is a direct attack on Indigenous sovereignty and non-Indigenous Alaskans alike. When and if that day comes, we will be prepared to fight the good fight and organize to Defend the Sacred. To our relatives, countless tribes and families impacted by the Ambler Road Project, we see you, we hear you, and we stand with you. Our prayers are with you that we will see this through, and that you can get back to the lives your ancestors shared for you, your children, and generations to come.

In Solidarity,

Indigenous Peoples Power Project

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