FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: January 16, 2025
Press contact: Grace Nolan, grace@team-arc.com
Alaska Native Communities Celebrate New Protections for Teshekpuk Caribou Herd, Tribes in the Western Arctic
After Calling For More Protections, Co-Management and Tribally-led Stewardship, Alaska Native Communities Are Welcoming Measures to Prioritize Subsistence Activities and Wildlife
(Nuiqsut, Alaska) – Today, Alaska Native communities are welcoming new measures to protect their subsistence, cultural, and traditional activities. In an announcement today, the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI)’s recognized significant subsistence resource values, the need for co-management, and the importance of establishing new Special Areas to protect subsistence use in the Western Arctic.
This decision comes after the administration’s efforts to protect more than 13 million acres of land in the NPR-A last year. As a part of their announcement today, the DOI released a report publishing the results of their Request for Information (RFI) and commenced a process, that will include tribal consultation, to formally recognize subsistence values, establish new Special Areas, and ensure their maximum protection. The administration also directed BLM to consider and apply interim mitigation measures to provide maximum protection for subsistence use and access.
Today’s announcement aligns with local calls for stronger subsistence safeguards and a new subsistence special area which were outlined by Grandmothers Growing Goodness, Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic (SILA), and Native Movement during the Request for Information public comment period last fall.
In response to this announcement, Grandmothers Growing Goodness and Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic released the following statements:
“I am pleased to see that our community’s voices were heard throughout the public comment process, and the Administration has put in place more protections for our land and way of life, including protecting the largest Caribou herd in Alaska, which we have relied on since time immemorial. Prioritizing our community’s needs and meaningfully integrating Indigenous Knowledge through Tribally-led co-management is critical to ensure that the lands my village depend on most for subsistence remain safeguarded from industry destruction going forward,” said Rosemary Ahtuangaruak, Founder, Grandmothers Growing Goodness. We look forward to continuing to engage with the Department of the Interior to ensure that the health of our communities, along with that of the Teshekpuk Caribou Herd, who depend on these lands, are at the forefront of decision-making.”
"Indigenous sovereignty in these matters is long overdue. We are filled with gratitude for these changes, enacting more protections and entrusting the health of the Iñupiaq lands to our people should have been the standard from the start. Our people depend on the health of the land and animals for not just survival and ability to continue to live on our lands for generations to come, but our cultural identity. We appreciate any movement and help in this matter and don't want to diminish those efforts or any support given by entities and individuals towards these changes, but this is so little and so very late. Our people deserve more. So thank you to all those who give their time and energy to make these changes happen,” said Nauri Simmonds, Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic.
Now that the Administration has taken action to ensure that industrial activity in the Arctic is better balanced with protections for the wildlife and lands that the health and livelihoods of Alaska Native communities depend on, it is essential that these lands are managed through co-management and Tribally-led stewardship; and managed to prioritize Inupiat subsistence, culture and tradition. Furthermore, prohibiting industry’s use of the existing road during periods of high subsistence or caribou use is key to further secure the safety and success of hunters and the health of their herd.
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Grandmothers Growing Goodness is an Inupiat group dedicated to elevating the understanding and protection of Inupiat culture and people in the face of rampant oil and gas development and climate change. Its core purpose is to help support equity for communities facing significant environmental justice threats and to strengthen equity for the Inupiat.
Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic’s mission is to create space for healthy communities, spiritually, mentally, and physically; fostering the connection between people, culture and land. We are empowered as frontline communities and those who have inherent connection with the land and what it provides.
