Inside the Indigenous Fight to Save Alaska’s Bristol Bay
Key takeaways
- Republish Alannah Hurley, executive director of the United Tribes of Bristol Bay, is the winner of the 2026 Goldman Environmental Prize for North America.
- The salmon support a thriving ecosystem and are a cultural and economic lifeblood for native Alaskans, who have stewarded the land and water for thousands of years.
- As the company moved ahead with plans to build the largest open-pit mine in North America, those Indigenous communities joined together to bring it to a halt.
Why this matters: environmental and climate reporting with long-term consequences.
Republish Alannah Hurley, executive director of the United Tribes of Bristol Bay, is the winner of the 2026 Goldman Environmental Prize for North America. Credit: Goldman Environmental Prize Related In Florida, Alligator Alcatraz Remains Open Among Sacred Miccosukee Lands Tribe and Environmentalists to Sue Feds Over Arizona Mine’s Impacts to Threatened Owls Trump Administration Auctions Contested Arctic Lands for Oil Drilling Share This Article Republish Most Popular California’s Battery Array Is as Powerful as 12 Nuclear Power Plants. Here’s What’s on the Horizon. Trump Administration Targets Bison on Federal Grazing Lands California Will Soon Have More Than 300 Data Centers. Where Will They Get Their Water? From our collaborating partner “Living on Earth,” public radio s environmental news magazine, an interview by host Steve Curwood with Alannah Hurley, executive director of the United Tribes of Bristol Bay.
In 2001, a Canadian mining company proposed a massive gold and copper mine at the headwaters of Bristol Bay, a pristine water system on the coast of the Alaska Peninsula that’s home to the largest sockeye salmon run in the world. The salmon support a thriving ecosystem and are a cultural and economic lifeblood for native Alaskans, who have stewarded the land and water for thousands of years.
As the company moved ahead with plans to build the largest open-pit mine in North America, those Indigenous communities joined together to bring it to a halt. In 2023, they secured a rare “EPA veto” of the proposed Pebble Mine, and the 2026 Goldman Environmental Prize for North America recognizes an Indigenous leader in this fight.