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This story is a part of the series, Alaska Water Wars about the proposed Pebble Mine in Southwest Alaska. You can find longer versions of the entire series, photos and additional information by going here. Below is audio for the series that aired on National Native News. 

Financial support for reporting on the series was provided by the Alaska Humanities Forum and KNBA public radio. 

By Daysha Eaton

Communities near the fishing industry of Bristol Bay are larger and often have more seasonal and year-round work opportunities than those inland, near the proposed Pebble Mine in Southwest Alaska. Some residents, despite concerns about possible impacts to water quality, are eager to take jobs on related infrastructure projects that would be the mine’s foundation.  In the village of Kokhanok, a “man camp” was built this summer to house people working to develop the mine.

“It’s hard work but hey it’s a job,” said Clint Hobson as he plugged exploration drill holes, which are leaking water at the Pebble Mine site. The surrounding area is rolling tundra, streams and lakes as far as the eye can see.

Hobson is Athabaskan and lives about 50 miles across Lake Iliamna from the mine site in the tiny village of Kokhanok.

“I got bills to pay,” said Hobson.

Jobs are scarce in the area and Hobson is happy to have the work.  He makes $19.75 per hour on the seasonal job.  Outside Kokhanok, Brad Angasan, works for the Alaska Peninsula Corporation and describes the project.

“This is the Kokhanok man camp, said Angasan. “There’s approximately about 12-15 tents here.”

Angasan is Sugpiaq and Alutiiq. His mother’s family is from Kokhanok, a community of about 170 Yup’ik, Sugpiaq, and Athabaskan people.  The unemployment rate fluctuates from a low of around nine percent in summer to a high of 16 percent in mid-winter.

If residents don’t want to work directly for the mining company, many are desperate for jobs to help them stay in their villages. The village corporation that Angasan works for represents Kokhanok and four other villages. Some of those villages are on the verge of disappearing.

“Alaska Peninsula Corporation has villages that are, what I consider, nearing the brink of abandonment,” said Angasan.

The camp employed 15 residents this summer. Twenty-seven-year-old Nicholas Mike, who is Yup’ik, took one of the jobs.

“It means a lot. I get to stay home close to family and I don’t have to deal with traffic in Anchorage (laughs),” said Mike.

Others in the region fiercely oppose the project citing environmental concerns and possible impacts to their subsistence way of life.  Angasan does think developing the mine is a risk to the area’s pristine waters, but he hopes it can be done safely, and dramatically change the economic outlook for the region.

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Dec. 4, 2017: Alaska Water Wars series examines resource development and Native communities

 

Dec. 5, 2017: As the Pebble Mine proposal picks up momentum in Southwest Alaska, Native Tribes keep up pressure against it

 

Dec. 6, 2017: Native people divided on development of Pebble Mine

 

Dec. 7, 2017: Some Alaska residents eager to take Pebble Mine jobs

 

Dec. 11, 2017: Native salmon fishers are skeptical of mining company’s promises of smaller, more environmentally friendly mine.

by Jim Kent

Having a positive role model is often seen as one of the major factors young people have in making positive choices in life and finding success. Some Lakota teenagers on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation are working to make a difference in the lives of students at the Red Cloud Indian School.

The reservation covers more than two million acres in southwestern South Dakota.  Statistics on the school’s website indicate Pine Ridge faces high unemployment and high rates of disease. Young people are at risk for substance use and attempting suicide. Yet, resiliency is found across communities on the Oglala Lakota Nation, which include grassroots efforts to encourage young people.

Alejandro Rama loves basketball and is a mentor with Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation’s mentorship program. When Rama was growing up he would frequently turn to his coach for answers about the game, school, or whatever was on his mind. At 16, Rama now understands how important it is to have a role model when you are young.

“I always want to be there for these little kids…’cause I know that they have problems at home,” said Rama. “Running the PE class, something positive for them to get away from the situations at home.”

Those kids are the students Rama mentors in grades K through 8. Being there for the boys and girls is not only good for them, but Rama finds a positive in it for himself when he is having his own doubts and difficult days.

“When I like start to struggle and just don’t really want to try as hard with school or sports or everything, I just remember I have kids looking up to me. And I still need to go hard for them,” said Rama.

Kenith Franks is the on-site director for the mentorship program, which is now two-years-old.

“We’re almost like a tier system of mentors almost where you have middle schoolers that the elementary kids are looking up to,” said Franks. “And then the high school kids that work for us kind of instill that whole, I guess, paradigm–that whole viewpoint of mentors all throughout the high school and all throughout the school here at Red Cloud.”

Franks believes the key to the program succeeding is to find others who are as passionate about mentoring as he is. Ensuring the mentorship does not just focus on sports is also important to him. There is a cultural component to the program, from elders teaching students about their traditions to talks about women’s rights.  What Franks would like all the students to learn is what helped him succeed when he moved off the reservation to attend college, is that in the end the most important part of who they are is their cultural identity.

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State of Change is a project in collaboration with High Country News and the Solutions Journalism Network. Ten New Mexico news organizations are examining the challenge of building resilient rural communities, and are looking at what some communities are doing to address a number of issues they face. National Native News is taking a look at how one group is building economic resiliency on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota through the grassroots community development corporation Thunder Valley. We’re also exploring what other rural communities across New Mexico, and the United States may learn from the organization’s programs.