Thursday, September 18, 2025

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Photo: Salmon being pulled from a gillnet in June 2025. (Terese Vicente / KRITFC)

The State of Alaska wants the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether rural residents – which includes many Alaska Native people – should maintain subsistence fishing preference in the waterways of federal lands.

KYUK’s Sage Smiley reports that, last month, a panel of federal appeals court judges sided with the federal government in its lawsuit against the state over salmon management on the Kuskokwim River.

The feds sued the state after clashes over fish management on the lower river in 2021 and 2022.

Indigenous groups including the Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission and the Alaska Federation of Natives signed onto the case in support of the federal government, which is advocating for a rural Alaska preference.

But on Monday, the state asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the case, arguing that federal law shows that the state has the authority over its own waterways, even on federal land.

On Tuesday, the New Mexico congressional delegation and Pueblo Leaders held a press conference outside the Capitol in Washington D.C.

They urged Congress and the Trump administration to continue upholding protections for Chaco Canyon against oil and gas drilling.

KUNM’s Jeanette DeDios (Jicarilla Apache and Diné) has more.

In 2023, former Interior Secretary Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) created a 10-mile buffer zone for Chaco Canyon National Historical Park that prevents any oil and gas drilling for 20 years. But with a new presidential administration, the buffer zone is being reconsidered.

Among the Pueblo Leaders that spoke, Governor of Santa Ana Myron Armijo urged acting Interior Secretary Doug Burgman to visit Chaco Canyon.

“It’s a very sacred place. I’ve witnessed it, our ancestors are there. When we pray, you can feel it. You can feel it in your body, that they’re talking to you. They’re talking to us.”

U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-NM) reaffirmed that Burgman had committed to a meeting with tribal leaders.

“You told me you would, live up to your word, live up to the commitment you made in committee when I asked you.”

U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) discussed a past visit by former Interior Secretary David Bernhardt to Chaco Canyon.

“He realized, as a result of meaningfully consulting with tribal leadership in that place, that Chaco Canyon is not a museum. It is a living cultural landscape with direct relationships with the Pueblos today, and that’s the difference.”

While Pueblo Leaders are committed to preserving the cultural site, the Navajo Nation sued the Interior Department in January in an attempt to reverse the buffer zone to 5 miles instead of 10, noting that it harmed tribal members who depend on oil and gas drilling in the area.

 

To offset declining crab and salmon fisheries, communities along Alaska’s coast have turned to kelp, or seaweed.

The Sun’aq Tribe of Kodiak won a milestone $2.3 million dollar grant to process locally grown kelp.

The tribe owns and operates Kodiak Island WildSource, the only seafood plant in town that processes kelp.

Its main products are frozen and smoked salmon, cod, and halibut.

Wildsource president Chris Sannito says since adapting its facility to dry and preserve kelp, it’s hard to keep up with demand.

“Some years, it’s really a bumper crop. I mean when the lighting was right and the seed stock was good, it really grows well in Kodiak.”

Sannito says the new processing plant should boost the tribe’s earnings, and diversify the local economy.

“It’s the tribe that has the vision, enough resources and enough, kinda creativity, to put something like this together. Hopefully, it’ll be a great success.”

Sannito says when kelp is added to soil, it absorbs water and helps plants withstand drought. It also encourages root growth and is a sought-after ingredient in the emerging, “biostimulant” industry.

Alaska Mariculture Cluster awarded the grant.

It received its funding through the U.S. Economic Development Administration’s Build Back Better program.

 

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