Today the U.S. Department of Interior and Corps of Engineers acknowledged significant legal defects in the decisions to approve the Ambler Road through Interior Alaska, announcing they will suspend the federal rights-of-way for the Ambler road project. Tanana Chiefs Conference (TCC) and area Tribes thank the Biden administration for recognizing the legal defects and they urge the State of Alaska to drop the road proposal altogether.
“The 200+ mile Ambler road represents a fundamental threat to our people, our subsistence way of life and our cultural resources,” said Brian Ridley, TCC President. “We appreciate that the federal government recognized the flaws in the previous administration’s decisions to permit the road. We believe any objective review of the full impacts of this project, including the mining that it would facilitate, would demonstrate that constructing this road through the heart of our traditional lands would be a terrible idea. We urge the State of Alaska to drop the road proposal altogether.”
“We have lived on these lands for thousands of years,” said Frank Thompson, First Chief of Evansville, “Our lives here are only possible because of the subsistence resources that also exist here. The previous administration ignored our knowledge of subsistence resources that exist on these lands and the grave threat to those resources posed by the proposed industrial road. We therefore thank the Biden administration for standing up for our people and our right to continue to live on these lands with our resources intact, and we ask the State of Alaska to follow suit and stop pursuing this road.”
For more information about the Ambler Road Project and the impact it will have on traditional native lands visit: Protect the Koyukuk River – Tanana Chiefs Conference