ANCHORAGE, AK – The Department of the Interior has signed three landmark agreements with Alaska Native tribes and corporations to advance co-stewardship on public lands and waters. Two agreements between federal agencies and Alaska Native tribes and the Tanana Chiefs Conference will advance efforts to safeguard salmon within the Yukon, Kuskokwim, and Norton Sound regions through the Department’s Gravel to Gravel Initiative. A third agreement will improve management of easements that provide access to public lands and waters across privately owned Ahtna lands.
In partnership with tribes, Indigenous leaders, governmental agencies and community partners, the Department’s Gravel to Gravel Keystone Initiative, created through funding from President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, is bringing Indigenous knowledge and the best available science together to inform plans for collective action to support resilient ecosystems and communities in the region and make immediate investments to respond to the salmon crisis. The agreements add to over $44 million already invested towards the initiative.
“Since time immemorial, the Yukon, Kuskokwim and Norton Sound regions have sustained Alaska Native people, fish, birds and other wildlife, supporting strong and resilient communities and traditional ways of life,” said Secretary Deb Haaland. “Thanks to historic resources provided through President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, our Gravel to Gravel Keystone Initiative is centering Indigenous knowledge as we work to safeguard salmon, communities and cultures in this region. By bringing together diverse perspectives and expertise, we can create effective strategies that benefit salmon and all living things who rely on them.”
Salmon in the Yukon, Kuskokwim and Norton Sound regions in Alaska hold deep cultural, subsistence and ecosystem significance. Traditional Indigenous foods derived from the plant and animal life of these unique regions remain vital to food security and the vibrant cultures of the more than 100 Alaska Native tribes who have stewarded and lived for thousands of years in reciprocity with the land, waters, and animals of the region. Due to climate change impacts, the absence of salmon has negatively impacted the cultural and spiritual health and well-being of the Indigenous peoples who have relied on salmon for more than 10,000 years. The Gravel to Gravel Keystone Initiative partners are working to address these profound ecosystem collapses and the salmon crisis through a holistic approach that prioritizes collaboration and shared responsibility.
Gravel to Gravel Partnership Agreement
The first agreement formalizes a new partnership that will support efforts to champion habitat restoration and resilient ecosystems for Pacific salmon throughout the entirety of the salmon lifecycle – from gravel to gravel, where salmon life begins and ends – by bringing together science and Indigenous knowledge.
Signatories at the event at the seventh annual Alaska Tribal Unity Gathering in Anchorage included the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), Bureau of Land Management (BLM), National Park Service (NPS), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), along with the Association of Village Council Presidents, Council of Athabascan Tribal Governments, Kawerak Incorporated, Nome Eskimo Community, Native Village of Eagle, Tanana Chiefs Conference (TCC), Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, and the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. Signatories were joined by staff from the Office of the Secretary.
