Canadian mines a threat to Alaskan Indigenous rights – National Observer

June 7 2024

This story was originally published by High Country News and appears here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

In Southeast Alaska, winter fades and the return of the ooligan (also known as eulachon) in the Unuk River marks the arrival of spring. Ooligan, sm’algyax, is the fish that saves. It forms the basis of an entire regional ecosystem and it is why our people have thrived here since time immemorial. The Unuk flows through the history of our origin and migration, its place names reflecting our ancestors and events critical to our history.

For more than 10,000 years, my family has upheld the sacred duty of stewarding the river. Decades ago, the Unuk was glacier blue. I remember the ooligan coming in, their fluid, silvery forms filling the river. It seemed as though you could cross the water upon their backs. In the 1990s, mining operations began near the headwaters, across the border, in Canada. Ooligan slowly diminished. By 2001, only one fish was observed in the river, causing the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to close the fishery that our communities depended on. This was a devastating blow to our people. Following the closure of the old Eskay Creek Mine, in 2008, the fish started to return gradually, but they haven’t recovered to previous levels.

Read More: https://www.nationalobserver.com/2024/06/07/news/Alaska-Unuk-River-mining-pollution