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Alaska Natives and state leaders lauded a landmark move by the Trump administration to transfer 28,000 acres of land in the Arctic to a consortium of Natives after the Biden administration balked at state officials’ wishes to develop the so-called Ambler Mining Road and claimed they instead were protecting the locals.
By refusing to allow the haul-road to be built between Coldfoot – a remote outpost on the “Ice Road Trucker” Dalton Highway between Deadhorse and Fairbanks – and the isolated community of Ambler about 220 miles westward, mining and other development was mooted by the feds despite both Juneau’s and the Natives’ wishes.
Alaska Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a vocal proponent of responsible development of the Last Frontier’s energy potential, praised President Donald Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum after the land transfer was announced.
“[It] demonstrates how the Trump administration is prioritizing both local control and responsible natural resource development,” Dunleavy told Fox News Digital on Monday.
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“As governor, I look forward to working with Secretary Burgum and his staff on delivering federal lands due to the state under the Alaska Statehood Act,” he said. The 1958 law signed by President Dwight Eisenhower both presaged Alaskan statehood one year later and gave the 49th state greater control over development of its natural resources.
“This bodes well for both the state and our Native Corporations,” he said, as “NANA” – the recipient of the land transfer – is owned by 15,000 Iñupiaq residents who live in and around Kotzebue, Ambler and northwestern Alaska.
He said the move was “long overdue,” as many Alaska Natives support responsible development of ANWR, Ambler (called “Ivisaappaat” by the Natives), and other lands they share with such untapped resources – despite claims to the contrary from the Lower 48.
John Lincoln, NANA’s president, said in a statement to Anchorage’s NBC affiliate that the community is also “grateful” to the Trump administration and the state’s congressional delegation for their work.
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“NANA’s land selections [under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA)] were made many years ago by our Elders and past leadership,” Lincoln said, further praising Sens. Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski for their pro-development advocacy in Washington.
“We look forward to continuing to work closely with our federal government on the conveyance of the remaining 100,000+ acres of selected lands and on other issues of great importance to our state and nation.”
NANA’s position appeared to conflict with Biden administration claims that Native communities would be hurt by or might oppose the Ambler project moving forward.
In April 2024, the Biden administration reversed a first-Trump-administration permit for 211 miles of road, which was compounded in June of that year by a “record of decision” from the Bureau of Land Management claiming environmental risks to caribou and fish and formally denying the permit.
In a last-minute move before Trump took office, the Biden administration tripled down in January and asked the Army Corps of Engineers to at minimum suspend the Ambler project’s Clean Water Act permitting.
The administration also alleged negative impacts on the public health of Native communities, including “stress, subsistence/food insecurity and potential exposure to toxins [that] would disproportionately negatively affect… Alaska Native villages in and near the project area,” according to the Alaska Beacon.
Burgum told Fox News Digital the Ambler Mining Road land transfer was the Trump administration “delivering on its promises.”
He said Interior will continue to cut “red tape,” honor agreements with Native communities and reduce federal barriers to resource development.
AIDEA, the state’s business development and export authority, cited in a 2019 proposal for the Ambler Mining Road that large caches of zinc, lead, silver, gold and cobalt could be mined, and that construction of the three-phase road project itself would create 3,000 jobs in addition to thousands from multiple planned mine prospects themselves.
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