"ANILCA"

Subsistence, a practice which past generations participated in without question, has become a complex legal puzzle — “a very unsettled and unsettling [legal landscape] for Alaska Native people,” according to one lawyer who has spent decades working on subsistence cases.

Richard Peterson, the President of Central Council Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, says he wasn’t surprised by the state’s lawsuit, but he was disappointed. 

Two months ago, a federal judge said the trade was illegal because it violated two separate federal laws, the Administrative Procedure Act and the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act.

The National Park Service is rescinding a ban within Alaska’s national preserves on some controversial state-sanctioned predator harvests of bears and wolves. Park service Alaska spokesperson Pete Christian said although practices like killing bears and wolves in dens run counter to the Park Service’s mission, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, which created or…

“What the secretary failed to do was any environmental analysis, any public process related to this actual exchange of lands,” attorney Katie Strong said at the environmental law firm Trustees for Alaska.

The Southeast Alaska Subsistence Regional Advisory Council has recommended increasing the wolf harvest quota to 30 percent of the population on Prince of Wales Island. Its action runs contrary to advice from Alaska Department Fish and Game, conservationists and the council’s own staff.

There’s only one park in America with canine rangers: Denali National Park. The use of sled dogs is older than the park itself. In the summers, the dogs serve as ambassadors. During the winter months, they ferry park employees through areas closed to motorized vehicles.

Young’s amendment to the Interior Department spending bill passed the House Tuesday by voice vote after a brief debate.

The recently published book explores an often overlooked chapter in Alaska’s story.