Subsistence on the Edge of the World: How Alaskan Communities Are Responding to Mining Expansion

In North West Alaska, the Ambler Road Mining Project is a proposed 211-mile stretch of road that would connect several highly productive mines and enable mass mineral extraction. The road would cut through the Gates of the Arctic National Park mountain range, land that’s federally owned and protected by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA). The construction of the Ambler Mining road would potentially have a large impact on the protected, roadless land, which is traversed by thousands of Caribou and other animals that are important subsistence resources for the North Western Alaskan Inuit population. Although the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA), the organization that has spearheaded the project, has made several claims about the road's benefits, many unknowns remain about the road's true cost. The project asks what tensions exist in Alaskan communities when reconciling centuries-old subsistence practices and the promise of modernity.