Inside the Indigenous Fight to Save Alaska’s Bristol Bay

Alannah Hurley, the executive director of the United Tribes of Bristol Bay, has been awarded the 2026 Goldman Environmental Prize for North America. The prize recognizes her leadership in the effort to protect Bristol Bay from large-scale industrial mining. The conflict centered on the region began in 2001, when a Canadian mining company proposed the development of a massive gold and copper mine at the headwaters of Bristol Bay on the Alaska Peninsula. The project, known as the Pebble Mine, was designed to be the largest open-pit mine in North America. Ecological and Cultural Significance Bristol Bay is home to the largest sockeye salmon run in the world. These salmon are essential to a thriving ecosystem and serve as a critical cultural and economic lifeblood for native Alaskans, who have stewarded the land and water for thousands of years. To prevent the environmental risks associated with the proposed mine, Indigenous communities formed a coalition with commercial fishermen and the conservation community. This alliance worked to halt the project and protect the pristine water system of the peninsula. These efforts resulted in a significant legal victory in 2023, when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a veto of the proposed Pebble Mine. The Landscape of Bristol Bay Hurley, who uses the Yup’ik name Acaq, describes the region as a place of untouched beauty that captures the diverse geography of Alaska. Bristol Bay is an extremely special place. It has all the different types of terrain in Alaska, in one place. Where I live, at the mouth of the Nushagak and Wood River, we have everything from tundra and wetlands to mountains, freshwater lakes, freshwater rivers, the muddy waters of Nushagak Bay, [and] the beautiful, crystal-clear ocean waters as you go west towards Togiak and Twin Hills.Alannah Hurley According to Hurley, the area remains sufficiently pristine that residents can still hunt, fish, and gather berries directly from the land.