Mining Could Pollute Alaska’s Chilkat Valley. A Tribe and Local Groups Defend their Way of Life.

Editor’s Note: The National Audubon Society played a prominent role in the formation of the Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve in 1982. Today Audubon Alaska partners with the communities of Klukwan and Haines—stops along the Southeast Alaska Birding Trail—to help protect this Important Bird Area, which Audubon scientists recently found is a major migration passage for many Alaska birds. Instead of focusing on our role in these efforts, with this story we want to uplift the work that our partners—people actually living in these communities—have been doing to protect the watershed and preserve their lifeways. 

Tlákw Aan (The Village That Has Always Been) 

The people of Klukwan chart the seasons based on what can be found in the Chilkat Valley and its network of interconnected waterways. In early spring, dip nets are used to catch eulachon, a small fish known as hooligan and nicknamed “candlefish” because they're so oily you can light them on fire. Then at low tide it’s time to gather red ribbon seaweed, which is washed thoroughly before being hung up to dry.  

“So it’s busy,” says Lani Strong Hotch, a textile artist and culture bearer in the Alaska Native community. “Then it’s time to harvest the stinging nettles and the cottonwood buds and all that for medicinal use.”  

This ancient village of about 100 people branches off Haines Highway along the banks of the Chilkat River. In the Tlingit language, the river’s name is Jilkaat Heeni, which translates to “Storage Container for Salmon,” and five species of salmon regularly run up the river during spawning season. This past June, Lani’s freezer was stocked with dried fish and hooligan oil.  

Her husband Jones Hotch serves as Tribal council president for the Chilkat Indian Village, Klukwan’s Tribal government. “We have enjoyed our way of life for centuries, seasonal harvests and living off the land, a river kitchen of salmon, picking our berries,” he says. “But now, we are eyeball to eyeball with losing that forever because of the proposed mine upriver from us.”  

That proposed mine is the Palmer Project, a controversial operation run by an international conglomerate that's exploring a mineral reserve for copper, zinc, and other metals along a tributary of the Klehini River, which flows into the Chilkat. Both rivers are now considered endangered because the project would cause harmful acid mine drainage. The Tribe and groups in the nearby town of Haines have fought for years to save the watershed from contamination.  

This threat comes at a time when the Chilkat Tlingit people have worked to preserve their cultural heritage, according to Daniel Klanott, a tour guide at the Jilkaat Kwaan Heritage Center. The center, which showcases Chilkat weaving, robes and carvings, Whale House artifacts, and replica clan houses, opened in 2016 to serve as a community space, revitalize the Tlingit language, and “help pass the knowledge,” Klanott says.  

Klanott worries about the economic impact the Palmer Project could have on the center and on the nearby Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve, which the National Audubon Society helped to establish in 1982 to protect the valley’s eagles, salmon, and their essential habitats in perpetuity. Today the preserve is a major tourist attraction and boasts the world’s largest congregation of Bald Eagles, with thousands taking advantage of the Chilkat River’s late salmon run and ice-free waters each fall. “I don't think people realize how much money would be lost if tourists stop coming here in the winter,” Klanott says. “Because, you know, it's all literally one big circle of life. Eagles eat the salmon; without the salmon, no eagles.”

“One of our Tlingit values is to recognize that we are stewards of the air, the land and the water,” says Lani, stressing the importance of protecting the natural heritage and ways of life along the Chilkat. “We’re all in this together. Bears, trees, salmon, us, eagles, everything. Some people who don't share that opinion say that God gave us dominion over the earth, but even a king has to take care of his people, right? You don't just run roughshod over everything, you know? And if we have dominion, that means we have responsibility. We have the responsibility of stewardship and taking good care of the environment for all our benefit.”

Jilkáat Aani Ka Héeni (Chilkat River Watershed) 

The area is no stranger to natural resource extraction. In 1979, Audubon sent biologists to conduct eagle research there after hearing of plans for logging and a different mine. What followed was a four-year study in conjunction with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that looked at how eagles could be protected while other resources were developed. Based on the findings, the Alaska state legislature established the Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve, which is closed to oil and gas leasing and mineral entry, and created the Haines State Forest, which is open to resource development. Today the preserve is a boon for local tourism, with tens of thousands of people visiting the area each year for the annual Bald Eagle Festival and seasonal birdwatching.  

A local prospector first discovered copper and zinc mineralization upriver in 1969, which led to some geophysical surveys and exploration drilling. Now Constantine Metal Resources, a Canadian company recently acquired by American Pacific Mining, wants to dig a mile-long tunnel to reach a volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) deposit beneath land managed by the Alaska Mental Health Trust and the Bureau of Land Management. This type of ore body is dangerous to mine or even explore because of the rock composition, according to Shannon Donahue, a Haines resident and the executive director of the Great Bear Foundation. “When it’s underground it’s inert, but once it’s exposed to air and water it undergoes chemical reactions and basically turns into battery acid,” she says.  

Wastewater discharged into groundwater at the exploration site will likely reach the tributaries of the Chilkat River because the waterways are so connected. Despite this concern, the company and officials responsible for public safety seem eager to advance this project through any underhanded means they can manage. Constantine has shown a remarkable lack of public input or transparency about project plans. They have repeatedly advanced development without formal notice to the Chilkat Indian Village, which has Tribal sovereignty and must consent to any decisions that impact their welfare, and actively deceived Tribal leaders about their activities.  

State officials have been complicit in this approach. In 2019, Alaska’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) issued a permit for tunnel construction that allowed Constantine to discharge wastewater into the ground, despite failing to meet state water quality standards. Earthjustice is representing Chilkat Indian Village, Takshanuk Watershed Council, SEACC, Lynn Canal Conservation, and Rivers Without Borders in calling for a more protective permit under the Clean Water Act. Last year, then-DEC Commissioner Jason Brune upheld the inadequate permit but supported the groups on corrective action trigger limits. The groups are now defending that decision in court against Constantine’s appeal, and some are also challenging DEC’s rulings on two other issues. Both appeals are in Juneau Superior Court.

Then in January, Governor Mike Dunleavy issued an executive order to eliminate the Alaska Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve Advisory Council, which would have transferred council duties to the state’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR). This attempt to remove local and Tribal input from the preserve’s management and weaken community oversight was described by the Governor’s office as being “in the best interest of efficient administration.” The Alaska Legislature did not agree and rejected the order in March.  

American Pacific Mining vice president Peter Mercer has said that the Palmer Project will be explored and evaluated for at least the next three to five years. But Constantine is already developing the infrastructure for mining, and construction for their exploratory tunnel alone could do lasting damage. “If the project is allowed to advance, it could potentially pollute our entire river system,” Donahue says. “And almost everybody in this valley participates in some form of subsistence activity—fishing, hunting, collecting berries—so it would absolutely change the ways of life of the communities here.”  

Haa Kusteeyí (Our Way of Life)  

Derek Poinsette calls the Chilkat Valley “the land of superlatives.” He’s the executive director of Takshanuk Watershed Council, whose office is on a gravel dead-end road in Haines, about 20 miles south of Klukwan. Hiking trails beside the building’s parking lot take visitors to the banks of the Chilkat Estuary where the river meets the Pacific Ocean. 

Poinsette has a point: the valley is known for having some of the most stunning scenery in the Inside Passage, with ice-capped mountain chains and braided rivers that take on a teal blue color in the summer months. Temperate rainforest meets subarctic tundra in a unique overlapping of biomes. These conditions make the Chilkat Valley one of the most biologically diverse regions in the state, according to Stacie Evans, an avid birder and the science director at Takshanuk Watershed Council. “We have the most mammal species here in Alaska, the most vascular plant species here in Alaska, the most breeding bird species here in Alaska,” she says.  

Kluwan and Haines are both stops along the Southeast Alaska Birding Trail, which is primarily overseen by Audubon Alaska. Audubon recognized the area as a state-priority level Important Bird Area (IBA) in 2008 based on the large number of Bald Eagles in the fall and nesting Trumpeter Swans in the summer.   

In a new Migration Passage Analysis, Audubon scientists found that the IBA is also a major migration passage for many Alaska birds. During spring migration, one area within the valley sees 18 percent of the total North American population of Surf Scoters. The report also showed globally significant concentrations of several other species, including Barrow’s Goldeneyes, Western Sandpipers, and Bonaparte’s Gulls.  

This all hinges on the salmon population. Fish run in the valley throughout most of the year thanks to warm upwellings that keep parts of the river from freezing. “This past winter we had salmon chum mostly, but cohos and sockeye too, probably into January,” Poinsette says. “We had a record chum run according to the Department of Fish and Game last year. The banks were just beaches of carcasses, there were so many fish, and there were still bears out in the winter.” Those carcasses end up contributing food and fertilizer for the entire ecosystem.  

Looking ahead, Evans pointed out that the valley is becoming more valuable for birds, fish, and other wildlife as the world sees widespread biodiversity loss and temperature rise. “We have a lot of glacially fed streams as well as groundwater that just temper things so that the water is not as sensitive to air temperature,” she says. “The fact that this place is still maintaining its biodiversity and abundance in the face of all these things is spectacular. And we’re going to need to protect these places as refugia.” 

Deishú (End of the Trail) 

Haines sits on the northern end of the Chilkat Peninsula, near where the river empties into the inlet. Many restaurants, bakeries, and other establishments operate based on seasonal changes and cruise ship schedules. The Hammer Museum, a single-story cottage close to the terminus of Main Street, is open from May to September. One Haines resident described business hours in town as being “aspirational.” 

Rose Fudge, the co-owner of a small seafood company called Shoreline Wild Salmon, pointed out that fish sustain the valley’s local economy. “The Chilkat River is the second largest coho salmon stock in Southeast Alaska,” she says, “so as a small business owner, I absolutely want to make sure that those salmon are protected so that folks can continue to harvest them and eat them for years to come.” 

Fudge is a Haines-based organizer for the new Chilkat Forever effort to help support the industries that are already in the valley. In this role, she’s working under the leadership of the Chilkat Indian Village to engage with people in the commercial fishing, small business, and tourism sectors and learn about their concerns and see how the group can best address them.  

“This is not an anti-mine campaign. This is a pro-river campaign,” Fudge says. “This is about protecting what's here as far as the way of life, the watershed, and the current industries that are supporting our economy.”  

As it so happens, the local economy is doing well overall, with room for growth. Haines is a port town where cruise ships dock, the Alaska Marine Highway system ferries passengers between Juneau and Skagway, and a small boat harbor offers permanent and transient moorage. Allowing Constantine to pollute the river system with the proposed Palmer Mine would be disastrous for related industries and any plans for expansion, in addition to the subsistence lifestyle the residents of Haines and Klukwan hold dear.  

“We're getting stronger in our letter writing and our presentations,” Jones Hotch says when reflecting on how the campaign against the mine has evolved over the years. “We’ve stepped into being more specific and everything we have to be. And after we win, our reward is like 15 years from now. Our way of life still continuing. That's going to be our reward.” 

For updates and to support the Tribe’s Chilkat Forever movement, join the group’s newsletter here. 

A correction was made on October 10, 2024: An earlier version of this story misstated the Palmer Project timeline. According to a representative of Constantine Metal Resources, the project is in the exploration stage for at least the next three to five years, not “five years away from full-scale mining” as originally stated.