Associate Professor Hiroko Ikuta A study published May 25 in the Journal of Anthropological Research analyzes the region\u2019s complex debates surrounding resource development and cultural survival. It finds that Alaska Native communities hold multiple, often conflicting roles in the mine\u2019s development.<\/p>\n \u201cTo understand the situation today, we have to go back to 1971,\u201d says Hiroko Ikuta, Associate Professor at Kyushu University\u2019s International Student Center and the study\u2019s first author. That year, the U.S. Congress passed the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA), transferring 11% of land and resource rights to Alaska Native peoples. The law, however, required them to organize as for-profit corporations, turning Indigenous individuals into shareholders.<\/p>\n With gold prices surging and most permits approved, the Donlin project is now closer to a final decision than ever. If the mine proceeds, Native corporations would receive billions in revenue while local residents gain priority access to jobs.<\/p>\n Yet alongside the cash economy runs a parallel system of culture and survival.<\/p>\n \u201cSubsistence activities such as hunting and fishing are not hobbies in this region,\u201d explains Ikuta, drawing on two decades of living in Alaska. In Western Alaska, these practices are essential to daily life, with annual harvests exceeding 172 kilograms per person\u2014roughly three times the average annual meat and seafood consumption in Japan. \u201cFor them, salmon, moose, and other wild foods are as important as rice is across East Asia.\u201d<\/p>\n One of the major concerns surrounding the Donlin project is its impact on this subsistence system. With limited road access, transportation would rely on barges along the Kuskokwim River, potentially disturbing salmon spawning grounds.<\/p>\n The extraction method adds another layer of risk. Cyanide leaching, used to separate gold from rock, leaves behind toxic waste stored in large tailing dams. Such dams have failed at mines elsewhere, and some residents fear the environmental risks are being understated. Several local communities have filed lawsuits demanding further review.<\/p>\n Yet community opinions cannot be easily divided into “support” or “opposition”, as they experience the risks differently. For example, downstream Yup\u2019ik communities, who rely heavily on salmon for winter food storage, are most concerned about water contamination, while upstream Northern Dene communities focus more on land-based ecological impacts. Shareholders living in cities like Anchorage, meanwhile, stand to benefit from corporate dividends while relying little on subsistence practices.<\/p>\n These divisions can even run through a single person. \u201cThe same person can be a corporate shareholder, a subsistence harvester, and a parent worrying for future generations,\u201d says Ikuta. \u201cThese identities do not cancel each other out. They collide and coexist.”<\/p>\n Ikuta is currently continuing her research on how mine tailings affect subsistence hunting and fishing, hoping to provide communities with more objective data for future decision-making.<\/p>\n As resource development and environmental pressures, including climate change, mount on traditional lands, Indigenous communities worldwide must increasingly navigate the tension between economic opportunity, sovereignty, and responsibility.<\/p>\n \u201cIn Alaska, there have been cases where communities successfully balanced development, cultural survival, and environmental stewardship,\u201d says Ikuta. \u201cI don\u2019t have an answer on what sustainable development should look like for Indigenous peoples. However, any approach may need to consider the diversity of Indigenous communities, their perspectives on well-being, and how externally imposed frameworks shape outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n Hiroko Ikuta, Associate Professor<\/a>
\nInternational Student Center<\/span><\/strong>
\nFukuoka, Japan\u2014Sitting at the northwestern edge of North America, Alaska stretches across a vast Arctic land of wilderness, culture, and wealth beneath the surface. Among its resources is the Donlin Gold deposit, located in southwestern Alaska\u2019s Kuskokwim River basin. As one of the world\u2019s largest undeveloped gold mines, it holds an estimated 39 million ounces worth more than 0 billion at today\u2019s prices.<\/p>\nResearch-related inquiries<\/h4>\n
\nInternational Student Center<\/a>
\nContact information can also be found in the full release<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Japanese researchers find that simple \u2019support\u2019 or \u2019opposition\u2019 cannot capture the full complexity of Alaska Native communities\u2019 decision-making Associate Professor Hiroko Ikuta International Student Center Fukuoka, Japan\u2014Sitting at the northwestern edge of North America, Alaska stretches across a vast Arctic land of wilderness, culture, and wealth beneath the surface. Among its resources is the Donlin […]","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,22,23,27,28,29,32,33,35,37],"tags":[43],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sdgs.kyushu-u.ac.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31378"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sdgs.kyushu-u.ac.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sdgs.kyushu-u.ac.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sdgs.kyushu-u.ac.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sdgs.kyushu-u.ac.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31378"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sdgs.kyushu-u.ac.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31599,"href":"https:\/\/sdgs.kyushu-u.ac.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31378\/revisions\/31599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sdgs.kyushu-u.ac.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sdgs.kyushu-u.ac.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sdgs.kyushu-u.ac.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}