“I think they should be more aware of what’s coming down the river, because it’s not staying up there on their territory… It’s coming down on my territory, my tribe’s territory, all southeast territory, and we have to deal with it.” - Cindy Wagner, Haida/Tsimshian, executive director of the Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission on the proposed mine developments
Louis Wagner Jr. pulls up ooligan nets on the Unuk River in southeastern Alaska in March 2024. He and his wife, Cindy Wagner, have fished in the area for years. (Photo by Sonia Luokkala/courtesy of the Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission)
By Miles Morrisseau, ICT
The salmon and the ooligan that spawn in the Unuk and Stikine rivers have no say in the expansion of mining operations in British Columbia. Neither do the Alaskan tribes that live on the same rivers.
The power lies across the border in Canada, where the mining companies and the provincial, federal and Tahltan Nation authorities have joined forces in a modern-day gold rush to expand the Red Chris Mine at the headwaters of the Stikine River. Plans are also underway to restart the idled Eskay Creek Mine on the Unuk River.
Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, and former U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola, D-Alaska, listen to a question at a candidate forum held Aug. 27, 2026, by the Alaska Oil and Gas Association. The Alaska Senate race is considered critical to control of the body, which currently has a Republican majority. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
By Yereth Rosen
In their first faceoff since the Aug. 18 primary election, Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan used the term “Lower 48 liberal” or some variation of it 16 times to attack his opponent, Democrat Mary Peltola.
A voter joins a line of voters waiting to cast their ballots on Aug. 15, 2022, at the state Division of Elections office in Anchorage. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
By Corinne Smith
The Alaska Supreme Court issued a fast-tracked ruling on Thursday, affirming a lower court’s decision that the Alaska Division of Elections’ language for an elections overhaul ballot measure is “true and impartial,” but ordered the division to make one additional change.
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