We tackle big, regional issues that impact Interior and Arctic Alaska and beyond, and remain a grassroots, Alaska-based nonprofit. To give us strength in this time of extreme challenges—where it feels like all the progress we’ve made is being rolled back—we need to remember why we do this work.
We partner closely with citizen action group Protect the Kobuk, and member Ruth Iten recently shared this story with us:
In the late 1980s, I spent September at the Black’s fish camp on the upper Kobuk River. This camp was two bends down from the mouth of the Maniilaq River where my husband and I were to spend the winter. The Maniilaq is one of the tributaries that would be crossed by a bridge if the Ambler Road were to be built. As a newlywed city girl, I found my soul in the rhythms of fish camp life. Harvesting salmon, Sheefish, and white fish—processing by cutting and hanging to dry and keeping the dry fish from spoiling by turning and protecting with tarps was our daily work. We ate meals of fish, caribou, and waterfowl prepared over the wood stove in a white wall tent set up on the river bank. The work started at eight in the morning and was not over until ten at night, when the dog teams were fed and the children put to bed. It was a lifestyle of community—caring, sharing, and hard work every day. Rewarded by the bounty from the river. It is for Mildred Black and her sister Nina Harvey who accepted me into their camps and taught me what I now know that I am fighting for to protect the Kobuk.
Ruth took a petition for No Ambler Road by dogsled to communities along the Kobuk River. The Bureau of Land Management received over 135,000 comments calling to deny permits for Ambler Road, and in 2024 that’s what they did. This is what community action looks like. The love expressed by the people who live in Interior and Arctic Alaska, and the people who have visited there, is what drives the movement to keep harmful extractive industry out of these places.
Recurring donors (sustaining donors) provide monthly gifts to the Northern Center and allow us to better predict our month-to-month donor giving. In this time of extreme environmental risk to the arctic and subarctic, will you set up a monthly donation of $25 or more?
Please help us reach our goal so we can continue to tackle the big, far-reaching environmental risks. We deeply appreciate you considering making a contribution today. Thank you!
Elisabeth Balster Dabney
Executive Director
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Featured Image: The Kobuk River, seen from Shungnak. Photo by Katie McClellan
