The Interior Department Wednesday announced the transfer of 28,000 acres of federal land in Alaska to further the Trump administration’s goal of developing more natural resources in the state.
The conveyance from the Bureau of Land Management to NANA Regional Corporation, Inc., adds to the Alaska Native Corporation’s land ownership in the region and could help reignite a controversial mining project.
Bloomberg Gov one of those “big money for subscriptions” outfits so the article is paywalled. Good news.. Natives getting land back. Potentially bad news for some.. they might not like what the Native Alaskans do with it.
But that’s sovereignty for you.
Interesting project, and a bit controversial in terms of environmental impact (several environmental organizations oppose the Ambler Road Project. The proposed road comes off the Dalton Highway (North Slope Haul Road) a few miles S of Coldfoot and goes roughly due west to the village of Ambler, not far E of the NANA Red Dog Mine (zinc), E of Kotzebue (on the Chukchi Sea coast). Here’s a web site with a map: https://dnr.alaska.gov/mlw/ambler-road/
There’s lots of information on this road, which the Biden administration apparently tried to cancel.
JB
Here’s more from North of 60:
https://www.miningnewsnorth.com/story/2025/07/18/news-nuggets/ambler-district-land-transferred-to-nana/9176.html
The land at issue is indeed at the business end of the proposed Ambler Road, which is now, as it were, back on track.
Thanks for this Rich!
“NANA’s land selections were made many years ago by our Elders and past leadership,” said NANA President and CEO John Lincoln. “We look forward to continuing to work closely with our federal government on the conveyance of the remaining 100,000+ acres of selected lands and on other issues of great importance to our state and nation.”
I wonder why all the land wasn’t transferred at once (was this ANILCA?)