The Department of the Interior has formalized three broad partnership agreements with Alaska Native tribes, including efforts to save the Pacific salmon that Native Americans have relied on for thousands of years.
The partnership, announced Wednesday at a signing ceremony in Anchorage, Alaska, is part of the Biden administration’s efforts to improve federal relations with American Indians and Alaska Native governments and incorporate indigenous knowledge into the management of the nation’s public lands. It advances the initiative.
The centerpiece of the deal is the Gravel to Gravel Keystone Initiative, a co-management partnership between the Department of the Interior and a confederation of eight Alaska Native tribes that have lived in interior Alaska for centuries. .
The goal of the Gravel to Gravel partnership is the recovery and protection of Pacific salmon in the Yukon, Kuskokwim and Norton Sound regions. The area is approximately 420,000 square miles and includes the 1,980-mile Yukon River and the 702-mile Kuskokwim River, which flow into the Bering Sea.
