- by Graham Holton
- The Guardian
- Issue #2135
Beaver Creek and the White Mountains, Alaska. Photo: Bob Wick – flickr.com (CC BY 2.0)
US President Donald Trump’s flurry of Executive Orders has had a lot of attention since 20 January, with Executive Orders affecting Diversity Equity and Inclusion policies, abolishing USAID (see Guardian 2134), and ending US membership of the World Health Organisation all widely condemned.
Less attention has been paid to Executive Orders impacting Native tribal nation citizenship status and federal funding. Two weeks after the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act, Trump launched a series of executive orders and federal layoffs that have affected billions of dollars in tribal funding.
Tribes in Indian Country rely on the transformational self-determination act, Public Law 638, to help fund hospitals, health clinics, education, climate projects, agriculture, law enforcement, firefighting and other programs under the United States’ trust and treaty obligations. The Trump administration ordered a freeze of federal grants and loans. The freeze was rescinded, but tribes report ongoing problems accessing these funds. Federal layoffs will affect the Department of the Interior, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Bureau of Indian Education employees, and the office of assistant secretary of Indian Affairs.
Trump’s Executive Order, ‘Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential,’ declares that the federal government will “immediately review all Department of the Interior guidance regarding the taking of Alaska Native lands into trust and all Public Land Orders withdrawing lands for selection by Alaska Native Corporations to determine if any such agency action should be revoked.” The Trump administration wants increased natural resource development and a loosening of the federal government’s reign over Alaska’s lands.
The Executive Order removes restrictions within the National Petroleum Reserve of Alaska, and will restore cancelled oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. It expedites permitting and leasing for oil and gas production on Alaska’s North Slope, and will open up 80 per cent of the 23-million-acre reserve to oil and gas leasing.
LNG development and the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System will worsen the climate crisis, directly impacting tribal people. In Alaska, warming temperatures are thawing permafrost, threatening infrastructure, and causing devastating coastal erosion. It’s estimated that oil and gas development in the Arctic Refuge would release 7.7 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide.
Sophia Grande in the Alaska Wilderness League writes: “The struggle to protect Alaska’s wild spaces is a fight for the future of the planet, for the rights of Indigenous peoples, and for the climate stability that we desperately need.”
Ash Nicole LaMont in Honor the Earth writes: “It’s time for our Tribal leaders to stand up and lead, to assert our sovereignty, protect our lands, waters, and resources on behalf of all life, and prevent the federal government from veering toward tyranny.”
Conservation protections in the Western Arctic protect key subsistence resources values were supported by strong science and Indigenous knowledge. The Tanana Chiefs Conference (TCC), an Alaska Native non-profit corporation which advances Tribal self-determination and regional unity, is closely monitoring Trump’s Executive Orders. The TCC advocates for the protection of subsistence resources.
Environmental groups have filed a lawsuit to stop the Trump administration from opening up vast new areas to offshore oil and gas drilling. The lawsuit was filed by Earthjustice, a nonprofit law firm, on behalf of several groups. Kristen Miller, executive director of the Alaska Wilderness League, said there is no need to open up Alaska for more oil and gas production. US oil production was at a record high of 13.5 million barrels in October 2024.
Trump is obviously on the side of extraction. It remains to be seen if the US court system can restrain him.
