The last time Rochelle Adams exercised her rights to subsistence fish in her ancestral waters was in 2019. A Gwich’in leader from the villages of Beaver and Fort Yukon, she has been at the forefront of the fight against oil and gas in the Yukon Flats. Salmon that once returned each year to spawn in their natal streams along the Yukon’s vast tributaries have declined so much that fisheries managers closed all salmon fishing on the Yukon River, a glacier-fed river that has nourished Alaska Native communities with salmon since time immemorial, demonstrating the importance of Alaska's Indigenous resistance to extractive practices.

This spring, Adams spoke at a rally just outside the governor’s so-called Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference, which featured President Donald Trump’s energy policies and “I love fossil fuels” pins.

The Fairbanks Climate Action Coalition (FCAC), Native Movement, Stand Up Alaska, Alaska Community Action on Toxics, Northern Alaska Environmental Center, and community members showed up to protest. The wind whipped our hair as we chanted, with banners that read: “Alaska is not for sale” and “Defend the Sacred. Extraction is not our way of life.”

Adam’s voice boomed over the mic:

The Gwich’in Nation has been protecting these lands since I was little, my whole entire life, the Gwich’in People have stood to protect these lands, and we stand today, and we say we don’t want Alaska opened up for [sale] as a warehouse. We want to protect our lands. We want to continue our ways of life. We want to keep fishing….We’ve already had cyanide spilled on the Yukon River. What chance do our salmon have now?

Indigenous, community-led resistance to the Trump administration’s aggressive push to extract oil and gas in the Arctic and along the Yukon draws clear connections between climate justice and local struggles to protect land, water, and food systems. The decline of salmon is linked to broader cascades of harm—from climate change disrupting ocean food webs to industrial practices like overfishing, commercial bycatch, and other extractive practices.

While the fight to protect the Yukon Flats continues, Alaskan movements hold tremendous momentum and potential to lead a just transition away from fossil fuels. Alaska is warming four times faster than much of the world, but rather than a “canary in the coal mine,” I see its grassroots climate justice movement as a bellwether for what’s possible. Rooted in Indigenous sovereignty and stewardship, Alaska’s grassroots resistance to drilling is a call to imagine a world built on collective care—not extraction.

Read the full article about resistance and redistribution in Alaska by Margi Dashevsky at Nonprofit Quarterly.