Grandmothers Growing Goodness Condemns Trump’s Day One Executive Order Threatening Communities, Wildlife, and Health in the Western Arctic

(Nuiqsut, Alaska)—Yesterday, President Trump announced an executive order that directs the Secretary of Interior to roll back protections for Special Areas in the Western Arctic and turn back the clock four years to reinstate plans to drill in the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area. This move is dangerous and undermines the Biden Administration’s years of engaging with Tribes and building a sound scientific record that underscored the necessity of protecting special areas, wildlife, and Native Alaskans in the Western Arctic. 

This executive order follows the Biden Administration’s efforts last year to protect Teshekpuk Lake and other important subsistence and wildlife areas in the National Petroleum Reserve Alaska (NPR-A). Additionally, President Biden’s Department of the Interior just recognized significant subsistence resource values, the need for co-management, and the importance of establishing new Special Areas to protect subsistence use in the Western Arctic, and the executive order rescinds these safeguards.

In response to Trump’s executive order, Grandmothers Growing Goodness released the following statement:

“It is truly disappointing to see President Trump use his very first day in office to attempt to undo all the progress the Biden Administration achieved for our land, way of life, wildlife, and public health. For millennia, Alaska Natives have called the Western Arctic our home; we have stewarded the land and maintained a subsistence lifestyle based on co-existing with our living resources. President Trump’s executive order is out of step with what Indigenous and Alaskan communities and people across the country want. We have been clear in demanding strong protections for our lands, wildlife— including caribou, air, and water in the Arctic and will always oppose any new leasing or drilling that harms our way of life and health. Our community is now even more emboldened to use our collective power to create goodness and ensure our leaders in Washington hear our voices and protect our lands, wildlife, and health,"  said Rosemary Ahtuangaruak, Founder of Grandmothers Growing Goodness.

The Western Arctic is home to sacred lands where 40 Indigenous communities live a subsistence lifestyle in harmony with America’s largest caribou herd. The lands protected by President Biden’s Special Areas designation in the NPR-A are critical to supporting these vulnerable communities' food security, cultural traditions, and health.