by Beverly Hoffman, Protecting our Land and River Advocate
I am one of many concerned shareholders of Calista and believe the Donlin Mine puts our already stressed ecosystem, our fish and our way of life at risk.
Shareholders and tribal members are being visited by Calista Staff and I know they are trying to sway our people to support Donlin. I was invited to attend a recent conference where over 200 people from all over came to talk to conservation groups of the dangers of projects that destroy miles and miles of land and water for extraction projects like Donlin promoted In partnership with NOVAGOLD Resources, Barrick Gold Corporation. It’s scary how big money is going after our life. Need gold for parts and cell phones, recycle don’t destroy.
Here is my panel presentation, “The Impact of mines on our Salmon” Quyana for reading and sharing.
March 17, 2022: Presentation to Alaska Conference on Mining Impacts and Prevention “A gathering of land and water guardians”
I was born and raised on Yup’ik lands along the Kuskokwim river in Bethel, Alaska. 900 miles long of unimpeded river, The Kuskokwim is the 2nd largest in Alaska.
I am an Orutsaramiut Native Council Tribal Member and a shareholder of Calista and Bethel Native Corporations. Our region is 75,000 square miles, home to the Yup’ik, Cup’ik, Athabaskan people. Along with those who migrated to the area we are about 25,000 in population among 50 some communities. Those of us that live here depend on the land and the water for our food. It’s expensive in stores and the river is our Costco. Fish is primarily what we live on. We love our way of life and our ability to live off the land.
I did not grow up in a traditional Yup’ik household but always felt a part of our culture. My father James Hoffman was one of the early native bush pilots and my mother Dorothy was the daughter of white gold miners. Both parents worked but we always made sure there was moose, fish, berries, birds in the freezers. When you are a family of 11 you need to know how to gather. We ate a lot of Salmon.
I learned how to cut fish, the drying and smoking process as an adult from elders. Like so many others being on the river fishing or gathering on the land is soul soothing. Spiritual. I was taught how to take care of what I gathered and how important it is to protect the land and water we eat from. It is what I passed on to my children.
And now at 70 here I am fighting for this way of life, fighting projects that threaten all that and yes, THAT , right now is the Canadian owned Donlin Mine, the largest proposed mine in Alaska next to Pebble. There are so many concerns, the biggest is the probable impacts it will have on our already stressed salmon population and our subsistence way of life.
It’s been 10 years learning as much as we can about Open pit mines the size of Donlin. Google and you will see the devastation caused by open pit mine failures in other areas. I do not trust Donlin or anyone who tells me it is safe. All the gold is not worth the risk of losing our fish and other food we count on.
Our river is worth more than that gold.
Imagine 4 enormous fuel barges a day going up this river as our people are out sfishing. Destroying smelt fry and other species. Causing further erosion.
The pits are described as 2.2 miles long, 2 miles wide and 1850 feet deep and a tailing storage facility 2.5 miles long by 1 mile wide. Imagine waste rock covering 2,300 acres. We have 241 species of birds that migrate back to nest flying over all this and landing in these ponds and then flying on. We eat some of these birds. Arsenic and mercury are huge concerns.
One of the waste products Mercury when it is heated, vaporizes and is very toxic to breathe. Vaporized mercury can travel like air, and drift with air currents then drop back to the land and water. This scares the crap out of me.
Our subsistence life of my people has existed for generations and generations and we want it to continue.
Why do we fight to protect our land and water, our food security, from projects like Donlin pushed by our for-profit Native Corporations.
In good years when fish runs were plentiful, 240,000 King Salmon and over a million other salmon species migrate to the spawning grounds of the Kuskokwim River tributaries. We of the river would harvest 80 to 100 thousand leaving plenty to the spawning grounds. Since 2010 we have watched the decline of the species as well as our chum, silvers. In recent years we have been restricted to maybe 3 days of harvest of King. We dry and cold smoke fish, We jar fish, We pickle fish, We freeze fish.
Last year I did not dry or smoke any kings just silvers. The chum run did not even make escapement goals. There is so much pressure in river and on the high seas commercial take. We do not need the added pressure and dangers of the Donlin Open Pit Gold mine.
Yes I have been outspoken as I chaired local fish boards arguing for protecting subsistence fishing over commercial opportunities and other outside pressure. I share my photos from when I was a young woman to now. My life, a life that I have cherished and I want future generations to have.
I’m 70 now but know this, until the day I die, I will continue to speak out against any project that is not environmentally safe and is not welcomed by the majority of the indigenous people who live on the Kuskokwim. I ask of you to please share our story. Quyana Alaska Conservation Foundation and all of you who have gathered in Girdwood. I have learned so much. Quyana for listening. Quyana tailuci for coming.
-Beverly Hoffman
