Mike Jackson

Photo by Erik Neumann, KCAW. Used with permission

"I remember going over to the north arm of Farragut Bay. There’s a smaller river that goes up into the mountains, where the watershed could be affected by mines in the future. And the other river I’m concerned about is the Whiting River. Both of those rivers have hooligan in them. And like any other fish species, they are very sensitive to the minerals fingerprint.
They completely mined the sides of Gunnuk Creek to put in a hydroelectric line, and the fish that came in there — they got lost. They just swam by here a couple years ago and didn’t even come up the river, even though they were jumping. They were lost. Whatever they disturb within a watershed — the minerals — it all affects the fingerprint fish come back to. When they disturb that much, it becomes unknown to them.
Back in 2000, when the Kake Dam broke, the Army Corps had to dump rock to make a temporary access road into it. They drilled and where they put concrete, the fish disappeared.
You can see that in the salmon coming up from the South, starting with the 1849 Gold Rush in California. It eliminated salmon, coming up this way. You can see it in Oregon. You can see it in the Kuskokwim, and the Kobuk. The fingerprint of minerals on those major rivers has changed. And now, there’s hardly any fish going up the Yukon and the Kuskokwim. You can see it right now with the Stikine, and king salmon. And on the Taku. And with the Chilkat system, with the hooligan. To me, that is what has happened — that and climate change.
That’s what is going to happen on the transboundary when those mines are developed. It will change the fingerprint.”

—Mike Jackson, Organized Village of Kake former council member and OVK President, now the Director of Transportation and Chief Judge of the OVK Tribal Court