Gwich’in fight to protect caribou from Alaska oil development

The Bureau of Land Management opened nominations last week for the first-ever oil and gas lease auction in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or ANWR, setting the stage for development that three Gwich’in governments are now suing to stop.

Raeann Garnett, 29, is Gwich’in and the tribal chief of the Native Village of Venetie Tribal Government, representing about 200 people above the Arctic Circle in northeastern Alaska, accessible only by plane. In January, the Native American Rights Fund, or NARF, filed a lawsuit against the Department of Interior on behalf of Garnett’s government, the Arctic Village Council, and Venetie Village Council. “I’m the main protector of our land that we own and I do it for all our tribal members,” she said.

The lawsuit challenges the DOI’s plan to lease land in the refuge’s coastal plain, an area the Gwich’in call Iizhik Gwats’an Gwandaii Goodlit, “the sacred place where life begins,” where Porcupine caribou herds forage and calve. The Gwich’in, who call themselves “the caribou people,” have relied on the herd for food and cultural survival since before colonization. Most Gwich’in communities live alongside the animals’ same migratory route used for thousands of years.

Garnett has watched the fight over ANWR intensify throughout her adult life. Oil and gas interests have eyed the refuge for more than 50 years, but recent moves mark the closest the industry has come to actual development on the coastal plain.

A 2017 federal tax bill passed during Donald Trump’s first presidential term authorized an oil and gas leasing program in ANWR, however, 7 leases out of 22 were sold to the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority. The Biden administration canceled the leases in 2023.

Last summer, Congress passed the so-calld “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which mandated lease sales in the refuge’s 1.56-million-acre coastal plain. The Trump administration announced it would reinstate the leasing program just months after taking office in 2025. Last week, the Bureau of Land Management opened a public comment period, running through March, to determine which parcels will be included in the first auction this winter.

Two lawsuits were filed in January of this year, reviving legal challenges from 2020 after Trump’s leasing programs were paused in 2021. One was brought by the Gwich’in Steering Committee alongside environmental groups. The other was brought by NARF representing the three Gwich’in governments.

The NARF suit argues the DOI violated Gwich’in legal rights. While Alaska Native tribes have not signed treaties with the U.S. government, many federal laws function in the same way treaty rights do. The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, for instance, upholds Gwich’in subsistence rights, protects cultural resources, and requires federal agencies to protect cultural and archeological sites as well as millions of acres of federal land in Alaska — including ANWR. The law also commits the U.S. to fulfill international treaty obligations with respect to fish and wildlife and their habitats.

The lawsuit argues that the DOI failed to meet these obligations. “​One of the most egregious errors is defendants’ determination that the impacts of allowing large-scale oil and gas development across the entire coastal plain would have no significant impact on Neets’ąįį Gwich’in communities of Venetie and Arctic Village,” the lawsuit reads.

The case claims development across roughly 100 miles of coastal plain would disrupt caribou migration, foraging, and calving, making the refuge uninhabitable for the herd. A 2024 study found that caribou are more sensitive to traffic and human activity than previously believed, challenging earlier claims that development would not significantly harm their habitat.

For Gwich’in communities, caribou are essential to survival. The herd provides a primary source of food, along with moose, birds, and fish. Garnett said high fuel costs and expensive groceries make subsistence necessary for village residents. 

NARF is arguing that the Trump administration has failed to conduct adequate environmental review and has not consulted with tribes since last October about the planned auction.

“We condemn these actions, and encourage officials in the Trump administration — and our representatives in the Alaska delegation — to acknowledge and accept what we as Gwich’in know, and what the majority of the American people agree on,” said Kristen Moreland, executive director of the Gwich’in Steering Committee, in a statement. “The Arctic Refuge is no place for drilling. It deserves to be protected and preserved for the wildlife that depend on it, and for all our futures.”

For Garnett, threats to the refuge are compounded by climate change already transforming the Arctic. This winter has been the warmest she can remember. “With climate change, as well as the threats of oil drilling, the weather has been changing a lot these past couple of decades,” she said.

Late last year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released its yearly Arctic Report Card, confirming the region continues to warm faster than the global average. In 2024, the report linked Arctic warming to fossil fuel use. 

“I feel worried for the next generations, after us, after me,” said Garnett. “I want them to have what we have now.”

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Gwich’in fight to protect caribou from Alaska oil development on Feb 11, 2026.