KNBA - Anchorage

The oil rig that crashed into the frozen ground on the North Slope near Nuiqsut Friday remains too unstable for responders to access the scene, state officials said. While no serious injuries were reported, days after the incident, there were still many unknowns for the companies involved and the nearby community.

Doyon Rig 26 was commissioned in 2016 by ConocoPhillips and built, owned and operated by Doyon Drilling, a subsidiary of Doyon, a regional Native corporation based in Fairbanks. The 10-million-pound machine, also known by the nickname “The Beast,” was being moved on a gravel road on Friday afternoon, when it suddenly toppled over, 6 ½ miles from Nuiqsut, an Iñupiaq village of about 500.

ConocoPhillips said in a statement that no one was seriously hurt. Two workers, who were on the rig when it crashed, as well as six responders, were taken to nearby clinics, treated and released.

The company also said there was no damage to community infrastructure, with no impact to oil pipelines and fuel deliveries.

The Department of Environmental Conservation said in a situation report that the rig had a capacity of 8,400 gallons of diesel on board. But DEC said it has been unable to get close to the wreckage, due to worries that metal from Rig 26 might fall on response team members.

“Structural hazards continue to limit access,” the report said. “A safety team has been dispatched to evaluate concerns.”

The cause of the accident remains unknown, officials said. According to the DEC report, the wreck happened near a tributary to the Colville river.

ConocoPhillips said Doyon is in charge of a unified command that is managing the response. Neither company agreed to an interview about the incident.

Neither ConocoPhillips nor Doyon have said what can be salvaged from the wreckage – or whether it’s a total loss. It is believed to be one of the largest mobile land drilling rigs in North America.

Community concerns and a lawsuit

The North Slope Borough released a statement about the incident, and a local tribe, Inupiat Community of the Arctic Slope, sent out an alert about it to residents.

But Nuiqsut resident Colleen Sovalik said she did not receive any official communication about it for many hours, and when she did, it did not bring her reassurance.

“Unfortunately, that was not any information that allowed community members to feel at ease and only heightened concern because we didn’t know if there was more that was happening, and nobody told us about it, or what to expect,” she said. “Also, it didn’t give us any reassurance with any information provided that they were going to do any assessments, independent of what industry was reporting.”

Sovalik said she was also concerned about whether the conditions were too warm to move the rig. The temperatures in the area were around and above freezing on the day of the incident.

“The weather was real warm,” Sovalik said. “I don’t know where that rig was headed… If it was moving (on) the ice, it was not a good decision.”

Rosemary Ahtuangaruak, a former Nuiqsut city mayor and a long-time environmental activist, lives in the community. She said the event highlights the worries some have had about the development in the area.

“We’re very concerned about what this means to our community and whether or not we’re safe in our lands and waters where they’re developing,” she said.

Last month, an environmental law organization Earthjustice filed a lawsuit, challenging the winter-exploration program near Nuiqsut. The lawsuit centered around concerns over how the project will affect subsistence activities and ecological resources, especially near Teshekpuk Lake.

Ian Dooley, an attorney with Earthjustice, said the Doyon rig was being moved for the exploration program.

“One thing that this points to is a concern that we’ve raised from the very beginning about the agency rushing to permit this project without proper or adequate process, without considering the comments and the concerns that have been raised,” Dooley said.

The plaintiffs requested a preliminary injunction to halt the program and are awaiting a legal ruling.

Dooley also said there were also immediate concerns about contamination because the wrecked rig, with diesel on board, is so close to the Colville river tributary.

Record-setting oil rig

In 2022, ConocoPhillips and Doyon set a new long distance drilling record of almost seven miles with Rig 26. Tim Bradner, publisher of the Alaska Economic Report, said both companies were proud of the rig, which they designed and built especially for the Arctic drilling. Bradner said the module was a huge success story for both companies.

“It was significant because it was very specialized for the drilling of these long-distance extended reach wells,” Bradner said. “That enabled a lot of pockets of oil and reservoirs that were difficult to teach from the surface.”

Bradner said Drill 26 was an important milestone for Doyon, capping decades of hard work.

In a court filing over the pending environmental lawsuit, ConocoPhillips said the accident wouldn’t impact its winter drilling plans. It said it would use a substitute drilling rig from Doyon.

Editor’s note: The link to the DEC incident report has been updated with a more permanent webpage. 

The federal government is reviewing a business program that brings contracting opportunities to Alaska Native corporations and tribes.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said in a video posted on X Jan. 16 that his department will review the 8(a) Business Development Program. The program falls under the federal Small Business Administration and supports businesses owned by socially disadvantaged individuals or tribal entities, including Alaska Native corporations.

Hegseth said in the video that the program promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion framework and race-based contracting.

“We are taking a sledgehammer to the oldest DEI program in the federal government,” Hegseth said. “Our goal is to spend your money to build our defense industrial base with businesses, large and small, that share our mission.”

Quinton Carroll, the executive director of the Native American Contractors Association, originally from Utqiaġvik, said that Native participation in the program is not a diversity, equity and inclusion initiative.

“It is grounded in the unique political and legal status of tribal nations under U.S. law and fulfills longstanding federal trust and treaty obligations to tribes, Alaska Native Corporations and Native Hawaiian Organizations,” Carroll said.

Tribal participation in the program

Alaska Native Corporations rely heavily on federal contracts, which they often secure through the 8(a) program.

In 2021, corporations received more than $11 billion from federal contracts, which were their primary source of revenue, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. More than a half of that revenue came through the 8(a) program, and the majority of those contracts were with the Department of Defense, according to that research.

Christopher Slottee, an attorney who ‎works with Alaska Native villages, regional corporations and tribal governments, said that makes the Pentagon’s review of the program “a significant concern” for tribes and corporations.

“They often rely on those contracts to generate the revenue that lets them provide the benefits to their shareholders and tribal members,” he said.

Slottee said that tribal entities are subject to the same standards, reviews and compliance requirements as everyone else, but they do have a few advantages in the program.

Slottee said tribal entities, unlike individuals, don’t have to prove their social disadvantage. They can also have multiple companies in the program, while individuals can only have one. Plus, tribal entities have significantly higher limits for certain awards, he said.

Slottee said a government agency also might want to contract with an Alaska Native organization because they often have more experience than some of the traditional small businesses. And there are treaty obligations to fulfill, he added.

“There is a general, government-wide encouragement for agencies to contract with entities owned by tribes and ANCs, as part of the government’s responsibility to Alaska Natives and Native Americans,” he said.

The DoD review of the program 

Hegseth ordered a line-by-line review of 8(a) contracts that are over $20 million in value. He said in a memorandum to the Pentagon leadership that the department would get rid of contracts that don’t make the country’s military more lethal.

“We have no room in our budget for wasteful DEI contracts that don’t help us win wars,” he said in the social media video.

Carroll, with the Native American Contractors Association, said that Native federal contractors have been partners of the Department of Defense, working to strengthen readiness and the military industrial base.

Hegseth also said the department would make sure that the businesses with contracts were actually doing the work. He claimed that small businesses often receive a contract, take a fee and then pass the job on to a larger firm that’s not eligible for the program.

In June, the Small Business Administration ordered an audit of the 8(a) program following a fraud investigation. The Treasury Department has also been looking into potential misuse of the program.

Carroll said Native contractors support the elimination of fraud and waste within the program.

“It is critical that oversight efforts preserve a program that has proven its value — strengthening national security, reinforcing the defense industrial base, and supporting economic growth in Native and surrounding communities,” Carroll said.

Other threats to the program

The 8(a) program has faced recent scrutiny from other directions as well.

President Trump signed an executive order in April directing the rewriting of federal contracting regulations. Slottee, the attorney, said the revision has been completed, but it’s not clear yet how the changes will affect tribal entities.

He said that there is more focus now on the use of larger contracts, which can be harder for smaller corporations and tribes to access.

“It’s going to take a little bit for folks to actually see the kind of on-the-ground downstream impact, but we definitely anticipate seeing that in the course of 2026,” Slottee said.

Earlier this month, the Small Business Administration issued an announcement that, among other things, described a massive reduction in how many applications were approved for the program.

“The Trump SBA accepted just 65 new 8(a) firms into the program last year – compared to over 2,100 who were accepted during the Biden Administration,” it said.

Slottee said that the many Native-owned businesses felt that reduction.

“There is a concern that ANCs and tribes will have to start looking for alternatives,” he said. “If the SBA is not going to be approving new 8(a) applications, even though they should be under the rule established by Congress, that’s going to be a downstream impact on ANCs and tribes.”

As the deadline for public comment approaches, the Alaska Federation of Natives is pulling out all the stops to block a national sport hunting and fishing group’s push to reform the federal subsistence board.

This comes after Safari Club International successfully petitioned the U.S. Interior and Agriculture Departments to review federal subsistence management policies.

Last month, the Interior Department announced a 60-day scoping period, or review, on federal subsistence management.

AFN held a webinar Tuesday afternoon to give Native hunters and fishers an update on the status of subsistence management in Alaska and explain why it believes the Safari Club proposals pose a serious threat to the Native subsistence way of life.

Attorney Jaelene Kookesh, a longtime legal counsel for the Sealaska native corporation, was one of the presenters. She currently is senior legal counsel at the Van Ness Feldman firm. Kookesh says many Alaska Natives were elated last week, when the U.S. Supreme Court decided not to take up the State of Alaska’s challenge of federal subsistence protections under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, or ANILCA. But Kookesh says, the battle goes on.

“It’s like you can celebrate for not even for a day, maybe, but then you can say, ‘Okay, we won that, but now we have to comment on this scoping at Department of the Interior,” Kookesh said. “And Safari Club also has draft legislation that they’re pushing at Congress. to amend ANILCA. So, we’re getting hit at every arm of government, so we can’t rest, even with the win at the Supreme Court.”

Kookesh says she worries most about the Safari Club’s campaign to limit the federal subsistence board to state and federal agency heads, a move that would undo recent efforts to diversify the board.

“So you had five federal agency representatives, who obviously are not subsistence users. And so, we worked very hard to have three tribally nominated members for the Federal Subsistence Board, with real concrete knowledge of these practices. And this just happened within the past year,” Kookesh said.

The Safari Club also wants to change the make-up of the Rural Advisory Councils to give sport hunters and fishers a voice in the process, as well as require federal wildlife managers to defer to the state’s regulatory decisions.

Regina Lennox, Safari Club International’s senior legal counsel, says it is seeking these changes to make ANILCA work as Congress intended.

“I don’t think anything that we have sought in any way diminishes the potential representation of Alaska Native voices anywhere,” Lennox said.

“We’re working on behalf of hunters within the state, subsistence and non-subsistence alike, just to ensure that the federal agencies don’t overreach,” she said. “Over 60% of Alaska is federal land, and so if you have agencies that are doing the wrong thing and, stepping on the toes of the state and closing down hunting opportunity, that’s a lot of acreage that’s potentially at risk.”

The Safari Club says one of its top priorities is to protect the resources, which benefits all hunters. It claims the federal government has ignored state data in some of its management decisions to the detriment of wildlife.

AFN and other Native groups say the federal government has done a better job than the state in balancing ANILCA’s rural subsistence priority with conservation.

Kookesh says AFN’s webinar will be a good Subsistence 101 on the decades-long fight to protect subsistence.

“It’s been a battle going on for many years, but it kind of goes quiet every once in a while, and then it comes back up again,” Kookesh said. “So right now, we’re heavy in the fight again. So, hopefully, we can take some steps forward and not some steps back.”

The deadline for public comment is February 13. AFN’s Jan. 20 webinar is posted on AFN’s website.

The Arctic continues to warm faster than other parts of the planet and is seeing record high temperatures and record low sea ice levels. That’s according to the 2025 Arctic Report Card, which the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released today.

For the past 20 years, the report has documented changes in snow and sea ice cover as well as air and ocean temperatures in the northern part of the globe. In that time, it’s shown that the Arctic’s annual temperature has increased at more than double the global rate of temperature changes.

The warming is affecting the environment and food security for those who call the region home, said Hannah-Marie Ladd, one of the report’s authors.

“These changes cascade directly into people’s lives, affecting fisheries, coastal safety and subsistence harvests,” Ladd said. “We are no longer just documenting warming. We are witnessing an entire marine ecosystem, which is tied to our economies and culture, transform within a single generation.”

Ladd is the director of Indigenous Sentinels Network, a program established by the Aleut Community of St. Paul Island to help Alaska Native communities monitor their environment. She was one the speakers from various research agencies who detailed this year’s Arctic Report Card at a press conference at the American Geophysical Union conference in New Orleans.

The report, which is the work of more than 100 authors from 13 countries, showed that the Arctic region experienced some of the highest temperatures since the turn of the century.

“October 2024 through September 2025, the Arctic experienced the highest temperatures on record since at least 1900,” said Matthew Druckenmiller,  a senior scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Colorado and lead editor of the report. “This included the warmest autumn, the second warmest winter and the third warmest summer ever observed.”

Warming linked to the ferocity of ex-Typhoon Halong 

The rapid warming of the Arctic is amplified by the loss of reflective sea ice and snow, Druckenmiller said. The report showed that last March, Arctic winter sea ice reached its lowest annual maximum extent in nearly 50 years of satellite records.

Druckenmiller said that the oldest, thickest sea ice has also declined by over 95% since the ’80s, primarily remaining in areas north of Greenland and the Canadian Archipelago.

“Thinner ice is then much more mobile with wind and current, and much less resilient against warming waters,” he said. “This means much more unpredictable ice conditions for those both living and working in the Arctic.”

Druckenmiller said that the report underscored the interconnectedness of Arctic changes. He said one example is the remnants of Typhoon Halong, which battered Western Alaska in October

“Prior to this storm, temperatures in the Bering Sea were well above normal, which contributed to the strength. The storm brought hurricane force winds, storm surge and catastrophic flooding, which displaced nearly 1,500 residents from across the region,” he said. “Still today, these communities are assessing the damage and trying to figure out how to resume their lives.”

Druckenmiller said that because of the amplified warming in the Arctic, scientists expect further disruptive changes and events like that storm.

Fewer fish in rusting rivers

Arctic rivers are changing, too. The report highlighted an emerging phenomenon called rusting rivers. That’s likely caused when permafrost thaw allows groundwater to seep deeper and interact with mineral deposits, turning some streams and rivers a rusty orange color.

In Alaska, over 200 streams turned orange in recent years. That affected aquatic biodiversity and water quality, said Abigail Pruitt, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California Davis who studies rusting rivers.

“Within Kobuk Valley National Park, we observed the complete loss of juvenile Dolly Varden and Slimy Sculpin in a tributary to the Akillik river when it turned orange,” Pruitt said. “Beyond the effects on fish, rusting rivers may impact drinking water supplies to rural communities as well.”

Partnerships between Indigenous communities and scientists

The report also highlights how Indigenous communities have been observing the changes in their environments and collaborating with scientists to better understand those changes.

Ladd, with the Indigenous Sentinels Network, described one example of such work – the BRAIDED Food Security Project. She said that St. Paul residents collect samples of harvested traditional foods, like seabirds, marine mammals and halibut. Harvesters donate those samples to a recently established and tribally owned laboratory at the Bering Sea Research Center. Then local employees, with the help from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, analyze the samples for contaminants like mercury.

“What’s happening on St Paul Island offers a model for resilience and collaborative research everywhere,” Ladd said.

She went on to say that Indigenous leadership and participation would be essential to future efforts toward understanding and adapting to the changing Arctic.

For those who haven’t filed for their Native allotments, Alaska Native veterans don’t have much time to claim 160 acres of federal land. The window for applications closes permanently on Dec. 29.

ANCSA ended 1906 Native allotment program

The land grants were part of a government program created over a hundred years ago, to promote homesteads and private property ownership. But the 1906 Native allotment program shut down in 1971, after Congress passed the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act passed.

But in the years leading up to the land claims act, Natives scrambled to file for their land allotments. But during that time, a lot of Native Vietnam veterans missed out, because they were stationed overseas. Many were engaged in combat.

The Alaska Congressional delegation eventually succeeded in passing legislation to fix this. In 2019, President Trump signed a bill into law that opened a five-year window for Natives vets to claim their allotments. But despite the special exemption to apply for the land, it isn’t easy to do. There are still many hurdles.

Application process is “onerous”

“It’s one thing to make laws,” said Jim LaBelle, an Inupiaq Vietnam veteran. “But it’s quite another thing when the bureaucracy kicks in and starts developing these onerous processes that were never really anticipated.”

LaBelle’s challenges began before the war when he and his younger brother, Kermit, were in boarding school. He says they were unable to qualify for their allotments, because they were far from home and couldn’t prove they worked the land they hoped to receive.

Then both brothers went to fight in the Vietnam War, and Kermit was killed in action at the age of 18.

After the war, LaBelle had about given up on efforts to claim his land but tried again. A few years ago, the government finally accepted his application.

Veterans unhappy with federal land available

“It took a little doing, but I managed,” he said. “And I can’t say I was very happy with the lands that I got.”

LaBelle wound up with land near the Interior Alaska community of Tok, far away from his Inupiaq homelands.

“It’s an area I’m not familiar with but was available at the time,” LaBelle said. “The way I look at the map, I’d have to have a helicopter to fly in.”

LaBelle is now focused on getting his late brother Kermit’s allotment. To do that, he needed a death certificate.

“I have to prove that he was killed in Viet Nam. I also have to prove that he had a CIB, Certificate of Indian Blood,” LaBelle said. Michael Livingston has volunteered to help vets like Jim LaBelle apply.

Michael Livingston, an Alaska Native veteran’s advocate, has volunteered to help vets like Jim LaBelle apply.

“It’s not a user-friendly process,” he said. “Out of the 2000-some veterans that are eligible, only about 500 of them have applied, so that’s only about 25 percent.”

Native vet allotment applications remain low

As of mid-December, the Bureau of Land Management’s website said it had received 519 applications – but fewer than 44 have been accepted.

Livingston believes the limited land available to veterans has discouraged them from applying but says age is probably the biggest barrier. He says most of the veterans he’s worked with are now in their 70’s and 80’s. Many are in poor health and don’t have the computer and internet skills it takes to navigate the bureaucracy, so they’ve given up.

Livingston says it also takes a lot of persistence, which he is willing to supply.

“So far, I’ve helped about 50 Alaska Native veterans apply for about 160 acres of land,” he said. “And that adds up to over 8,000 acres that potentially is going to return to the hands of Alaska Natives. So, in that sense, it’s been pretty rewarding.”

Livingston encourages Native vets to file before the Dec. 29 deadline, even if their application is incomplete. He says if veterans need help, it’s OK for them to email him at the following address: michaelpocatelloATgmail.com.

Sen. Dan Sullivan offers staff assistance

Alaska U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan also says vets shouldn’t worry about filing a complete form, that it’s more important to meet the deadline.

“Get your application in, we can work with you,” Sullivan said. “We can help. If it needs to be updated, we can do that.”

Sulllivan says staffers in his Alaska offices are prepared to assist. For now, he is racing against the clock to get a bill passed to extend the program.

“I just wish we could get my colleagues to see that this is not a big ask,” the Republican senator said. “Believe it or not, the bill is a two-word change. It’s from five years to ten years.”

In his advocacy for the extension, Sullivan reminds his colleagues that Alaska Natives veterans have some of the highest rates of service of any ethnic group in the nation.

“You’ll go to a small Native community and ask how many veterans there are,” Sullivan said, “and like, almost all the men in the town hall you’re doing, raise their hand.”

Although Sullivan has attempted to make new lands available for veterans to claim, his current bill, S785 and its companion House bill, HR410, does not include new land. It simply extends the application period to December 2030.

Sullivan says his bill has Republican support – and he’s worked with Democrats to attach his legislation to other bills that include things they want. But the senator believes they continue to block his extension, because they think it’s a backdoor attempt to usher in more development, which he says is not true.

“They’ve just been very reluctant to get more people land and access to federal lands in Alaska,” said Sullivan, who remains hopeful he’ll be able to win an extension in time.

“But just to be safe, get your application in before the end of the year,” he said.

For several southwest Alaska communities, it will take years to replace what was lost in one night of hurricane force winds and floods, unleashed from the remnants of Typhoon Halong. Some may never rebuild completely.

How and where to begin is a question that seven trainees tackled at a construction workshop offered by the Alaska Works Partnership, a non-profit agency funded mostly by the state.

Most of the apprentices were from Kipnuk, one of the hardest hit communities. They evacuated to Anchorage after the storm struck the Western Alaska coast on Oct. 9.

“They just lost their homes,” said Tiffany Caudle, the training coordinator for Alaska Works Partnership. “They lost everything.”

But Caudle says the workshop comes at a good time.

“I do think this is really helping them stay positive and stay hopeful,” she said.

Hands-on recovery

The men were all volunteers, who signed up for 40-hours of training on how to frame a house.

They started on Oct. 20 at the program’s headquarters in Mountain View. They met in a big garage, empty except for a stack of boards, nails and tools. But soon, the constant clang of hammers and the buzz of electric saws filled the room with energy.

“This is the door, and this one’s going to be the window,” said Devon Mann, as he laid out the boards for his house frame.

“Everything we’re learning in here and doing, it’s going to be useful for our village,” he said.

Trauma is still fresh

Devon, who is 19, looked sharp in his brand new hoodie. It was given to him after military planes airlifted him and almost his entire community of Kipnuk to Anchorage. Devon arrived with only the clothing he had on, but after a five-mile ride in a floating house, he still carried the baggage of trauma.

“The way the house was rocking, how fast we were going,” he said, “worst experience I ever had.”

Most of Devon’s family made it to the school, but he and his 16-year-old year old brother stayed behind to salvage valuables that were floating away. Suddenly the water came up and trapped them in their house. As the surge carried it off, the power went out and in the darkness, they jammed every bit of bedding, towels and clothing they could find against the wall in a desperate attempt to block the flow. They bailed the water out with buckets, but it rose up to their knees.

“I thought something bad was going to happen to the house, like break apart. I thought that would be it for us,” said Devon, who almost gave up. “But I had hope. I had hope.”

And it’s hope that keeps him going now.

Hope takes shape

“Leveling, framing, stuff we’re doing here in the training – it’s useful in the village,” he said.

Devon and the other trainees still don’t know whether Kipnuk will be rebuilt or eventually moved to higher ground, but they want to be prepared to help whatever the future brings.

“I want to step up,” Devon said, “And I want to know what to do in that moment.”

William Andrew, who has been an instructor at Alaska Works Partnership for almost 20 years, is impressed with Devon and the rest of his group. He calls them “naturals,” because they have been quick to catch on.

“From what they went through, I’ll be honest with you, their attitudes are awesome,” Andrew said. “They’re wanting to learn. They’re being great.”

As Andrew walked around the room, he peppered his students with questions about their work – quick to point out small mistakes that might later lead to bigger problems.

“I can’t stress it enough.Use your wrist. Use your wrist,” he reminded them, as he waved a hammer, to warn them about putting stress on their arm muscles.

Andrew knows it’ll take more than one workshop to teach his Kipnuk apprentices how to rebuild their village, but he hopes it will give them a good foundation to learn more.

“The class has been going so great, that I think they’re going to be telling all of their neighbors and all of their friends,” he said. “I think there’s going to be a lot more demand for training.”

New partners needed

Alaska Works Partnership is now in search of more funding to offer more classes for the disaster evacuees. The agency hopes it can attract some new partners, who will recognize that this group needs the help at a critical time.

Like his students, Andrew is Yup’ik and comes from a small village. He’s originally from New Stuyahok in Bristol Bay and knows, from his own experience, that far too many village construction jobs go to outside contractors, who hire very few locals. But Andrew hopes this time will be different.

“I’m excited about their future. And I’m hoping they get to rebuild it,” he said.