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Without federal protections on the Copper River, Ahtna anglers would risk getting “pushed out,” according to John Sky Starkey, a lawyer representing Ahtna.

Ahtna Inc., a corporation owned by Indigenous shareholders in the Copper River region — some 500 miles east of the Kuskokwim — has also sided with the Biden administration.

“I’m glad I gave music a full-time shot, because in the past my songs were really sad,” says the 30-year-old Alaska Native, who is of Ahtna and Iñupiat ancestry.

Long before any of this, the land was home to the Ahtna Athabascan people, who still practice traditional subsistence hunting and fishing in the area.

The Ahtna Alaska Native corporation currently owns 622,000 acres within the park and preserve.