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5.2.4.wavAt the same time as the Statehood Act was making it harder to leave Native land claims unresolved, the federal government made several proposals for projects in Alaska that threatened Natives and Native lands.
In the 1950s, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposed the construction of a high dam on the Yukon River in the Ramparts area below the Yukon Flats. In this area, the river had cut into a hard rock formation capable of holding a large dam. Seven Native villages would have been flooded, causing the relocation of people and homes. In addition, the resulting reservoir would have flooded the breeding habitat of tens of thousands of migratory waterfowl and threatened Yukon River salmon populations. The Corps eventually abandoned the project, but concern over the plan to force village relocations and endanger subsistence food sources generated Native resentment.
An even more concerning proposal was the Atomic Energy Commission's (AEC) plan to detonate five low-yield nuclear devices at a site in the Arctic Ocean near Point Hope. The experiment, called Project Chariot, would test whether nuclear bombs could be used in heavy construction, in this case, to build a ship harbor.
In 1959, the state legislature endorsed the project without even consulting Native communities. The fallout from the explosions would have contaminated vegetation eaten by migrating caribou, which the Inupiaq of the region depended on for food. Criticism eventually forced the AEC to abandon the plan, but the disregard for Native interests and well-being alarmed Native leaders.
Map of proposed bomb locations. The two large ones would create the harbor, and three smaller ones create a channel to ocean.
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