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- By Tribal Business News Staff
- Energy | Environment
Alaska Native leader Alannah Acaq Hurley has been named a 2026 recipient of the Goldman Environmental Prize, an international award recognizing grassroots environmental leadership and campaigns with global impact.
Hurley, a Yup’ik leader and executive director of the United Tribes of Bristol Bay, was honored for leading a tribally driven effort that resulted in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 2023 veto of the proposed Pebble Mine in southwest Alaska. Acting on behalf of 15 tribal nations, she helped organize a coalition of tribes, commercial fishermen and national partners to block what would have been one of North America’s largest open-pit mining projects.
The decision protects the Bristol Bay watershed, a roughly 25 million-acre ecosystem that supports the world’s largest sockeye salmon runs and a regional economy tied to commercial fishing and subsistence lifeways. The EPA’s veto authority has been used sparingly, underscoring the significance of the outcome for both environmental policy and resource development.
The Goldman Environmental Prize includes an unrestricted award to recipients, who determine how the funds are used to support their work.
Founded in 1989, the Goldman Environmental Prize is awarded annually to one recipient from each of six global regions and is widely regarded as a leading honor for grassroots environmental activism. The 2026 cohort is the first composed entirely of women.
Other recipients include activists from Nigeria, South Korea, the United Kingdom, Papua New Guinea and Colombia, recognized for campaigns spanning wildfire prevention, climate litigation, fossil fuel permitting and mining accountability.
The awards were presented April 20 in San Francisco during Earth Week.
