Alannah Hurley receives Goldman Environmental Prize for Bristol Bay advocacy

Alannah Acaq Hurley, a Yup’ik leader and executive director of United Tribes of Bristol Bay, has been named a 2026 recipient of the Goldman Environmental Prize, according to reporting by Tribal Business News. Hurley was recognized for leading a tribally driven effort that contributed to 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 the massive open-pit mining project.

The decision protects the Bristol Bay watershed, a roughly 25 million-acre ecosystem that supports sockeye salmon runs and a regional economy tied to commercial fishing and subsistence lifeways. The prize, established in 1989, is awarded annually to grassroots environmental leaders from six global regions. The 2026 cohort, which is the first composed entirely of women, was honored on April 20 in San Francisco during Earth Week.