Dune Lankard, an Eyak Athabaskan Native of the Eagle Clan, grew up in Cordova, southcentral Alaska, within a fishing family. Starting at age five, he gained a life education as a subsistence and commercial fisherman, later working as a fishery consultant and commercial fisher in the Copper River Delta and Prince William Sound. The Exxon Valdez oil spill transformed him into a social change activist and Native Rights leader.
Dune founded and co-founded several organizations, including the Eyak Preservation Council (EPC), the FIRE Fund (Fund for Indigenous Rights and the Environment), the RED OIL Network (Resisting Environmental Degradation of Indigenous Lands), and Native Conservancy (NC). His efforts have led to the preservation of over 1 million acres of the Copper River Delta. He has received numerous accolades, such as Time magazine’s Hero of the Planet and fellowships with the Ashoka Foundation, Hunt Alternatives Fund, and Future of Fish.
Witnessing the decline of the fishing way of life, Dune turned to restorative kelp and mariculture solutions for Alaska. He felt a deep responsibility to give back to the ocean that sustained his people for thousands of years. He embraced regenerative ocean farming, aiming to work with Native peoples to overcome barriers in the new ocean industry, asserting, "If it’s not regenerative, then just don’t do it."
Through Native Conservancy, Dune implemented food security programs distributing foods sourced from the land and sea. His early kelp harvesting experiences have come full circle, with Native Conservancy now promoting regenerative kelp crops as an economic alternative for Indigenous coastal communities. Dune emphasizes that ocean industries must recognize ancestral waters and policies must reflect Indigenous sovereignty and leadership. His vision is for people to live in harmony with the planet, underscoring that we are all Indigenous to Earth.
Native Conservancy was established in 2003 to empower Alaska Native peoples to permanently protect and preserve endangered habitats on their ancestral homelands. We strive to maintain and secure titles to Native lands in conservation trusts to strengthen our inherent rights of sovereignty, subsistence and spirituality.
