The Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities (DOT&PF) recognizes the deep cultural heritage and unique needs of Alaska Native peoples and Alaska Native organizations. The DOT&PF Tribal Relations Team was established to strengthen collaboration, foster mutual respect, and build lasting relationships between the department and Alaska Native organizations. Our goal is to create a meaningful, transparent, and inclusive engagement framework that ensures tribal voices are heard and integrated throughout Alaska's transportation planning and infrastructure development processes.
The Tribal Relations Team is part of the broader TransportationX initiative, which prioritizes stakeholder engagement across the state's diverse communities. By updating policies, facilitating targeted training, and providing support for meaningful consultation, we are working to bridge the gap between state transportation objectives and local priorities of Alaska Native communities. Our work aligns with state and federal legal requirements and reflects our commitment to honoring and preserving Alaska's rich Indigenous heritage.
Alaska DOT&PF is inviting Tribal input through two survey opportunities. The first focuses on improving how we consult and build long-term relationships with Tribes—ensuring that future projects are guided by respectful, effective engagement. The second invites you to share your transportation experiences to help shape the Statewide Long-Range Transportation Plan, which will guide Alaska's transportation policies and investments through 2055. Your insights in both areas are vital to creating systems, infrastructure, and relationships that reflect the priorities of Alaska Native communities for generations to come.
Dear Tribal Leader,
Strong, respectful relationships with communities are essential to successful transportation investments across Alaska. We are rebuilding how we work with Tribes because we believe strong partnerships lead to better outcomes—for infrastructure and for the people we serve. To support that, we're creating systems that help our employees go beyond regulatory requirements to build long-term relationships with communities.
The strongest projects are guided by the people who live alongside them. Whether it's a road, ferry terminal, airport, port, or trail, working directly with communities delivers projects faster, with fewer impacts, and in ways that serve a meaningful purpose for generations because they reflect local priorities from the very beginning.
The Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities is working with the Alaska Native Chamber to strengthen our consultation practices. This effort will help create a framework that centers Alaska Native voices in decisions about planning, construction, and maintenance of transportation infrastructure.
SHAPE THE PROCESS
Your input will shape staff training materials, consultation guidelines, and partnership protocols for future transportation projects. We would like your guidance to inform Alaska's transportation planning, development, and construction processes by sharing what consultation approaches have worked well—whether from our department or other organizations.
We invite you to share your insights on what effective consultation looks like.
Click here to take the survey or download the Tribal Relations Survey Letter to share your feedback.
You may also send comments to info@alaskanativechamber.com or call the Alaska Native Chamber at (907) 201-2626 to speak with a representative.
Thank you for your time, leadership, and continued partnership.
Alaska DOT&PF Tribal Team
Share Your Transportation Story: Your feedback helps shape Alaska's Long‑Range Transportation Plan (LRTP)—a guide to how Alaskans will move by road, air, water, rail, bike, and on foot through 2055. By sharing your experience, you make travel safer, more accessible, and more connected across the state.
Tell your story here: What transportation mode do you use most? What challenges or successes do you experience? How could connections be improved in your community?
Your insights directly inform policy and investment decisions that impact your daily life—and those of future generations.
The Hughes Sunny Lane project stands as a successful example of community-led transportation, demonstrating how small, rural communities can come together to complete vital infrastructure projects. Hughes, a remote Alaskan community with approximately 85 year-round residents (2020 Census), faced a long-standing challenge—safe and reliable access to its traditional cemetery, which was previously only reachable by boat or by climbing a steep riverbank using ropes. Now, with the completion of the 2.4-mile gravel Sunny Lane Road, residents can access the cemetery year-round, ensuring a safer and more dignified route for families visiting their loved ones.
Beyond its primary purpose, Sunny Lane has transformed community life in Hughes. The road has opened new opportunities for outdoor recreation, making dog mushing, walking, hiking, jogging, and biking more accessible and enjoyable. Additionally, the project has enhanced wildfire preparedness by creating a critical fire-break and improving fire-watch and fire-fighting access to the dense woodlands east of the community.
A key component of this project was workforce development, providing hands-on heavy equipment training and construction experience to local residents. Through this effort, men and women in Hughes received training in road construction, equipment operation, and project management—skills that will serve the community for years to come. Not only did the project create paying jobs, but it also helped establish a trained workforce capable of maintaining and improving local infrastructure into the future.
The completion of the Hughes Sunny Lane project serves as a model for other rural communities seeking to develop community-led transportation solutions. By investing in workforce training and leveraging local resources, small communities can successfully tackle essential infrastructure projects, strengthening both their economies and their residents' quality of life.
Questions? Want to reach out to Alaska DOT&PF about an idea? Please send us an email by selecting the box below.