Every year all five species of salmon return to Southeast Alaska’s Chilkat River to sustain the communities of Haines and Klukwan, as well as insatiable grizzly bears, hordes of fascinated tourists, and the world’s largest gathering of bald eagles. But now a modern-day gold rush is underway in the mountains above the river’s headwaters, and locals are reckoning with the changes that could come with a hard-rock mine.
“Rock-Paper-Fish” offers a vivid look into the lives of Alaskans grappling with questions as immense as the place they call home. Due to the threat of industrial mining, the Chilkat has been named one of “America’s 10 Most Endangered Rivers of 2019” by the nonprofit American Rivers.
