Wrangell Sentinel -

Nearly 80 Alaska tribes are calling on the Biden administration to retain decades-old protections for 28 million acres of land scattered across large swaths of Alaska.

The administration is conducting an environmental review to weigh the impacts of potentially opening some or all of the land to future uses that include mining.

The protections were created in the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, putting the lands off-limits to uses such as mineral, oil and gas extraction.

The lands include vast swaths overseen by the Bureau of Land Management in Western Alaska, such as the Western I...