Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council - (907) 258-3337 Anchorage, (907) 451-2530 Fairbanks, (867) 393-2199 Whitehorse

The Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council is an Indigenous grassroots organization, consisting of 70 First Nations and Tribes, dedicated to the protection and preservation of the Yukon River Watershed.

The YRITWC is an international organization with 501(c)(3) non-profit status in the United States and Societal Status in Canada. As a coalition of sovereign Tribal and First Nation governments, we were founded in 1997 by a group of 56 chiefs and elders who gathered in Galena, Alaska, to discuss their concern about increased cancers and other health problems in human communities and game species within the Yukon River watershed. From this gathering and based on these concerns, the Watershed Council was formed to restore the River and to protect it from further contamination.

The long-term vision—and the guiding light for the organization—was articulated by those Tribal leaders at the historic 1997 Summit that birthed the Watershed Council: to once again drink clean water directly from the Yukon River as our ancestors did for thousands of years before us. This is currently not possible without suffering significant health impacts due primarily to industrial and military contamination, mining, and poor municipal solid waste and waste water management.

Today, 70 Indigenous governments within the watershed are actively participating in the coalition through the signing and enactment of an Inter-Tribal Accord that governs the YRITWC and gives each signatory government a seat on our Board of Directors. Noting that the indigenous communities are all connected and have a common interest in protecting the watershed, the Accord commits the signatories to cooperate and consult with each other on all actions that could affect the environmental and cultural integrity of the region while respecting the inherent sovereignty of each individual Tribe and First Nation.

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