From supranational to intertribal - Governing Transboundary Waters: Canada, the United States, and Indigenous Communities - page 67

environmental issues for Indigenous communities is often a twinned goal of
ecosystem protection and counter-hegemonic activities. This occurs through
action, education, and performative means, such as canoe journeys, water walks,
protests, and teach-ins.
A key component of the YRITWC - which sets it apart from the IJC, CEC,
and ECC examples that I cite earlier in this chapter - is that its governance approach
is at its foundation more integrative. In addition, the tribal focus of the YRITWC
makes its purview substantially different from the ones mentioned in the previous
sections, particularly in relation to aligning goals of wellness and sovereignty to
water governance. A difficulty, of course, is that the enforcement capacity ones
apply to First Nations lands.
Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council
The Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council (YRITWC, or the Council)
is a leading example in North America of an Indigenous grassroots organiza-
tion whose purview spans multiple borders (Canada, U.S. provincial, state, and
Indigenous nations). Similar to its contemporary, the Coast Salish Gathering, the
YRITWC is designed by Indigenous leaders to protect and restore aquatic
ecosystems with the aim of protecting and maintaining the cultural, economic,
and environmental health of their communities. The scope of the river is staggering,
with a length of 3,185 kilometers from its headwaters in the Yukon Territory,
flowing west through Alaska and into the Pacific Ocean. The river's basin is even
more striking with 850,000 square kilometers.
The Yukon River has long impressed people by its size and length (see Figure
3.3). Known as the “Great River” - the Yu-kun-ah (Yukonah) by the Gwitch'in
peoples of its inner watershed, and the “large stream” - Kwiguik for the Yupik
people who reside in the river's delta (Coates, 2013). This river provides a unifying
source of livelihood, economy, and sense of place for those that live up and down
its banks. The extraordinary size of the river, diverse range of ecosystems, multiple
political jurisdictions, and the number of communities that rely on it for their
livelihood, makes communication and information-exchange between member
tribes a key goal of the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Council.
The YRITWC represents a collective initiative of seventy First Nations and
Tribes that reside within the massive watershed. The aim of the Council is to
improve the health and well-being of the watershed and the people who live within
it. Simply put, the Council's vision is “to be able to drink water directly from the
Yukon River” (YRITWC, 2013). The mission lays out its mandate:
We, the Indigenous Tribes/First Nations from the headwaters to the mouth
of the Yukon River, having been placed here by our Creator, do hereby agree
to initiate and continue the clean up and preservation of the Yukon River
for the protection of our own and future generations of our Tribes/First
Nations and for the continuation of our traditional Native way of life.