This story was originally published in the Spring 2012 UW SRP eBulletin.
The Reaserch Translation Core (RTC) has been developing a new partnership with the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council. The Council is a steadfast and old friend of the University of Washington's Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS). Since 2007, the DEOHS Continuing Education Program has been involved in components of the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council cleanup plan in the Yukon River watershed - working in Alaska with Council members on several programs such as a hazardous and solid waste specialist certificate program.
Last spring, the director of the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council, Jon Waterhouse, accepted an RTC invitation to participate in a two-day summit of the Northwest Toxic Communities Coalition in Seattle. Jon shared information about their successful programs addressing toxic substances in the Yukon River watershed in Alaska.
The 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 Council provides Yukon First Nations and Alaska Tribes in the Yukon Watershed the technical assistance facilitating the development and exchange of information, coordinating efforts between First Nations and Tribes, undertaking research, and providing training with both education and awareness programs.
The RTC recently learned of a new program for youth called the Watershed Edventure, a watershed educational program led by Manny Masony from the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council. The multilayered project engages students, industry representatives and science teachers from a number of remote villages and pairs them with urban students. Working with their teachers, the students design problem-solving action plans focused on river system ecology to promote the health of the watershed and its Indigenous peoples.