What is the Waterkeeper Alliance?

The International Waterkeeper Alliance is made up of more than 240 chapters worldwide, all of whom protect the essential resource that gives life.

The Inside Passage Waterkeeper is the local chapter in Southeast Alaska and focuses only on the fresh and marine waters of our region.  We’re a homegrown, grassroots group with a simple mission: to keep Southeast Alaska’s clean water clean.

The First Waterkeepers

From the headwaters of the Nass River where Raven stole the moon, the stars, and the sun, to the place where the canoes rest near Yakutat, the first waterkeepers of the Inside Passage are the tribes and clans of the Tlingit and Haida nations.

Stories of respecting and protecting sacred salmon runs, like the Salmon Boy Story, are clan property and are not ours to tell. However, many of these stories describe long-lasting relationships with sockeye, dog salmon, and ooligan and the intimate human relationship with them, and serve as compasses to help guide human actions in relation to fish and the clean waters in which they live.

Who is a Waterkeeper?

Every Waterkeeper chapter is led by someone with experience in the field and skin in the game.  Our man for the job is Guy Archibald.  Guy is a formally trained chemist, with more than thirty years experience both in the field and in the lab.  He’s worked for the mining industry and as an educator, and he’s spent decades filling his freezer with wild Alaskan salmon, halibut, and deer.

In April 2014, Guy was adopted into the Teeyhíttaan clan.

Guy used to call Wrangell home, where he met his wife, a lifelong Wrangell resident.  They now live in Juneau, just north of the Taku River.