Session Coordinator: Chief Caleen Sisk, Winnemem Wintu Tribe/Indian Cultural Organization

 

In our language, Winnemem Wintu means “middle water people.” Since time immemorial, we have served as the ecological and spiritual caretakers of our ancestral watershed and its bountiful salmon runs. The Winnemem Waywaket (McCloud River in Northern California) is the center of our universe. The construction of the Shasta Dam interrupted our people's way of life and the migratory return of our Nur (Chinook salmon.) We consider the dam to be a weapon of mass destruction that flooded our village and sacred sites. As the salmon face extinction, our survival as a people is in peril - if the salmon do not exist, neither will we.

 

The Winnemem Wintu Tribe has catalyzed the formation of an unlikely and influential group of stakeholders including governmental agencies, farmers, scientists, environmentalists, and social justice advocates, who are united in the spirit of reconciliation to restore the Winnemem Waywaket (McCloud River) as California’s cold-water stronghold for Nur (Chinook salmon) within the next 10 years. This project is part of a suite of projects that implements the Tribe’s vision for a Waywaket ecosystem that restores key functions extinguished by colonization.

 

Working side-by-side to return ancestral lands and the ancestors themselves (Nur) to the river, we can show it is possible to heal wounds, and to create resilience for human and natural communities stretching from Buliyum Puyuuk (Mount Shasta) through to California's Central Valley in the face of climate change. This session focuses on the Winnemem Wintu's leadership and Indigenous science as the backbone of this monumental and essential restoration effort.