MEDIA ADVISORY

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                                               

Contact: Toby McLeod
September 9, 2019
 650-400-9000                                                                                                                                                                   tm@sacredland.org

California Indian Tribe Embarks on 300-Mile Prayerful Journey
to Bring Back Wild Salmon

Winnemem Wintu Tribe Leads Run4Salmon for Fourth Consecutive Year
While Defending Sacred Sites Threatened by Shasta Dam Raise

VALLEJO, California — For the fourth consecutive year, Chief Caleen Sisk and the Winnemem Wintu Tribe will lead a 300-mile prayerful journey tracing the migratory spawning route of winter-run Chinook salmon to advocate for the restoration of salmon runs, protection of waterways and preservation of the lifeways of indigenous people.

Known as the Run4Salmon, the 2019 journey is the culmination of four years of organizing, music and ceremony, which has established a powerful, indigenous led movement to protect the state’s endangered salmon. The Winnemem Wintu are also gathering support for their own plan to return salmon to the McCloud River.

“The winter-run Chinook salmon are on the verge of extinction,” said Chief Sisk. “Years of drought, pollution and water mismanagement have devastated their once thriving populations. Since Shasta Dam was built 74 years ago, salmon have been unable to return to their cold spawning waters in the Winnemem’s ancestral watershed. We are working to bring the genetic descendants of our salmon from New Zealand back to their home waters.”

In a struggle that parallels Native Hawaiians’ stand to defend Mauna Kea from the Thirty-Meter Telescope, the Winnemem Wintu are fighting the proposed 18.5-foot raise of Shasta Dam, which would submerge or damage at least 40 sacred sites on the McCloud River. Many of their sacred sites and cemeteries were already lost to Shasta Lake.

The proposed infrastructure project, backed by the Trump administration, is the subject of multiple lawsuits. Another potential target of lawsuits is the Trump administration’s California water plan which ignores or hastily rewrites biological studies to justify diverting even more water, needed by endangered salmon, to corporate agribusiness.

The Run4Salmon will begin on the afternoon of Saturday, September 14, when Chief Sisk and Lisjan Ohlone leader Corrina Gould will hold an opening ceremony at Sogorea Te (Glen Cove in Vallejo), an Ohlone sacred site. Run4Salmon participants will begin the journey the next day, following a 300-mile route that will encompass walking, running, biking, boating, singing, dancing and horseback riding until they have reached the salmon spawning grounds on the “middle water” or Winnemem Waywaket (McCloud River). The journey will end with a closing ceremony on Sunday, September 29 at a Winnemem Wintu village and ceremonial site on the McCloud River.

Media Availability

Chief Caleen Sisk is available for media interviews by telephone prior to September 14. Please contact Toby McLeod, 650-400-9000, tm@sacredland.org, to arrange a pre-interview.  On Sept. 14, reporters may arrive at 2 p.m. at Sogorea Te (Glen Cove, Vallejo),
if they wish to conduct in-person interviews with Chief Sisk and/or Corrina Gould.

Media Resources

For more information about the Run4Salmon, visit: www.Run4Salmon.org

Related media coverage:
LA Times: A Report Shows Trump’s Water Plan Would Hurt California Salmon. The Government Hid It.

YES Magazine: The Shasta Dam Killed Off This Tribe’s Salmon – Or So They Thought

KQED Radio: Northern California Tribe Treks 300 Miles to Save Its Salmon
Interior Renews Push to Raise Shasta Dam

High Country News: Interior Revives the Push for Higher Shasta Dam

Educational Resources

The Winnemem Wintu Tribe and the Sacred Land Film Project have created a 4th grade Run4Salmon curriculum so teachers and students can follow the journey in September and learn about endangered salmon and Native California history.

Run4Salmon Journey: Dates and Highlights for Media

Friday, Sept. 13:
Chief Sisk and Lisjan Ohline leader Corrina Gould will lead a prayer ceremony at the West Berkeley Shellmound, 1900 4th Street, Berkeley, from 6 to 8 p.m.

Saturday, Sept. 14: Chief Sisk and Corrina Gould will lead the Run4Salmon Opening Ceremony at Sogorea Te (Glen Cove, Vallejo), starting at 3 p.m. Media Availability at 2 p.m.

Tuesday, Sept. 17: Chief Sisk will lead a number of public officials from state environmental protection agencies on an educational boat tour of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Space is very limited. Reporters contact Toby McLeod for more information.

Saturday, Sept. 21:  A concert will be held in Chico on Saturday, September 21 at 7 p.m. at Riparia Farm, 2300 Estes Road.

Wednesday, Sept. 25: “When Salmon Speaks Forum” featuring Chief Sisk and Restore the Delta’s Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla at 6 p.m. on the second floor of the Shasta Arts Council, 1313 N. Market Street, Redding.

Sunday, Sept. 29: Closing ceremony at the former Winnemem Wintu village site now called the McCloud Bridge campground.