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"WE ARE WHAT, 70 percent water if we're hydrated? 80 percent? That's what we're doing. We are rearranging the water in your body to be able to hold joy.. .that's how I would characterize it. We're changing the water to be able to hold beauty.... That's what singing does for her on a personal level." -Melodie George-Moore (Hupa/Karuk)
It was August 2014 and I was driving up 1-5 on my way to the Lewiston Dam near Redding. I was going to meet up with many other Hupa, Yurok, and Karuk people and various supporters in the hopes that the Bureau of Reclamation could be swayed to release additional water flows into our rivers. Earlier that summer, the bureau had announced that there were no plans to augment river flows even though reports from biologists and community organizations had found the presence of a parasite that could endanger fish and wildlife. This parasite was the same one that had infected thousands upon thousands of fish in the Klamath River in 2002, a result of low water flows and high temperatures.
Over the past few years, the Trinity River has suffered from the constant seizure of water by Central Valley farmers and the State of California and the continued maintenance of the dam that keeps the river unseasonably low, but in good years the river is clear, cool, and a place of great social, spiritual, and cultural importance. The World Renewal ceremonies are held along the river, including a key part, the Boat Dance, which requires that the Hupa navigate down the river in canoes while dancing and singing. For a number of years, because of the continued seizure of water by outside interests, the Hupa have been forced to ask for water to be released so that they can perform this ceremony and help maintain the balance of the world. Over the past few years, our rivers have also had periods where they have become toxic to human beings and animals. In some of the hotter summer months, we have been faced with warnings not to swim in or drink the water from our river. We have also contended with continued threats to our fish and other wildlife.
In the Hoopa Valley we are, without a...