Voice of the River

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We are assisting the Washington State MMIWP Task Force conduct the survivor and family interviews. We are not the primary contact.

To schedule, email the Washington MMIWP Task Force email listed on the flyer.

Our stories are important and need to be heard.

Today, on National Indigenous Peoples Day in Canada, we are delighted to share a short highlight video from our recent Bringing the Salmon Home Transboundary Tour Launch events.

Hundreds of people celebrated the Transboundary Tour Launch with events around the headwaters of the Columbia River in late May 2024. This tour is designed to advance ceremonial, cultural and technical exchange over the coming year with US Tribes and allies all along this One Great River.

Click the link below to watch this great short video now!

https://vimeo.com/954100043?share=copy

📸: Jeremy Williams

Tonight!

“Wholeness doesn’t create wholeness, in my experience. It is fragmentation that creates the opportunity for wholeness, and this includes the opportunity for continued fragmentation.”

Janet Adler, from her book
‘intimacy in emptiness, an evolution in embodied consciousness’

The Confluence project is offering a 1-year paid internship for an Emerging Indigenous Artist/Educator. They just extended the deadline to September 14th (though it says Sept. 1st below) to allow for more applicants. Please share widely with those who might have interest!
confluenceproject.org
Confluence is a great organization supporting and highlighting Indigenous voices throughout the Columbia Basin. They support storytelling, art installations and upkeep, celebrations and education related to the culture and ecology of our region.
who they are:
"Confluence connects you to the history, living cultures, and ecology of the Columbia River system through Indigenous voices. We are a community-supported nonprofit that works through six art landscapes, educational programs, and public g*therings in collaboration with northwest tribes, communities, and the celebrated artist Maya Lin." (website)

https://www.facebook.com/danceecology/posts/761651022633630

Blue spaces: why time spent near water is the secret of happiness Coastal environments have been shown to improve our health, body and mind. So should doctors start issuing nature-based prescriptions?

Headwaters Elegy is a movement choir created and performed as part of the Voice of the River project in Spokane, Washington. The theme is a written apology to Native Americans that was never presented. IT was part of a set of dances choregraphed for VOR, created to highlight the importance of rivers, movement in nature, and efforts to return salmon back to the Upper Columbia River. It was part of the Global Water Dances project.

It was performed to the words of the apology, as read by artist Renee Honrada

Choreographed by Mindi Sheer and Marisa Glesk, Holly Borba

Dancers: Jimmie Allen, Holly Borba, Marisa Glesk, Mindi Sheer,
Stefani VanDeest, Mokeph Wildflower

Reading by Renee Honrada

The VOR dances were performed on the banks of the
Spokane River, on historic and ancestral
lands of the Spokane and Coeur d'Alene people.

Peoples Park, Spokane, Washington , Global Water Dance 2021

Senate Joint Resolution 37 was drafted to acknowledge "a long history of official depredations and ill-conceived policies by the United States Government regarding Indian tribes and offer an apology to all Native Peoples on behalf of the United States". It was introduced on May 6, 2004 and an edited version of it was passed in 2009. It was passed as part of a Defense appropriations bill. The apology as written was never presented to Native American tribes.

Headwaters Elegy is a plea for a proper acknowledgement and apology
to finally be presented to Tribal representatives by
the U.S. Government

Headwaters Headwaters Elegy is a movement choir created and performed as part of the Voice of the River project in Spokane, Washington. The theme of this piece is a wr...

Report by NMFS - Snake River Dam breaching is a necessity! Taken years to come to this…

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SUNDAY READ: Feds release definitive scientific report finding that Lower Snake River dam removal is essential to recovering healthy and harvestable populations of salmon. ⁠
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Page 16 of the National Marine Fisheries Service's report explains: "To make progress towards healthy and harvestable stocks it is essential that the comprehensive suite of management actions includes: Significant reductions in direct and indirect mortality from mainstem dams, including restoration of the lower Snake River through dam breaching."⁠
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*Report link in bio.⁠
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Given efforts to bring salmon to the Spokane River, this may be something needed at some point. With the 150 fish released in August, it seems likely that in the next month or so anglers and others may find some carcasses in our waters, if the fish spawn & finish their life cycle.

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The Bringing the Salmon Home initiative asks anglers to notify us of any adult chinook salmon they encounter, either live catch & release, or as found carcasses, in the Columbia River area in Canada. See the poster here for details of how to identify these fish and how to contact us.

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Today and tomorrow are the 9th One River Ethics Matter conference, hosted at EWU, the Spokane Tribe, the Coeur d'Alene Tribe, and the Upper Columbia United Tribes. Please check out part of this if you can - it is all remote / virtual this year. This is about bringing salmon back to our Spokane River, and the larger ethical consequences of the past, as well as looking forward to stewardship of the river and salmon as the Columbia River Treaty negotiations move forward. Good chance to learn what has been happening!
https://riverethics.org/2022-orem-spokane-agenda/

2022 OREM Spokane: Agenda – One River, Ethics Matter 2022 OREM Spokane River: Agenda 9th in a series of annual conferences on ethics, and the past and future of the Columbia River_____________________videoconference on 2 mornings: Sept 27-28, 9am startto RegisterConference Overviewto view a short film from last year’s OREM-8: Restoring ntytyix (salm...

Follow Bringing The Salmon Home]] for more info on the work & g*thering of young people around bringing back the salmon to the Canadian headwaters!

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In August, 21 young people from the Syilx Okanagan, Ktunaxa, and Secwépemc Nations g*thered at the headwaters of the Columbia River for our first ever Salmon Warriors Youth Gathering. It was a wonderful success!⁠
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Make sure you’re following us here Bringing The Salmon Home]], as we’ll soon be sharing photos, videos, and stories of the many powerful moments from these incredible few days together. ⁠
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Such a moving experience to have been present for this release as well, in Invermere, British Columbia. Being a present for these fish being released, with all holding space and ceremony moves me for this work. Being non-indigenous and a part of some of this work in BC has given me a new perspective about nature, fish, the gift of patience, and embodied prayer.
https://youtu.be/FMLGRTpyiJg

Salmon and Ceremony in the Columbia River Headwaters On May 19, 2022,Kenpesq (Shuswap Indian Band) g*thered at the headwaters of the Columbia River near Invermere BC.Members of the Ktunaxa, Syilx and Secwepemc ...

October 2020 my birthday gift from was this brilliant creation of ephemeral art by .botanical.alchemists . I wanted something that captured the essence of the magic & beauty of the king salmon. As a birthday prayer forward to the land and water, we danced nearby & did some group movement, and danced to silly 80s songs. My sister and neice were dubious, but joined in. One of Mindi’s strange outside dance things….. We chose chose rocks to represent each fin, head, tail, etc. and broken ponderosa pine branches to create the shape. .botanical.alchemists worked their design and color magic & hauled rocks to create the body. This helped me greatly to see how beauty in the land and personal embodied prayer through movement & dance and art was one way I could contribute.

This followed after at the confluence nearby, and led to voices of the River performance art project, then 2022 at the base of the Spokane Falls nearby. All done with my inspired partner in dance & creation . With the support of many, doing something that seemed so ‘out there’, but important.

The fish swam right by here Thursday for the first time in 100yrs, bringing tears to my eyes. I knew it would happen.

Only the rocks remain now, only a few, but memories of the brilliant colors are a touchstone of my belief in the magic of nature and resilience of nature and tribe and First Nations people of the Inland NW.

There is a need for nonindigenous to put in efforts to contribute in their way to speak to and speak up for reparations to native people in this region. Salmon are just one way.

Salmon release ! The Spokane tribe released over 100 Adult Chinook salmon near People’s Park yesterday, and I couldn’t be happier.

The kings & queens of the salmon world now swim in the waters of the Spokane River! An historic event! Watch for them as you float the River.

This is only possible because of the efforts of the Upper Columbia tribes, Spokane, Colville, Couer D’Alene, Kootenay, Kalispel.

These fish came from Wells Dam, near Brewster WA, near where the Okanagan River flows into the Columbia. They’d made it 1000s of miles from the ocean - and 500 miles up the Columbia River, to be brought past the impassable dams on the Columbia (Chief Joseph & Grand Coulee) and Spokane River by truck, may their brief home here be filled with sufficient cool water & flows, and they find spawning grounds.

Yes! Thank you KHQ & the Spokane Tribe and all others who helped along the way to make it happen!

'This is really to restore our way of life': Hundreds g*ther to help return Chinook salmon to the Spokane River "If you would've told me three years ago that we would be putting adult salmon in the upper Spokane River I would've smirked and said, 'No way'," Coeur d'Alene Tribe

At the final day of the National American Fisheries Society meeting. So nice catching up with so many old friends and being around 1000s of fish heads again!!! Powerful to participate in the Chinook salmon fish release just downstream of the Spokane Falls - here in my hometown. So many other AFS attendees got the chance to see the involvement and efforts of the Upper Columbia United Tribes - and hear their sentiments, and learn more about the story of how these fish are coming back, with the efforts of the tribes - Spokane, Coeur d’Alene, Colville, Kootenay and Kalispel. What a day! ~ 150 adult Chinook salmon were released just upstream of Sandifur bridge in People’s Park.

For so many reasons - human, animal, ecological, culturally - this park near the confluence of the Spokane River and Hangman Creek function as the heartbeat of Spokane - especially for those who want to get close to the River. Historically this site is rich in indigenous and non indigenous experiences and importance. Currently, it is the g*thering place for many - and in many ways the spiritual hub of Spokane - where many come together every morning & evening, weekdays, weekends, etc .

As the group prayed for the river to receive the fish, it struck me that the site had been waiting so long for their return.

Safe passage silvery kings & queens of the salmon world ! may your lives not be in vain as you provide your progeny to our local rivers. Look gently upon the river just below the falls - this river is graced with what is called the ‘King salmon’. But we all know the Queens are key to making this lineage continue - graced by royalty. You will leave your bodies as a sacrament, gleaning nutrients gained from your ocean journey. River otters and maybe a lucky bear, mink, eagle, coyote, crows, ravens, and others , and even us, may find your bodies this fall. They will have a flash of recognition - as they remember you were their food along the River in previous generations.

safe passage to your silvery progeny as they go to the ocean, then we hope to have them back to the Inland NW once again years from now, with the aid of the tribes and others helping getting them past Chief Joseph & Grand Coulee dams.

And the will and help of all the federal and state agencies, and even Congress, who will need to ease the way to pitch in on this one. Including Idaho and CDA, who hold the water the River needs to support healthy redds. Salmon are an emblem of connection, and require us to come together,

Releases happening today near Sandifur bridge.

Not so long ago, we danced on the banks of the Spokane doing OUR version of calling the salmon home through art dance and spoken word. It’s with great joy I’ll attend this public release of adult Chinook salmon near where we performed. I can still hear Jerry say so emphatically -
‘And they Will be here again’

Releases happening today near Sandifur bridge.

Not so long ago, we danced on the banks of the Spokane doing OUR version of calling the salmon home through art dance and spoken word. It’s with great joy I’ll attend this public release of adult Chinook salmon near where we performed. I can still hear Jerry say so emphatically -
‘And they Will be here again’

https://afsannualmeeting.fisheries.org/spokane-tribe-fish-release/

Spokane Tribe Fish Release – AFS Annual Meeting Special Event Invitation from the Spokane Tribe of IndiansOur ancestors g*thered on the banks of the Spokane River near sƛ’x̣étkw (Spokane Falls) for generations. They would enjoy the bounty of salmon and the life provided by the river. It has been over a century since we have had reason to g*t...

Pope Francis "pilgrimage of penance" in Canada.

Pope Francis begins his "pilgrimage of penance" in Canada.

Image: Vatican News

‘It has a pierced heart’: an Indigenous tribe’s fight to protect a sacred lake Increased human activity is driving excess phosphorus into Coeur d’Alene Lake – making a tribe’s vital resource vulnerable to a looming ecological catastrophe

The resilience of these creatures always gives me hope. Dam counts over the years.


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Numbers numbers numbers. Take a peek at a 20 year look back at steelhead and wild steelhead counts at Bonneville from 4/1-6/24. With the last 5 years of horror in the rear view, there appears to be good signs in the daily counts. This year is sitting on the 10 year average, but we have to remember this current 10 year ain’t great. Don’t let the shifting baseline syndrome get ya. My outlook or this year is…..CAUTIOUS OPTIMISM. One day at a time, with all fingers crossed.

Bringing salmon home to the true headwaters - the Canadian headwaters of the Columbia River.
Was honored to be present for this moving experience as part of the technical team. Salmon have been gone over 80 years, but they are coming back!

We invite you to join our discussion on what the future of the National Park System could look like with the inclusion of Indigenous voices and traditional ecological knowledge.

📅 May 26, 2022
🕑 2:00 pm ET
📍 virtually via Zoom

Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_6jrcKp1OToq120yF-3NUxQ

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Proud to be working on the Habitat technical study mentioned here! Follow Bringing The Salmon Home] for updates on what is happening in the Upper Columbia




Repost from Bringing The Salmon Home]
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Our work has developed and expanded over the last three years — inspired by our shared vision and commitment. Our work is centred in the understanding that it will take all of us working together to bring the salmon home. This week, we’re reflecting on what we’ve accomplished together so far.⁠
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💦 Technical Studies 💦⁠
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We launched three technical studies, piloted by the three Indigenous Nations leading our Initiative. ⁠
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These studies include the synthesis and standardization of knowledge around salmon habitat in the upper Columbia River; learning design for salmon release into this habitat; and risk assessment for a multi-year salmon reintroduction.⁠
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The multi-year research plan offers us a comprehensive framework for bringing the salmon home.⁠
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To learn more about our work, please check out our website, linked in our profile. Thank you!⁠
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📷: Chinook salmon, Eiko Jones () photo⁠
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This week you have an opportunity to hear from Indigenous leaders, elders, youth, musicians, artists, and knowledge keepers.

Join us for the Bringing the Salmon Home Festival, happening online Tuesday May 3 & Wednesday May 4, 2022. All the presentations are free, and fascinating! Sign up here:
https://columbiariversalmon.ca/events-2022/



Columbia Basin Trust photo