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1 day ago
Native Organizers Alliance

This weekend, we participated in the final days of the two week long All Our Relations Snake River Campaign with a flotilla at Hells Gate State Park as well as an event in Seattle, Washington! 🐟✨🛶

Since the beginning of time, Native peoples have depended on their deep connection with the Snake River and its salmon, but dams along the river threaten our sacred salmon with extinction. The journey brought more grassroots political pressure to this urgent campaign by visiting communities along the Snake River.

We will continue to work towards dam removal as well as total free, prior, and informed consent regarding access to the Snake River.

A big thank you to all who participated in the events, either in person or online. And a special gratitude is extended to A. Cyaltsa Finkbonner and Master Carver Jewell James who created the art pieces that traveled to each stop.

Please stay connected with our other co-sponsors as we keep this work going! This journey was made possible by Idaho Sierra Club, House of Tears, Intercommunity Peace & Justice Center, Nimiipuu Protecting the Environment, Save Our Wild Salmon, Native Vote Washington, Washington Conservation Action, Se’Si’Le, Giving Voice, and so many more.

📸: Megan C. Mack
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This weekend, we participated in the final days of the two week long All Our Relations Snake River Campaign with a flotilla at Hells Gate State Park as well as an event in Seattle, Washington! 🐟✨🛶

Since the beginning of time, Native peoples have depended on their deep connection with the Snake River and its salmon, but dams along the river threaten our sacred salmon with extinction. The journey brought more grassroots political pressure to this urgent campaign by visiting communities along the Snake River. 

We will continue to work towards dam removal as well as total free, prior, and informed consent regarding access to the Snake River. 

A big thank you to all who participated in the events, either in person or online. And a special gratitude is extended to A. Cyaltsa Finkbonner and Master Carver Jewell James who created the art pieces that traveled to each stop. 

Please stay connected with our other co-sponsors as we keep this work going! This journey was made possible by Idaho Sierra Club, House of Tears, Intercommunity Peace & Justice Center, Nimiipuu Protecting the Environment, Save Our Wild Salmon, Native Vote Washington, Washington Conservation Action, Se’Si’Le, Giving Voice, and so many more. 

📸: Megan C. MackImage attachmentImage attachment+2Image attachment

The All Our Relations Snake River Campaign is complete. A big thank you to all who participated, either in person or online in some way. We want to specifically thank Sierra Club, House of Tears, Intercommunity Peace & Justice Center, Nimiipuu Protecting the Environment, Save Our Wild Salmon, Native Vote Washington, Washington Conservation Action, Se’Si’Le, Giving Voice, and so many more who made this campaign possible.

A special thanks to A. Cyaltsa Finkbonner and Master Carver Jewell James for their pieces that traveled along the journey.
... See MoreSee Less

3 days ago
Native Organizers Alliance

The All Our Relations Snake River Campaign is a two-week, Indigenous-led campaign traveling through the Northwest to bring attention to the urgent need to remove the four lower Snake River dams as part of a comprehensive solution to restore salmon to abundance and uphold our nation’s promises to Northwest Tribes. Join us to hear from Tribal leaders, join in ceremony, and stand in solidarity for their call to restore a free-flowing lower Snake River. Events will feature an 8-foot-in diameter steel sculpture, handcrafted for the journey by Lummi Nation members A. Cyaltsa Finkbonner and Master Carver Jewell James that represents a vision of 'All Our Relations' and that will be used to smudge the events ... See MoreSee Less

Comment on Facebook

I hope it is being recorded - to share everywhere!

Chi miigwetch - this was such a thoughtfully organized event. Thank you.

is this event being recorded, so we can rewatch later?

I'm sorry to have missed the gathering at Hell's Gate yesterday, but glad to catch this!

I grew up with a free-flowing, wild Snake River just down the road from me. The destruction of that natural wild river through the damming of it broke my young and tender heart. To this day it breaks my heart to see the series of slack-water reservoirs that make up the Lower Snake River. It's not just time, it's past time to breach the 4 LSR dams!!

Chairman is amazing.

Wish the volume was higher! It's a little hard to hear them.

If we use less power, we don't need to produce as much.

Who is the gentleman on the far right, please? He just nailed it about being disconnected from Nature.

Chairman Wheeler is extremely wrong about his ideas. We can't afford "all of the above." Indigenous people have suffered unbelievably from radiation. These small reactors will be buried and forgotten and will contaminate generation after generation in the future. They produce more waste than large reactors and now the U.S. is turning out many tons of the most dangerous stuff humans have ever fabricated. And that's from the 95 large reactors running right now.

Water rights land rights fishing rights

The Elwha dams were removed after much river and plant research. And the upriver water is in protected relatively clean wilderness. What did we learn about the politics of removing dams from that effort that could be applied to the Snake River dam removal effort.

So glad to be attending this event. I have written a book for children about salmon, currently in the hands of an agent. Centers native American culture and values. Greatly needed to be known by children.

I agree with the current speaker. We've been looking for solutions to accommodate the issues of the non-natives. But, little attention is being paid to due care of our native tribes, treaties, wildlife, the environment, creation...

I can't forget having heard Sen Patty Murray announcing that with Gov Insley the decision to take down the dams because they are needed for power generation.

They must move faster

Many people think that fish ladders are sufficient for the movement of fish past dams. A fish biologist friend explained to me that baby fish die in fish ladders, when they're trying to get downstream. They need stronger current to carry them in the right direction; in fish ladders there's not enough current and the baby fish circle and die. Will anyone on your panel address the issue of fish ladders?

Solar uses LOTS of water. Those panels have to be washed every few months to operate efficiently.

Halt war. Put all militaries to work saving our ecosystems throughout the world.

Is there anyone who can talk about the Anishinabek/Iroquois 2017 declaration on the storage of spent nuclear fuel, or High-Level Radioactive Waste?

I am a board member of the Nuclear Energy Information Service. One huge issue among indigenous people is how they have been affected by the radiation released by atomic explosions on their territory and the resulting fallout. In addition the indigenous people mined the uranium without protection because they were lied to. The Indigenous people's population is way down because of thier history. (We are all affected by fallout. We're all downwinders now.) The basic difference between western ideas and indigenous ideas on how to handle High Level Radioactive Waste is this: Westerners want to bury it and forget about it. The indigenous KNOW this is not possible. We cannot bury and forget it. Read the Anishinabek/Iroquois 2017 joint declaration. We have to pay attention to nuclear waste in perpetuity.

¡¡ Real climate solutions are NOT radioactive!

Don't forget the krill or whatever the salmon feed on while in the ocean

Who is adversely impacted if dams are breached ?

Hello........ Yes, to protect

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“This is a step in the right direction,” said Shannon Wheeler, chair of the Nez Perce tribe, which is a party to the litigation and has long sought removal of dams on the Lower Snake to rebuild salmon runs.

In the recent order, President Biden cited a 1855 treaty that gives Tribes the right to fish freely in the Columbia and Snake rivers. 

Read the full article at @seattletimes

Quick Note: we acknowledge that this is as Shannon Wheeler started, ‘a step in the right direction’. NOA will continue to advocate for FPIC, or free, prior, and informed consent regarding these rivers.
September 30th is known as Orange Shirt Day 🧡

This day is set aside so that we as Indigenous people can honor those who survived the trauma of boarding schools as well as remember those who never made it home. 

We are proud of the work that @nabshc is leading, including the advocacy for the U.S. Truth & Healing Commission Bill, which will create a federal commission to investigate the harm caused by the U.S. Indian Boarding School Policy. 

Please follow NABSHC to support their work. And take care of yourself, your family, and your community today. 

#TruthJusticeHealing #IndianBoardingSchools 
#S1723
Rivers are vital. They are our lifelines. 🏞️ That’s why the 4th Sunday of each September is set aside to honor them. 

Currently, there are rivers at risk:

💧 Snake & Columbia Rivers: For millennia, salmon and the Snake and Columbia Rivers they call home sustained Indigenous peoples and cultures throughout the Northwest. Now, these habitats and the communities that rely are under threat. 

We’ve just launched a journey along the Snake River to protect salmon and Tribes’ treaty rights. If you’re in the Washington, Oregon, and Idaho area: check to see if there is a stop near you! There is also a virtual option for our October 1 event. 

💧 Kuskokwim River: A gold mine is currently in the works that would add mercury and arsenic into this river. People rely on subsistence fishing in the area, with salmon making up more than 50% of people’s annual diets, but the mine would destroy crucial salmon spawning habitats.

We are gathering names to support tribal sovereignty and environmental justice in Alaska’s Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. 

Tap the link in our bio to get involved. 

#WorldRiverDay

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