A Prayer For Salmon: Chapter 7. Agriculture and Genocide

The Run4Salmon bikes through rural areas in the upper Sacramento Valley where Euro American settlers changed the land to better suit an agrarian economy. The Winnemem Wintu and supporters remember the indigenous people who were forcibly removed and killed. An apology in Redding for the genocide may be well intentioned, but Chief Caleen Sisk insists action must accompany words. Read More “Colonization is the act of being a bad guest in someone else’s house. It is the act of destroying something you don’t understand because you don’t think it’s worth understanding.” —Lyla June Johnston Glenn County, CA. May 28, 2022. Nuts such as walnuts, almonds and pistachios are water-intensive and major export crops in California. Judy Silber/The Spiritual Edge A Prayer for Salmon is an 11 part audio documentary series from KALW’s The Spiritual Edge that tells the story of the Winnemem Wintu people and their clash with Northern California’s Shasta Dam. The dam’s construction turned California into an agricultural powerhouse. It also left the Winnemem Wintu displaced and without say over their land. The series details their fight to resist a proposed Shasta Dam Enlargement Project. It also highlights the Winnemem Wintu’s aspirations to return Chinook salmon to their homeland on the McCloud River, a major tributary of the dam.