Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Tribe protests plans to raise dam

A local tribe showed its displeasure with a proposal to raise Shasta Dam here by holding a four-day fast and ceremonial war dance beginning at dusk Sept. 11. Members of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe contend the proposal, which the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation could unveil by the end of this year, would cause more of their historical lands along the McCloud River to be flooded. “We’re a traditional tribe — we believe in our ceremonies and we believe in the sacred,” said Caleen Sisk, chief of the tribe based in Redding, Calif. “We’re telling the sacred places and the river that we’re doing everything we can to bring the salmon back and help the waters.” The Winnemem say they lost much of their homeland and their salmon when the dam was first constructed, and any raising would threaten to submerge many of their sacred sites and village areas. “We’re hoping the people of California will wake up to some of the water issues,” Sisk said. “California should be a salmon state … Before we started farming in the desert, we had every run of salmon. We should do that again because that’s what’s good for California.” While raising the dam has long been discussed as a way to add water storage, Reclamation officials are studying a series of alternative ranging from taking no action to raising it by 18 feet, project spokesman Louis Moore said...more

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