river management

UN 2023 Water Conference: Restoring Rivers, Restoring Sovereignty: Klamath River Dam Removals

Year

A discussion about the impacts of the Klamath River Dams on water resources, cultural practices, climate change and what the upcoming dam removals will mean for Northern California Tribal Nations.

Speakers:

  • Shannon Holsey, President, Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians, Treasurer, NCAI
  • Russell “Buster” Attebery, Chairman, Karuk Tribe
  • Joe James, Chairman, Yurok Tribe
  • Michael Connor, Assistant Secretary, Army for Civil Works
  • Danielle Frank, Youth Coordinator, Save California Salmon
Resource Type
Citation

National Congress of American Indians. "UN 2023 Water Conference: Restoring Rivers, Restoring Sovereignty: Klamath River Dam Removals". (April 24, 2023). Video. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4bJsBONZ7Y

Transcripts for all videos are available by request. Please email us: nni@arizona.edu.

New reporting project focuses on Indigenous food sovereignty in the Columbia River Basin

Producer
Oregon Public Broadcasting
Year

There’s no official definition for the term “food sovereignty,” but the Indian Affairs Bureau describes it as “the ability of communities to determine the quantity and quality of the food that they consume by controlling how their food is produced and distributed.”

Portland-based news outlet Underscore recently tackled the topic in a new series. The Food Sovereignty Project features stories of Indigenous communities rebuilding food systems, reclaiming traditional foods and practices and preserving that knowledge for future generations.

Project co-director Nicole Charley joins us to talk more about the series, along with freelance writer Leah Altman, who contributed two stories to the project.

Image: Farmland on Sauvie Island in early summer (Matvyei/English Wikipedia)

Transcript is available at the resource link.

The Role of Tribes and Tribal Relations in Creating a More Vibrant Arizona (Chapter in The 113th Arizona Town Hall's "Creating Vibrant Communities")

Year

Arizona’s rich history begins with its Native inhabitants. Since time immemorial, Native Peoples built their own vibrant communities in the region’s river valleys, high deserts, mountains, and forests. Western archeologists affirm this long occupancy; they document ancestral Puebloan, Sinagua, Hohokam, Mogollon, and Patayan peoples living in the southwest more than 13,000 years ago. By contrast, Arizona achieved statehood only in 1912. The impact of American Indians’ long-time presence in Arizona is both considerable and enduring. Numerous county, city, and town names derive from Indigenous words. Phoenix’s earliest irrigation canals depended on Native peoples’ engineering prowess. Many of the state’s most-beloved tourist attractions are located on Indian lands. And through economic progress achieved over the last 20 years, tribes have become major regional employers and key contributors to the well-being of many predominantly non-Native communities.

European settlement has largely had the opposite effect on Arizona’s Native communities: entire tribal populations have been relocated; Native peoples’ access to their lands, waters, and resources has been severely constrained; Native children have been removed from their tribal homes; and state and federal government policies have created systems of discrimination that have made the mere survival of American Indian people and their communities a challenge. Today, the 22 federally recognized Native nations that share a geography with Arizona are integral to the future of the state and to the vibrancy of Arizona communities – but the vitality of Arizona’s Native people also depends on state, local, and organization leaders making decisions that support and sustain tribes. While this chapter explores these issues in a standalone fashion, interconnections matter: Arizona thrives when its tribal communities thrive.

Resource Type
Citation

Figueroa, Holly, Miriam Jorgensen, and Joan Timeche. The Role of Tribes and Tribal Relations in Creating a More Vibrant Arizona.The 113th Arizona Town Hall's "Creating Vibrant Communities" (pp. 13-27). Arizona Town Hall. 2020.

NCAI Forum: Protecting Tribal Lands and Sacred Places: Current Threats Across Indian Country

Year

The latest in NCAI’s ongoing series of virtual events featuring tribal leaders, this forum shares the stories of five tribal nations working to protect their tribal homelands in the face of baseless attacks by the federal government, and discussed how the federal government must recommit to its trust and treaty obligations to all tribal nations in this critical area. Forum panelists included:

  • Cedric Cromwell, Chairman of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe
  • Mark Fox, Chairman of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation
  • Harold Frazier, Chairman of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe
  • Ned Norris, Jr., Chairman of the Tohono O’odham Nation
  • Terry Rambler, Chairman of the San Carlos Apache Tribe
Resource Type
Citation

National Congress of American Indians. "NCAI Forum: Protecting Tribal Lands and Sacred Places: Current Threats Across Indian Country". NCAI. June 29, 2020. Retreived on July 23, 2020 from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_DGzzlgkGo