[env-trinity] McCloud River Indians to hold WAR DANCE at Shasta Dam

[Daniel Bacher]

Winnemem Wintu Tribe www.winnememwintu.us .
Media Contact: Charlotte Berta
Cell: 916-207-2378

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NOTE: PRESS CONFERENCE: 4 PM 9/12/04 AT SHASTA DAM SITE

McCloud River Indians to hold WAR DANCE at Shasta Dam

Redding, CA September 8, 2004 The Winnemem (McCloud River) Wintu Tribe have 
called for a “War Dance” to be held at Shasta Dam, north of Redding, 
California, beginning September 12th through September 16th. The tribe is 
alarmed by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s proposal to raise the dam 
because they lost much of their homelands, and their salmon, when the dam 
was first constructed. “Any raising of the dam, even a few feet, will flood 
some of our last remaining sacred sites on the McCloud River,” sites we 
still use today,” says Caleen Sisk-Franco, Winnemem Spiritual and Tribal 
Leader. “Village sites, burial grounds, and ceremonial grounds will all be 
lost forever,” she continued.


The last time the Winnemem invoked the War Dance was in 1887 when a fish 
hatchery on the McCloud River was the enemy and protecting the salmon and 
the Wintu way of life was the focus. One hundred seventeen years later the 
specter of Shasta Dam, already an implement of destruction to the Winnemem, 
looms large. Again, the Wintu are under siege. “We prayed on it. On what it 
was we were supposed to do about the raising of the dam and we were told to 
hold a war dance,” said Sisk - Franco. “Our ancestors showed the way with 
the dance against the fish hatchery and this is the path that was shown to 
us. We gave up a lot of our homeland for the sake of the California people, 
and got nothing in return. Now you want to take our sacred places, and again 
we get nothing in return. How is this fair, over and over again? This is not 
right,” she said. “This is too much to ask of a people.”

When Shasta Dam was first proposed, Congress passed a law authorizing the 
federal government to take the lands and burial grounds that the Winnemem 
had for a thousand years. Promises were made to the tribe that still have 
not been kept. The Tribe is asking that the BOR resolve these long standing 
debts before proceeding with its studies. The Tribe also wants the BOR, as 
part of the ongoing CALFED process, to increase water storage and meet 
California’s growing thirst, to study alternatives to raising the dam such 
as better management practices for the existing reservoir and conservation 
options, as well as better protection of the fish populations. But the most 
important issue is the threat that raising the dam poses to the cultural 
resources along the McCloud River, sites that are eligible for listing on 
the National Register of Historic Places as Traditional Cultural Properties.


At risk are burial grounds that include the victims of the massacre at 
Kaibai (Kî – bay) Creek, Puberty Rock, where the young women’s coming of age 
ceremonies are held, and Children’s Rock, where the young ones place their 
hands for blessings to make them good people and help them understand and 
magnify whatever special gifts they hold, said Mark Franco, Headman of the 
tribe’s Kerekmet Village.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE HISTORY OF THE WINNEMEM, THE 1887 WAR DANCE, 
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE MC CLOUD RIVER CULTURAL SITES AND THE CURRENT ISSUES 
OVER THE RAISING OF SHASTA DAM, VISIT THE WINNEMEM WINTU TRIBE WEB SITE AT
www.winnememwintu.us .
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE PRESS CONFERENCE, INTERVIEWS, or PHOTOGRAPHY - 
CALL Charlotte Berta - Cell: 916-207-2378

ALSO: Mark Franco, Headman of Kerekmet Village, Caleen Sisk-Franco (530) 
275-2737 On September 12, 2004 at a site near Shasta Dam, just before dusk, 
a sacred ceremonial fire will be lit, a drum will beat, a song will begin, 
the fast will start, and an ancient dance will be under way. For the next 4 
days, the fire, the drum, the songs and the dance will carry the prayers of 
the Winnemem people. The dance is being held under a permit issued by The 
Bureau of Reclamation. (BOR) The Tribe has held several meetings with the 
BOR to raise questions about the feasibility of the BOR’s plans, the impacts 
it will have on the tribe and their way of life, and the troubled history 
between the tribe and the BOR.