[env-trinity] Winnemem Wintu: Delta Dying - Warriors Dance Nov. 26, 1 p.m

[Daniel Bacher]

Hello

I just received this announcement and press release from Gary Hayward 
Slaughter Mulcahy, Liaison for the Winnemem Wintu tribe, about this great 
event in San Francisco on Saturday. It commemorates the unveiling of a mural 
about the Winnemem Wintu's battle against cultural genocide. Please forward 
this to your contacts!

Thanks
Dan Bcher


“We Sing to Water"

1 PM November 26, 2005 San Francisco, Clarion Alley

Come to a Clarion Alley mural dedication about the Winnemem Wintu tribe and 
their fight against cultural genocide. The tribe lost their homeland under 
Shasta Dam in 1945, and now California is trying to flood the last Winnemem 
sacred sites on the McCloud River.

Come and learn about the Winnemem campaign against the state and California 
agribusiness. Caleen Sisk-Franco, tribal leader and War Dancers from the 
Winnemem Wintu Tribe will dance in traditional regalia in a dedication of 
the mural and a memorial to Florence Jones, who passed away Nov. 22, 2003.

This event is free and wheelchair accessible. Location: Clarion Alley at 
Valencia Street. Contact: SF Print Collective 415-821-7282  www.hypersea.net 
  Tribe Info:   www.winnememwintu.us

Gary Mulcahy
Emissary and Governmental Liaison
Winnemem Wintu Tribe
(916)991-8493 mobile (916)214-8493
gary at ranchriver.com

Winnemem Wintu Tribe
14840 Bear Mountain Road
Redding, CA. 96003
www.winnememwintu.us

CONTACT:
Gary Hayward Slaughter Mulcahy, tribal liaison (916) 214-8493
Evan Bissell, muralist (415) 686-2079

Press Release: For Immediate Release

[NOTE: PRESS CONFERENCE 1 PM 11/26/05 ON SITE]

DELTA DYING – WARRIORS DANCE

San Francisco, CA November 21, 2005 – On Saturday, November 26, the Winnemem 
Wintu tribe will bring its Warriors to San Francisco and the dying delta. 
“We sing to water,” says Caleen Sisk-Franco, Spiritual and Tribal Leader for 
the Winnemem. “We have to give the river a voice.  We have to give the fish 
a voice. The sacred places need to be protected,” said Sisk-Franco.

That was the call to Hu’p Chonas, “War Dance” when the Winnemem Wintu fasted 
and danced for 4-days and nights at Shasta Dam in September 2004. It was the 
tribe’s first war dance in over 100 years, called because of the threat to 
cultural, historical and sacred sites by the Bureau of Reclamations proposed 
enlargement of the Dam.

Built in 1945, Shasta Dam became the largest dam in the state and flooded 
over 90% of the Winnemem homeland. The new proposal, part of the CALFED 
storage project, would raise the dam an additional 6 to 200 feet in order to 
guarantee more water deliveries to huge Agri-business than have historically 
been delivered. “Raising Shasta Dam even 6 feet will flood most of our 
remaining sacred sites on the McCloud River that we still use today,” said 
tribal leader Sisk-Franco.

“When we first entered this fight, we only saw a small piece of the threat 
to our people, the water, and the salmon with the proposed raising of Shasta 
Dam,” said Mark Franco, Headman of Kerekmet Village, “But as we learned more 
of CALFED, and the water projects related to it, we learned that the water 
and salmon throughout Northern California, and the life of the Delta itself 
are threatened,” said Franco.

“We are deeply concerned about the recent discovery that the Delta Smelt are 
at their lowest ever recorded levels,” said Gary Hayward Slaughter Mulcahy, 
Liaison for the Winnemem Wintu tribe. “We have always wanted to bring the 
salmon home to the McCloud, but the news of the Smelt population does not 
bode well for the Delta Estuary. The Delta Estuary is key in the survival of 
the salmon as they leave the spawning grounds to go out to sea, and return 
to spawn in adulthood. A dying estuary could mean extinction."

On Saturday, November 26 the Winnemem Wintu tribe will be in San Francisco 
to unveil a Mission District mural that honors the campaign against the 
proposed raise of Shasta Dam, and their struggles to protect cultural, 
historic and natural resources. The mural, created by Evan Bissell and 
Claude Moller, depicts Winnemem Wintu tribal members at the ceremonial war 
dance on Shasta Dam.

According to lead muralist Claude Moller, “the mural was a cooperative 
project between San Francisco artists fighting gentrification and the 
Winnemem Wintu tribe who are fighting displacement from their homeland.”

Entitled “We sing to Water,” the mural will be on display through March 
2006. Sponsored by Hypersea and Intersection for the Arts, this project is 
the fourth in a series of community based murals known as the Living Walls 
Mural Project.

The unveiling is taking place this Thanksgiving weekend to highlight threats 
to the Winnemem and the struggles to protect California resources and 
cultural heritage. The unveiling of the mural, located in the Clarion Alley 
mural corridor, will begin at 1 pm.  Clarion Alley is located one block 
south of 17th street near Valencia Street in San Francisco.

Caleen Sisk-Franco, tribal leader and, War dancers from the Winnemem Wintu 
will dance in traditional regalia to “sing to the water” and “give the 
salmon a voice.” This ceremony will be a dedication to the mural and a 
memorial to Florence Jones, the Winnemem Wintu’s Spiritual and Tribal Leader 
who passed away Nov 22, 2003.

“We thank Evan and Claude for this great gift they have given us with this 
mural.  It not only depicts our struggles, but represents the principles 
taught to us by our “Grams” Florence Jones and what we stand for as a 
people.  On this day, as we sing, dance and pray for the water, we give 
thanks in memory of Grams,” said Caleen Sisk-Franco, Tribal Leader and Great 
Niece of Florence Jones.

###
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Living Walls Project:  www.hypersea.net
Winnemem Wintu Tribe: www.winnememwintu.us
or Google:  “Winnemem” or “Winnemem Wintu”
CONTACT INFORMATION:

Gary Hayward Slaughter Mulcahy, tribal liaison (916) 214-8493
Evan Bissell, muralist (415) 686-2079
Mark Franco, Headman of Kerekmet Village (530) 275-2737