[env-trinity] Times-Standard: Tribes gather to present water protection rights

[Tom Stokely]

http://www.times-standard.com/article/20170304/NEWS/170309936&template=printart
Tribes gather to present water protection rights

By Natalya Estrada, nestrada at times-standard.com, @natedoge4412 on TwitterSaturday, March 4, 2017More than 70 people gathered at Humboldt State University on Saturday for a six-hour conference on the importance of indigenous and native water protectors and land defenders.“(My people say) we make the world by how we walk on it,” Tia Oros Peters of the Pueblo of Zuni said.Peters, who serves as executive director of the Seventh Generation Fund for Indigenous Peoples, spoke about fighting aquacide — a term used to describe the oppression of water resources that directly impacts native land and people. “We need to stand up against the killing of the waters. Against mega industrial development, hydrofracking, toxins, violence, extractive industrial development,” she said. “All the many ways that settled colonialism invaders have put here is running rampant like spiders across the world, devouring everything.”The event — titled “Water is Life: A gathering to Protect the Water” — was presented by the HSU Environment and Community Club as well as the HSU Indian Natural Resources Science and Engineering Club.It featured speakers from dozens of tribes, both local and from across the United States. A major topic was exploring the history and future of water protectors beyond Standing Rock in North Dakota.The threat of a pipeline along rivers, according to Peters, extends to the Southern Oregon and Northern California border. The Canadian company Veresen is currently planning to build a 232-mile pipeline across southern Oregon to transport liquefied natural gas along the Klamath River. The Karuk, Hoopa, Yurok and Klamath tribes have all passed resolutions opposing the pipeline. Willard Carlson of the Yurok Tribe spoke about the Fish Wars along the Klamath River in the late 1970s.He said that in 1978, California imposed a ban on sports and Native American fishing in the Klamath River because the salmon run numbers had decreased.This ultimately led to a 1993 ruling in which the Yurok and Hoopa Valley tribes were allowed to take 50 percent of harvestable surplus salmon returning to spawn in the Klamath Basin. Carlson said today the fish count is incredibly low, and the tribe has done a self imposed moratorium on their commercial fishing. “We have to look at everything and all the factors in order to take care of this resource. How we can take care of this is having solidarity. We look at Standing Rock, the ‘78 Fish Wars and Wounded Knee and we can see how similar the stories are,” Carlson said. “I knew that I was always going to fight for water, that’s why myself and others are still here.”Peters said the Standing Rock water protectors were not just fighting the Dakota Access Pipeline for several years, but that all Native Americans have been fighting for water rights and sovereignty for more than 500 years. She said the federal government did not recognize human rights for 500 million Native Americans until 2007.“It always leads to water,” Peters said. “Everywhere there’s a fight for indigenous rights is linked to water. And everywhere there’s a fight to human rights is linked to water. Like the thousands of people at Standing Rock fighting for water, this is responsibility we have to future generations.”Natalya Estrada can be reached at 707-441-0510.
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