[env-trinity] Klamath-Trinity salmon runners join Run4Salmon after 50 Mile Trinity Connection Run

[Regina Chichizola]

Klamath-Trinity salmon runners join Run4Salmon after 50 Mile Trinity
Connection Run
https://newsmaven.io/indiancountrytoday/the-press-pool/klamath-trinity-salmon-runners-join-run4salmon-after-50-mile-trinity-connection-run-kRWFlDicj0uROhhSAKXL-Q/
(Photo: Save California Salmon)
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Members of four separate local Sacramento, Klamath and Trinity River Tribes
ran in the Trinity connection

*News Release*

*Save California Salmon*

*Winnemem Wintu Tribe*

On Wednesday, September 25, runners from the Run4Salmon on the Sacramento
River watersheds and runners from the Klamath River Salmon run joined
together to run together on the first ever Trinity Connection run for the
Winnemem Wintu Tribe’s Run Salmon. The runners followed the route of the
Trinity River diversion from the Lewiston Dam, down the Clear Creek
watershed, then met the Run4Salmon at the Shasta Dam for a No Dam Raise
rally.

“This run was a statement on bringing the salmon people together and on
bringing the salmon back to where the need to be,” stated Yurok Tribal
member Richard Myers. “We ran from one nation to the other as salmon are a
common denominator for Indian people. It needs to be recognized that we are
connected through the waters of life, which provide for the people. This
run was a way of doing this.”

Members of four separate local Sacramento, Klamath and Trinity River Tribes
ran in the Trinity connection. The Trinity River is the largest tributary
to the Klamath River and over 50 percent of it is diverted to the
Sacramento River. Over 80 percent of the river was diverted until a major
agreement to restore the river was made between the Hoopa Valley Tribe and
Department of the Interior right before the Klamath River fish kill in
2002. Trinity River releases beyond this agreement are now used to avert
Klamath River fish kills in low water years.

The Trinity River is threatened by the projects that threaten the
Sacramento River and Bay Delta such as the Sites Reservoir, Shasta Dam
raise, the Delta tunnel proposal and the new Trump Biological Opinion
(Trump water plan) for the Central Valley federal and state water
projects.

“Physically connecting to the lands that the creator bestowed to my people
by foot on routes we have traveled for trade and communication for
centuries was an honorable experience I’ll never forget.” state Thomas
Joseph a Hoopa Valley Tribal member and representative for California
Kitchen a sponsor of the run. “Through using these traditional methods to
bring awareness of our community struggles to other communities we can find
the strength and healing to combat the chaos of today’s challenges be it
environmental or social struggles. We need to look back at traditional
practices for our answers.”

Trinity Connection Runners ran by three dams and four reservoirs on their
50 mile run. They said that the run helps bring attention to the fact that
the majority of the Central Valley’s water supply comes from the areas
within their run; however local Tribes and rural people that are suffering
from lack of salmon are rarely consulted in water decisions. Instead, major
irrigators, such as the Westlands Water District hundreds of miles away
control North state water. They pointed to the fact that Westlands’ lawyer
and lobbyist David Bernhardt is now running the very agency that controls
decisions that impact California’s water decisions and Tribes. Bernhardt
has been accused of numerous ethics violation since taking office.

The runners joined the Winnemem Wintu Tribe is a rally against the Shasta
dam raise at the Shasta dam after their run.

“We were  a salmon state and we should salmon state again.” said Chief
Caleen Sisk of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, which organizes the run. “It is
time for us to come together”
More information about the run is at http://www.run4salmon.org/.

https://newsmaven.io/indiancountrytoday/the-press-pool/klamath-trinity-salmon-runners-join-run4salmon-after-50-mile-trinity-connection-run-kRWFlDicj0uROhhSAKXL-Q/
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