 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Shasta Dam and the McCloud River
Report by Amy Corbin HistoryOne day in the 1940s, Florence Jones, the late Winnemem Wintu healer, and her family received eviction notices. Their allotment land on the McCloud River in northern California, below Mt. Shasta, was soon to be flooded by the new Shasta Dam. They returned from the post office to find their homes had already been bulldozed. A few years later, the dam was completed and the new reservoir flooded much of the lower McCloud River, including Wintu sacred sites, ancestral villages and burial grounds.
Today, speed boats and water skiers roar through the Winnemem Wintu’s ancestral territory, and trout fishermen still enjoy the free flowing upper reaches of the McCloud River. Though it has become conventional wisdom that large dams are harmful to the environment, there has long been talk of raising Shasta Dam to satiate California’s ever-growing demand for water. Raising the dam would result in the second flooding of what remains of the Winnemem homeland by a government that fails to keep its promises. With a renewed sense of crisis about California’s water and power resources, a number of federal and state agencies, agricultural groups, and environmentalists quietly came together in 2000 to negotiate an enlarged system for water storage in the Bay Delta area, between San Francisco and Sacramento, under the guise of a new partnership called CalFed. Water from the Delta is used by farmers in California’s Central Valley, by millions of consumers in southern California, and by many threatened wildlife species, including salmon. One part of CalFed’s plan is the multi-billion dollar scheme to raise the height of Shasta Dam to store more water. Some environmental groups have compromised, which means sacrificing more of the free-flowing McCloud River, already flooded for 15 of its 35 miles. Other environmentalists—and the Winnemem Wintu—are opposed to the CalFed plan. In May of 2001, Senator Diane Feinstein of California introduced CalFed legislation to fast track the three federal feasibility studies required by law, including the one for raising Shasta Dam. Faced with staunch opposition from Senator Barbara Boxer, Feinstein agreed to modify her bill and re-introduced it two years later, this time gaining Boxer’s support. This triggered a dramatic succession of events in the latter part of 2004. In August, Caleen Sisk-Franco, leader of the Winnemem Wintu, was directed by tribal ancestors in the spirit world to begin preparations for a traditional war dance, which had not been conducted since 1887. Although the plan to raise the dam had been slowly evolving for years, Sisk-Franco felt a sense of urgency and invoked the ancient ceremony. On September 12, the Winnemem arrived at the dam to dance, fast on acorn water, pray and sing during the four-day ritual. Just as the war dance was about to begin, the Winnemem got word that Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-CO) was preparing to introduce legislation to restore their federal tribal recognition. The Winnemem were asked to cancel or postpone the war dance, so as not to attract negative attention or arouse the wrath of politicians who favor raising the dam. But political compromise could not interfere with their spiritual beliefs and the war dance went on. On the third day of the dance, after ten years of stalemate, Senators Feinstein and Boxer presided over the passage of the CalFed legislation that funded $395 million in feasibility studies on increasing California’s water supply, including the raising of Shasta Dam. And then, on the fourth day of the dance, word came that Sen. Nighthorse Campbell would remove the language recognizing the Winnemem from his proposed technical amendment legislation. But the dance was successfully completed and was reported in media around the world, including a long piece in the New York Times. And at the end of September 2004, the soon-to-retire Senator Campbell introduced a stand-alone bill titled “The Winnemem Wintu Tribe Clarification and Restoration Act” (S 2879). It affirms the tribe’s assertion that they have had an ongoing, unbroken government-to-government relationship with the United States since the 1800s, “and the Tribe should have been included in the 1979 listing of federally recognized California tribes.” The intense two months ended on October 25, 2004 when President Bush signed the CalFed bill into law. Soon after, the Sacramento Bee quoted Sen. Feinstein: “I believe it is a God-given right as Californians to be able to water gardens and lawns. The state is growing by 700,000 to 1 million people a year. It is going to need new water storage.” ThreatRaising the dam just 6 feet would destroy more than 780 acres of land along the part of the McCloud River that still flows free. The dam’s base can support a raise of up to 200 feet, a project that seems unlikely now, but will be tempting as the growing population of California clamors for more water. Any rise in Lake Shasta will drown Wintu sacred sites, including 26 village sites with burial grounds and prayer rocks. Higher water levels would flood the canyon, endangering wildlife and forests, and increasing the number of houseboats, drowned trees and sterile lake beaches. Some politicians, such as Shasta County Supervisor Molly Wilson, believe that the amount of water that would be provided by raising the dam will not make a significant dent in California’s water problems, and that it makes more sense to develop reservoirs in other locations, and emphasize conservation of both water and electricity.
While the feasibility study is under way, the Westlands Water District, representing 700 farms in Fresno and Kings Counties in north-central California and the nation’s largest water district, purchased 3,000 acres of land around the McCloud River. The $35 million deal, completed in February 2007, is the District’s way of assuring that if the Bureau of Reclamation recommends the raising of the Shasta Dam, there will be no property owners to stand in the way.
After much wrangling with the Forest Service and local law enforcement prior to the ceremony, the Forest Service finally agreed to institute a voluntary closure and to ask boats to stay out of the small arm of the McCloud River portion of Shasta Lake Reservoir while the ceremony was underway, because children and adults were frequently in the water. Most boaters chose to stay away. A few pushed their way in, waving beer cans, yelling insults, and baring breasts. This prompted the sheriff to close the river arm totally to boat traffic on the final afternoon, as Waimem swam across the river, and the remainder of the ceremony took place in peace and quiet. A deer appeared to watch the deer dance, and a bald eagle landed in a tree across the river at the moment the ceremony concluded. Solution
Nothing will right the historical wrongs done to the Winnemem without federal tribal recognition, which the Winnemem continue to vigororously pursue. They have already lost much of their land and heritage to the development of California; now it is time that they are empowered to care for their remaining land. Take ActionPlease bring the threats to the McCloud River and Wintu homelands to the attention of Senator Barbara Boxer: Senator Barbara Boxer112 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510 (202) 224-3553 email For text of a suggested letter follow this link. You can also make an on-line, tax-deductible donation to the Winnemem! For more information, contact:Winnemem Wintu Tribe Native Coalition for Cultural Restoration of Mount Shasta & Medicine Lake Highlands Defense Resources
|
California’s water wars have entered a new phase, with an ambitious plan called CalFed. The proposal to raise Shasta Dam by between 6 and 200 feet has significant impacts on the native people in the area; however their voices have been left out of the debate. After lagging for a decade, Congress has appropriated $395 million to study the feasibility of raising the dam and enlarging the reservoir. “Raising Shasta Dam even six feet will flood most of our remaining sacred sites along the McCloud River,” says Caleen Sisk-Franco, spiritual leader and tribal chief of the Winnemem Wintu, whose cultural identity as winnemem or “middle river people” derives from their ancestral homeland along the river. “We feel like Catholics would feel if it was decided that flooding the Sistine Chapel was a good public works project.”
Congress initiated the Shasta Dam project in 1937, and in 1941 approved the Central Valley Project legislation that authorized the government to acquire Indian lands that would be flooded by Shasta Dam. By 1944 the dam was completed. Funds “for the acquisition of other lands” represented a promise by the U.S. government to compensate the indigenous inhabitants of the McCloud River valley for the 4,400 plus acres of allotment land the Winnemem people would lose to the lake, and to provide a cemetery for the relocation of 183 burials. Though a cemetery now exists in Shasta Lake City, from the point of view of the Winnemem, there is some serious unfinished business that needs to be resolved before another acre of land is lost to a deeper reservoir. The government broke its promise to compensate the Winnemem with at least 4,000 acres of similar land, has denied them status as a federally recognized tribe, and now wants them to give up more of their sacred land. Of the sacrifices already made and the additional sites that will be destroyed by this project, Caleen Sisk-Franco says, “This is too much to ask of a people.”
In addition to their efforts to keep the rest of their homeland from flooding, Winnemem Wintu must also fight for the right to perform traditional ceremonies undisturbed. In July 2006, the Winnemem held a puberty ceremony for Waimem Sisk-Franco, age 14, daughter of tribal chief Caleen Sisk-Franco and Headman Mark Franco. Waimem spent four days and nights on one side of the river, sleeping in a bark hut at night, walking upriver by day, and listening to aunts, friends and elders pass on women’s knowledge. On the fourth day, along with three attendants, Waimem swam across the river and joined the ceremony as an adult.
The raising of the Shasta Dam should be taken out of CalFed plans and the Winnemem sacred sites along the McCloud River should be acknowledged and protected by keeping the water at its current level. Discussions should begin about removing Shasta Dam and restoring the McCloud River watershed, its salmon runs, and the Winnemem landholdings on the river. Those negotiating water policy should take cultural sites as well as environmental concerns into account when studying the effects of dam construction or expansion. Water conservation and more efficient management of existing supplies should be pursued instead of new storage schemes. Finally, no new Central Valley Project water contracts should be signed until the full biological impact and cultural losses to the Winnemem people can be publicly commented on and evaluated, and the broken promises made to the Winnemem during the initial construction of Shasta Dam have been redressed. Promising more water now ensures that Shasta Dam will have to be raised! |
 |
 |
 |
|||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
|
|||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
|
|||||||||||
 |
 |
|
||||||||||||
 |
|
|||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
|
|||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
|
|||||||||||
 |
|
|||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|||||||||
 |
 |
|
||||||||||||
 |
|
|||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|