00:01:00.150 --> 00:01:03.480
- Water carries memories
of all living things.

00:01:04.740 --> 00:01:09.480
We are born of the water from
the time of our inception

00:01:09.480 --> 00:01:13.260
to the time of our birth
carried beneath the heartbeat

00:01:13.260 --> 00:01:17.580
of our mother vibrations.

00:01:22.920 --> 00:01:26.310
The first time we see
ourselves is in water.

00:01:27.510 --> 00:01:32.370
A true reflection of life
connected to all things.

00:01:37.380 --> 00:01:40.500
When the water is sick,
the people are sick.

00:02:06.780 --> 00:02:10.680
- I get one of my big pots
or my kettle and fill it up

00:02:10.680 --> 00:02:14.105
and then I un boil the water

00:02:14.105 --> 00:02:18.090
for maybe 10 minutes and
then let it cool off.

00:02:18.090 --> 00:02:20.790
That's what I used to drink and cook with.

00:02:22.110 --> 00:02:24.060
It's annoying and time consuming.

00:02:27.065 --> 00:02:28.350
Yeah, I don't like doing it,

00:02:28.350 --> 00:02:33.240
but I also don't wanna get
sick from the water either.

00:02:34.260 --> 00:02:38.580
I just think that we have too
much disease and cancer here

00:02:41.010 --> 00:02:43.710
because we're downstream
from everybody else.

00:02:43.710 --> 00:02:46.230
We're getting all the bad stuff I think

00:02:47.070 --> 00:02:52.020
from the other cities, the
farmers, just everybody.

00:02:54.480 --> 00:02:57.390
Water is everything.

00:02:57.390 --> 00:03:00.880
Cho is the word for it in our language,

00:03:00.880 --> 00:03:02.680
the sa hopin language.

00:03:02.680 --> 00:03:05.440
Without water, we wouldn't exist.

00:03:05.440 --> 00:03:07.450
Everything that we need

00:03:07.450 --> 00:03:11.260
to survive from needs water.

00:03:11.260 --> 00:03:13.060
It's part of us.

00:03:15.580 --> 00:03:20.580
When we have our traditional
meals, waters first

00:03:20.650 --> 00:03:21.910
with a song,

00:03:21.910 --> 00:03:25.300
and then at the end of the meal,
it's the last thing we have

00:03:29.140 --> 00:03:32.710
in our language that
the shoots was called.

00:03:34.750 --> 00:03:38.500
And what that means is
the enemies up there

00:03:38.500 --> 00:03:43.030
from the Columbia River,
you walk three days

00:03:43.030 --> 00:03:44.920
and you'll come to the enemy

00:03:44.920 --> 00:03:47.920
- Even before, you know,
settlers have gotten here

00:03:47.920 --> 00:03:49.030
and Europeans came.

00:03:49.960 --> 00:03:53.350
It was a river of war too,
you know, it's, it's kind

00:03:53.350 --> 00:03:55.360
of always had that, that kind.

00:03:55.360 --> 00:03:56.830
I don't swim into Deschutes River

00:03:56.830 --> 00:04:00.310
and I never knew why There's
a lot of blood in that river

00:04:04.810 --> 00:04:07.360
- And the main prefare
for our water sources out

00:04:07.360 --> 00:04:08.980
of the Deschutes River.

00:04:08.980 --> 00:04:12.190
And as you know, that river
is probably the sixth Dirties

00:04:12.190 --> 00:04:15.640
River in the United States and
it's been classified as such.

00:04:18.520 --> 00:04:22.030
It goes down to what's known
as the Round Butte Dam,

00:04:22.870 --> 00:04:25.810
and then it goes down to the Pelton Dam

00:04:25.810 --> 00:04:28.450
and then of course into the regulated dam.

00:04:28.450 --> 00:04:33.310
And in between that source
you have farmers up in Madras,

00:04:33.310 --> 00:04:36.070
up in Agency Plains, you
know, and all that drainage

00:04:36.070 --> 00:04:37.420
and all their herbicides

00:04:37.420 --> 00:04:40.395
and everything you can
imagine is being drained

00:04:40.395 --> 00:04:43.240
and it Dechutes River as a runoff.

00:04:43.240 --> 00:04:46.720
So here we are at the bottom of all this,

00:04:46.720 --> 00:04:48.730
pumping the water out and consuming it

00:04:48.730 --> 00:04:52.180
and expecting now people to
really understand that it's safe

00:04:52.180 --> 00:04:54.550
to drink when we probably know

00:04:54.550 --> 00:04:59.200
otherwise that it's not
A big advocate about

00:04:59.200 --> 00:05:02.865
relocating the water treatment
plant right now for consuming

00:05:02.865 --> 00:05:06.910
and for safe water treatment
plant sits probably

00:05:06.910 --> 00:05:09.910
78 80 feet from the Deschutes River,

00:05:09.910 --> 00:05:11.800
and with that it, it picks up green,

00:05:11.800 --> 00:05:13.480
blue algaes along that way.

00:05:13.480 --> 00:05:16.390
And it's pumped into the pump station

00:05:16.390 --> 00:05:18.730
where it's pumped into 250,000 gallon no

00:05:18.730 --> 00:05:20.080
tanks here in Worm Springs.

00:05:21.880 --> 00:05:23.830
It works its way through a piping system

00:05:23.830 --> 00:05:25.425
that's been fractured in them

00:05:25.425 --> 00:05:28.630
with times it has caused some
grief for the tribes within.

00:05:28.630 --> 00:05:29.980
So it's one thing dealing

00:05:29.980 --> 00:05:32.650
with the infrastructure issue,
but it's the other thing.

00:05:32.650 --> 00:05:34.180
And where the water comes from

00:05:41.530 --> 00:05:43.840
- The system, it's antiquated.

00:05:43.840 --> 00:05:48.250
When it was built, it
was built for 600 people

00:05:48.250 --> 00:05:52.000
to a thousand and now it's 5,000.

00:05:58.550 --> 00:06:00.350
There's areas on the reservation

00:06:00.350 --> 00:06:02.570
where there's terracotta piping

00:06:02.570 --> 00:06:07.520
and wooden pipes, you know,
along with little fixes,

00:06:07.520 --> 00:06:11.480
bandaid fixes of new, well, that pressure

00:06:11.480 --> 00:06:14.750
of differences, you know,
creates more problems

00:06:14.750 --> 00:06:17.210
and it's just, it's an old facility.

00:06:20.150 --> 00:06:23.510
I think it can be fixed.
It's just a very big bill.

00:06:25.490 --> 00:06:28.645
- Like many of us emergency
managers in the last two years

00:06:28.645 --> 00:06:30.385
that we'd be in the situation we're in,

00:06:30.385 --> 00:06:31.940
particularly in Warm Springs

00:06:31.940 --> 00:06:34.100
where we're talking water issues.

00:06:34.100 --> 00:06:36.800
It's one thing dealing with COVID-19,

00:06:36.800 --> 00:06:39.560
but when you can't simply wash your hands

00:06:39.560 --> 00:06:41.090
and can't wash your clothes

00:06:41.090 --> 00:06:42.560
and you can't wash your dish,

00:06:42.560 --> 00:06:45.470
it creates a different
layer of challenges.

00:06:45.470 --> 00:06:47.810
You can see the water behind me here

00:06:47.810 --> 00:06:50.870
when we give out 4.6
million gallons of water

00:06:50.870 --> 00:06:52.520
for drinking consumption.

00:06:52.520 --> 00:06:54.020
That's just a drink.

00:06:54.020 --> 00:06:55.670
You can imagine the challenge we've been

00:06:55.670 --> 00:06:57.740
with getting donations, getting water

00:06:57.740 --> 00:06:58.910
provided to the community.

00:06:58.910 --> 00:07:02.570
We have a drive through
system. I mean we go 24 sevens.

00:07:03.475 --> 00:07:06.170
Water has a need for every day.

00:07:07.580 --> 00:07:10.730
- I think our water
problem stems from years

00:07:10.730 --> 00:07:13.550
of negligence in different areas.

00:07:15.620 --> 00:07:17.810
There's always been that separation.

00:07:17.810 --> 00:07:19.385
You see it in certain places like it.

00:07:19.385 --> 00:07:22.400
It seems like a black and white
world, right? Really does.

00:07:22.400 --> 00:07:25.460
You know, racism is just
this thick ass thing

00:07:25.460 --> 00:07:28.340
that just always in the
face of everything, right?

00:07:29.300 --> 00:07:31.250
In that is Indians.

00:07:32.450 --> 00:07:35.480
I've seen Indians get
ripped off all the time

00:07:35.480 --> 00:07:37.310
for various different reasons.

00:07:37.310 --> 00:07:38.630
I mean, you can't sit there and say like,

00:07:38.630 --> 00:07:42.410
we bought this piping system
and it was just built to a T.

00:07:42.410 --> 00:07:44.960
But I think that all that
stuff stemmed from even back in

00:07:44.960 --> 00:07:46.280
the day of like, well, let's just cut

00:07:46.280 --> 00:07:47.330
a corner here and there.

00:07:50.060 --> 00:07:52.400
People have made us out to
be certain ways in different

00:07:52.400 --> 00:07:53.900
cities and cinema

00:07:53.900 --> 00:07:57.805
and all kinds of different
outlets to be set about

00:07:57.805 --> 00:07:59.420
who Indians were.

00:07:59.420 --> 00:08:02.480
But the reality is is Indians
never had a water problem

00:08:02.480 --> 00:08:04.280
until Europeans came.

00:08:05.900 --> 00:08:08.750
Whose fault is it really? I don't know.

00:08:08.750 --> 00:08:10.640
But it needs to be fixed by everybody,

00:08:10.640 --> 00:08:12.110
including the government,
including the people

00:08:12.110 --> 00:08:14.780
that benefit from the lead that we gave

00:08:14.780 --> 00:08:16.460
to make their cities and their world.

00:08:21.500 --> 00:08:22.610
- I don't feel good about it.

00:08:22.610 --> 00:08:26.180
It makes me not trust people that

00:08:26.180 --> 00:08:27.860
should be taking care of the water.

00:08:29.060 --> 00:08:32.240
I would hope that my fellow people here in

00:08:33.200 --> 00:08:35.270
in my tribe would do what they can to

00:08:36.950 --> 00:08:38.485
protect it and conserve it.

00:08:40.490 --> 00:08:42.050
- When you take away your water,

00:08:42.050 --> 00:08:45.080
you're taking away your life
and it's coming to that.

00:08:45.080 --> 00:08:48.020
Until we could control what
we're doing in the environment

00:08:48.020 --> 00:08:51.110
with climate change, with
all these other issues,

00:08:51.110 --> 00:08:52.970
garbage being dumped in the ocean,

00:08:52.970 --> 00:08:56.040
everything is gonna hit us
all out once of these days

00:08:56.040 --> 00:08:58.470
and we're gonna be looking
for a glass of water.

00:08:58.470 --> 00:09:00.990
And that's what it's all
about. So forewarning

00:09:04.350 --> 00:09:07.620
- Our poor planet, she's sick.

00:09:07.620 --> 00:09:09.240
People take her for granted

00:09:09.240 --> 00:09:13.260
and one of these days she's
just gonna say, I've had it.

00:09:17.405 --> 00:09:20.130
- We know that warmer ocean temperatures

00:09:20.130 --> 00:09:22.110
and warmer atmosphere lead

00:09:22.110 --> 00:09:24.420
to more moisture in the atmosphere.

00:09:24.420 --> 00:09:27.330
The fact that the oceans
have warmed about one degree

00:09:27.330 --> 00:09:30.510
Celsius or 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit means

00:09:30.510 --> 00:09:33.150
that there is more moisture being

00:09:33.150 --> 00:09:34.500
pumped into the atmosphere.

00:09:36.120 --> 00:09:39.210
In the westernmost states,
west of the Rockies,

00:09:40.230 --> 00:09:41.460
the summers are pretty dry.

00:09:41.460 --> 00:09:44.610
And so if there's water
running in the streams in the

00:09:44.610 --> 00:09:49.410
summer, it's some combination
of snow melt and ground water.

00:09:50.880 --> 00:09:53.910
There's often a months long lag

00:09:53.910 --> 00:09:56.100
between when the precipitation falls

00:09:56.100 --> 00:09:58.980
and when that water
runs out in the streams.

00:09:58.980 --> 00:10:00.510
And so something like two thirds

00:10:00.510 --> 00:10:03.000
of the West's water
originates as snowfall.

00:10:03.000 --> 00:10:07.890
This link of the, the
temperature during the winter

00:10:07.890 --> 00:10:11.970
and spring and the amount
of that winter precipitation

00:10:11.970 --> 00:10:13.740
that sticks around for several months,

00:10:13.740 --> 00:10:15.060
that's a crucial factor.

00:10:20.820 --> 00:10:25.620
We've seen a reduction in
spring snowpack amounts.

00:10:25.620 --> 00:10:30.620
We've seen increased runoff
in rivers in the winter

00:10:30.750 --> 00:10:33.030
and decreased runoff in the spring.

00:10:34.770 --> 00:10:38.550
So many things about the
earth system are complex

00:10:38.550 --> 00:10:42.390
and are not readily grasped.

00:10:42.390 --> 00:10:44.910
And climate warming is another one.

00:10:44.910 --> 00:10:46.500
You know, you can have a cold winter day

00:10:46.500 --> 00:10:48.660
and you know, people say,
well, it's cold today.

00:10:48.660 --> 00:10:50.940
Does that mean that climate
change is not happening

00:10:50.940 --> 00:10:52.860
or that global warming is over?

00:10:52.860 --> 00:10:54.300
Well, of course not. We'll still

00:10:54.300 --> 00:10:55.685
have hot days and cold days.

00:10:55.685 --> 00:10:58.290
It's just we're getting more
hot days and fewer cold days.

00:11:25.410 --> 00:11:28.890
- Umatilla is a word that

00:11:28.890 --> 00:11:31.590
represents gravel

00:11:31.590 --> 00:11:34.260
or boulders that the water goes over.

00:11:38.460 --> 00:11:42.990
I will now speak about a belief

00:11:42.990 --> 00:11:47.580
that was taught to me by
my elders in relationship

00:11:47.580 --> 00:11:51.540
to this world, into relationship
of all things around us.

00:11:51.540 --> 00:11:52.620
And the great law,

00:11:54.040 --> 00:11:56.950
the great law is spoken of

00:11:58.060 --> 00:11:59.560
as a law of creation.

00:12:00.700 --> 00:12:04.570
A law that can only go
forward, can never go backward,

00:12:04.570 --> 00:12:06.040
can never be changed.

00:12:07.240 --> 00:12:11.020
All things in the world
answer to that law.

00:12:11.020 --> 00:12:14.110
We are born of our mothers.

00:12:15.490 --> 00:12:16.660
We live our life.

00:12:18.130 --> 00:12:22.690
And at the end of our life,
our body returns to the earth.

00:12:24.070 --> 00:12:25.570
We can never go backward.

00:12:26.740 --> 00:12:30.040
All things in this world
answer to that great law,

00:12:36.580 --> 00:12:41.380
- Water nourishes every
natural resource, every plant,

00:12:41.380 --> 00:12:43.510
every animal, every human.

00:12:44.650 --> 00:12:47.350
The first thing that we should be doing

00:12:47.350 --> 00:12:52.090
as a whole world is
taking care of the water.

00:13:01.270 --> 00:13:04.960
One thing about your foods,
they're all related to water.

00:13:04.960 --> 00:13:09.010
They all come from water. They
all grow because of water.

00:13:09.010 --> 00:13:11.440
When we talk about our first
foods, we're talking about

00:13:12.700 --> 00:13:14.440
alta, the sacred foods.

00:13:14.440 --> 00:13:16.960
Those foods are related to the beginning

00:13:16.960 --> 00:13:19.810
of time when those foods first
came across the landscape,

00:13:22.360 --> 00:13:26.710
which is ush water, no salmon,

00:13:27.640 --> 00:13:30.795
yam, deer, ush,

00:13:30.795 --> 00:13:34.120
the biscuit root, the huckleberry.

00:13:34.120 --> 00:13:38.680
When we're talking about
that traditional law that ue,

00:13:38.680 --> 00:13:41.590
it's talking about the law of those foods

00:13:41.590 --> 00:13:43.660
and the relationship between the people.

00:13:46.690 --> 00:13:49.060
- Our creation story, they're
always told that the na

00:13:53.020 --> 00:13:54.700
all is in part of us.

00:13:54.700 --> 00:13:56.740
When we die, we go back to this land.

00:13:56.740 --> 00:13:57.795
That's what nurtures us.

00:13:57.795 --> 00:13:58.810
That's what keeps us healthy

00:13:58.810 --> 00:14:03.645
and going, we are genetically
inclined to eat those things,

00:14:03.645 --> 00:14:06.700
to take care of those things,
to breathe this air, to

00:14:06.700 --> 00:14:07.750
sit in this water.

00:14:09.820 --> 00:14:13.600
And without it we go, we get
sick, our people are sick.

00:14:13.600 --> 00:14:17.260
And that's because we are denied our right

00:14:17.260 --> 00:14:19.395
to practice our treaty
rights to get those things,

00:14:19.395 --> 00:14:20.590
those medicines that we need.

00:14:23.770 --> 00:14:28.720
- The salmon, they're born in the streams,

00:14:28.720 --> 00:14:31.270
they're there for a while,
they go out to the ocean

00:14:32.800 --> 00:14:37.330
and then they turn
around and they come back

00:14:37.330 --> 00:14:39.280
and they come back to
spawn and then they die

00:14:39.280 --> 00:14:42.580
and that lifecycle starts over again.

00:14:42.580 --> 00:14:44.110
That's his natural law off.

00:14:47.770 --> 00:14:52.070
- We haven't had the opportunity
to harvest spring chinook

00:14:52.070 --> 00:14:54.920
and exercise those treaty rights

00:14:56.270 --> 00:15:00.080
in these basins that are on
and bordering the reservation.

00:15:04.490 --> 00:15:08.990
Water is key to move
fish through the system

00:15:08.990 --> 00:15:11.180
and the Umatilla River ran dry.

00:15:11.180 --> 00:15:13.040
There was places the Umatilla up

00:15:13.040 --> 00:15:16.460
until the early two thousands
that there was no water

00:15:21.650 --> 00:15:23.810
within our treaty rights.

00:15:23.810 --> 00:15:26.660
It was guaranteed a right to fish.

00:15:28.130 --> 00:15:32.120
It's important for the local
communities to understand

00:15:32.120 --> 00:15:34.340
what our priorities are

00:15:34.340 --> 00:15:38.330
and our priorities are to get
fish back in these systems so

00:15:38.330 --> 00:15:41.720
that we can exercise treaty
rights and get people fishing.

00:15:51.705 --> 00:15:52.790
The Mattila River

00:15:52.790 --> 00:15:55.550
and the Walla Walla River basins are one

00:15:55.550 --> 00:15:59.300
of the best examples in
the Pacific Northwest

00:15:59.300 --> 00:16:02.660
on getting fish back into a river system.

00:16:02.660 --> 00:16:04.310
So you can start dressing

00:16:04.310 --> 00:16:07.820
and monitoring flows at a finer detail.

00:16:11.120 --> 00:16:12.350
Most recently,

00:16:12.350 --> 00:16:15.200
and specifically in 2022

00:16:15.200 --> 00:16:18.980
as the first year outta the
last five, that we've had

00:16:20.360 --> 00:16:24.260
decent enough fishery
opportunities in 11 streams in our

00:16:24.260 --> 00:16:25.730
usual and accustomed fishing areas

00:16:35.030 --> 00:16:37.100
- In a snow melt driven system.

00:16:37.100 --> 00:16:41.150
Having warming ironically
can mean an increase in both

00:16:41.150 --> 00:16:42.320
floods and droughts.

00:16:42.320 --> 00:16:44.660
Climate change, obviously through directly

00:16:44.660 --> 00:16:47.605
through temperature can
change the mix of rain

00:16:47.605 --> 00:16:49.100
and snow that's falling.

00:16:49.100 --> 00:16:51.980
Since a warmer atmosphere
holds more moisture,

00:16:51.980 --> 00:16:55.730
it means an individual rain
event is likely to be harder.

00:16:55.730 --> 00:16:58.400
So that translates into higher runoff.

00:16:58.400 --> 00:17:00.590
The slower the rain falls,
the more it can sort

00:17:00.590 --> 00:17:02.330
of percolate into the soil.

00:17:02.330 --> 00:17:04.220
And so the faster it falls, the more

00:17:04.220 --> 00:17:05.510
of it runs off immediately.

00:17:13.070 --> 00:17:14.510
- Where we are sitting right now,

00:17:14.510 --> 00:17:17.120
or the reservation where
most of the housing is,

00:17:17.120 --> 00:17:18.650
is the Nick Yahweh Valley.

00:17:18.650 --> 00:17:22.070
It means the place of many, many springs.

00:17:22.070 --> 00:17:23.690
My name is Winix

00:17:23.690 --> 00:17:26.180
and winix means echoing
through a mountain canyon

00:17:26.180 --> 00:17:27.920
as it rises off the ground.

00:17:28.790 --> 00:17:33.500
Ever since I was little, I
always m remember my grandmother,

00:17:33.500 --> 00:17:36.860
my dad and them talking
about my namesake Winix

00:17:36.860 --> 00:17:41.000
who lived up on her land on Winix Springs.

00:17:42.350 --> 00:17:46.010
The city of Pendleton wanted
that waterway to be able

00:17:46.010 --> 00:17:47.300
to have water for the city.

00:17:48.200 --> 00:17:50.550
- My family is a winex descendant.

00:17:50.550 --> 00:17:54.180
My mother raised me with a
story of what happened to her.

00:17:54.180 --> 00:17:57.395
She was physically dragged
off her property in the middle

00:17:57.395 --> 00:18:01.320
of the night by sheriff till Taylor,

00:18:02.460 --> 00:18:04.290
kind of a legend in this community.

00:18:06.120 --> 00:18:10.590
And I remember being
raised with this rage and

00:18:10.590 --> 00:18:14.700
and sense this, that they would
take a little Indian woman

00:18:14.700 --> 00:18:16.140
and do that to her.

00:18:19.710 --> 00:18:21.305
- The federal government is supposed

00:18:21.305 --> 00:18:24.270
to protect the tribal
people that were here

00:18:24.270 --> 00:18:28.020
because they signed that treaty in 1855

00:18:28.020 --> 00:18:29.730
and it was violated.

00:18:29.730 --> 00:18:32.970
And I remember sitting in
my living room as a kid

00:18:32.970 --> 00:18:36.000
and listening to them
talk about winter springs

00:18:36.000 --> 00:18:38.925
and talking about how just the,

00:18:40.110 --> 00:18:41.280
the sadness

00:18:43.920 --> 00:18:48.060
- And when the city of
Pendleton abandoned that claim,

00:18:48.060 --> 00:18:50.460
the land was reverted
back to the ownership

00:18:50.460 --> 00:18:51.690
of its original allee.

00:18:55.530 --> 00:18:57.030
- You know, even when
you correct something,

00:18:57.030 --> 00:18:59.700
you can't fully correct it, I think ever.

00:18:59.700 --> 00:19:03.660
And, and, and that's where
that's, you know, I, I still hear

00:19:03.660 --> 00:19:04.710
that and I understand it.

00:19:21.535 --> 00:19:23.940
- When our sacred places are lost,

00:19:25.110 --> 00:19:27.570
there becomes a void in our spirits.

00:19:34.500 --> 00:19:38.400
We lose languages, we lose stories,

00:19:38.400 --> 00:19:40.560
we lose our connection to the land end.

00:19:48.960 --> 00:19:52.590
The past calls out to us, the voices

00:19:52.590 --> 00:19:54.090
of our ancestors.

00:19:58.560 --> 00:19:59.820
Do we ignore them

00:20:00.720 --> 00:20:03.780
or do we take action to
protect what is most sacred

00:20:15.815 --> 00:20:20.715
- Power that was in the,
the ground coming together,

00:20:20.715 --> 00:20:24.000
colliding with, you know,
with with the water,

00:20:29.310 --> 00:20:32.520
you could just feel it throbbing.

00:20:32.520 --> 00:20:37.380
The sil the messages

00:20:37.380 --> 00:20:39.870
and words that were, that
the people were saying

00:20:40.890 --> 00:20:45.240
Tommy Thompson was there
to, to reside over that.

00:20:46.900 --> 00:20:51.760
- SLO has been an active

00:20:51.760 --> 00:20:56.760
trade center for upwards of 10,000 years.

00:20:56.950 --> 00:21:00.280
10,000 years of commerce, which was built

00:21:00.280 --> 00:21:02.020
around the river itself.

00:21:05.225 --> 00:21:07.870
- The army engineers explored the river

00:21:07.870 --> 00:21:11.500
and recommended construction
of nine huge dams

00:21:11.500 --> 00:21:12.645
to capture the full benefits

00:21:12.645 --> 00:21:14.380
of America's greatest power stream.

00:21:22.120 --> 00:21:25.030
America's conquest of
the Columbia has begun.

00:21:26.950 --> 00:21:30.850
- My name is Linda Ana,
my Indian name is Slush.

00:21:30.850 --> 00:21:34.000
I'm named after my great
grandmother, flora Thompson,

00:21:34.000 --> 00:21:38.050
who was married to chief Tommy
Thompson, the chief of slo.

00:21:38.050 --> 00:21:41.290
But I was born and
raised down there at sil.

00:21:42.160 --> 00:21:47.110
March 10th, 1957, my grandmother came

00:21:47.110 --> 00:21:49.660
after me at Catholic

00:21:49.660 --> 00:21:52.450
school in Portland.

00:21:52.450 --> 00:21:55.420
It was called Christie School,
which was a Catholic school.

00:21:55.420 --> 00:21:57.250
And she came after me

00:21:57.250 --> 00:22:01.150
and told me that I needed
to go home, you know,

00:22:01.150 --> 00:22:05.320
because it was like going
to a funeral, you know,

00:22:05.320 --> 00:22:09.100
and I didn't quite understand it yet,

00:22:09.100 --> 00:22:12.700
but when I seen them flooding
that falls, it broke my heart.

00:22:14.590 --> 00:22:17.590
- 30 million horsepower
wasting to the sea.

00:22:18.490 --> 00:22:22.060
A tremendous force for good or for evil.

00:22:23.740 --> 00:22:27.310
So the mighty Columbia flings
its challenge to a nation

00:22:28.840 --> 00:22:32.740
daring it to show that our
democracy has the vitality

00:22:32.740 --> 00:22:35.145
to develop a great river
for all its values,

00:22:36.165 --> 00:22:37.750
for all its people.

00:22:39.310 --> 00:22:42.250
Set a pattern for the other
nations of the world to follow,

00:22:43.960 --> 00:22:46.630
prove they can have
food as well as freedom.

00:22:47.890 --> 00:22:49.750
Peace as well as plenty.

00:22:51.790 --> 00:22:54.730
That is the challenge of the Columbia.

00:23:22.090 --> 00:23:24.760
- I took an elder fisherman down there

00:23:25.870 --> 00:23:27.670
and we went to where Shilah Park is there,

00:23:27.670 --> 00:23:28.840
you know, the green grass.

00:23:32.770 --> 00:23:34.660
He just looked out there
and he looked at that,

00:23:34.660 --> 00:23:36.460
that flat water.

00:23:36.460 --> 00:23:40.330
And he goes, I feel bad for you
Josiah. And I asked him why?

00:23:40.330 --> 00:23:44.680
And he goes, you'll never
know just what it was like to,

00:23:44.680 --> 00:23:48.320
to smell slo and to feel that
mist around you constantly.

00:23:48.320 --> 00:23:51.860
And to see like all that
activity of like men

00:23:51.860 --> 00:23:54.500
and boys fishing and pulling out salmon

00:23:54.500 --> 00:23:56.450
and taking those salmon to the women

00:23:56.450 --> 00:23:59.210
and you know, the women
having them around the fire,

00:23:59.210 --> 00:24:02.480
the smell of that cooking, the eels.

00:24:02.480 --> 00:24:05.210
He said, you'll never
know what that felt like.

00:24:08.900 --> 00:24:11.780
- They said when it became
quiet that broke their hearts

00:24:11.780 --> 00:24:14.150
and some of them died, you know, just

00:24:14.150 --> 00:24:15.950
because that was their way of life.

00:24:15.950 --> 00:24:19.585
That was token. It is important for us

00:24:19.585 --> 00:24:22.280
to fix our natural resources.

00:24:22.280 --> 00:24:26.420
So I can go out with my daughter
fish in looking glass fish

00:24:26.420 --> 00:24:30.145
and tributaries that never has
salmon so she can learn how

00:24:30.145 --> 00:24:34.160
to cut fish so she can
learn how to go out and dig.

00:24:34.160 --> 00:24:37.520
And when she has kids, she can teach them

00:24:39.890 --> 00:24:41.750
- The falls are no longer there.

00:24:42.770 --> 00:24:45.800
But the memories still echo
within the hearts of our elders.

00:24:48.950 --> 00:24:50.185
- Back of the American way

00:24:50.185 --> 00:24:53.865
of life is hydro the
controlled power of the river.

00:24:53.865 --> 00:24:56.395
The thrusts of the turbine, the crescendo

00:24:56.395 --> 00:24:58.490
of the generator humming a saga

00:24:58.490 --> 00:25:00.680
of man's triumph over a continent.

00:25:00.680 --> 00:25:03.680
- Now of course, the landscape

00:25:03.680 --> 00:25:07.520
of over which we make decisions
like do we build another

00:25:07.520 --> 00:25:08.990
dam, has completely changed.

00:25:08.990 --> 00:25:12.800
Environmental values are
much stronger concerns about,

00:25:12.800 --> 00:25:14.755
you know, habitat loss for threatened

00:25:14.755 --> 00:25:18.110
and endangered species
downstream consequences.

00:25:18.110 --> 00:25:19.550
Water temperature means

00:25:19.550 --> 00:25:21.530
that no major dams have been built in

00:25:21.530 --> 00:25:23.420
decades in the western us.

00:25:23.420 --> 00:25:24.950
And now of course we're seeing, you know,

00:25:24.950 --> 00:25:26.150
dams starting to come out.

00:25:26.150 --> 00:25:29.185
So the two dams on the Elah River

00:25:29.185 --> 00:25:32.600
and the four dams on the
Klamath River being some

00:25:32.600 --> 00:25:35.360
of the biggest and decades

00:25:35.360 --> 00:25:37.340
of discussion about removing the four dams

00:25:37.340 --> 00:25:38.390
on the lower Snake River.

00:25:43.520 --> 00:25:46.430
- The river flows freely
enriching everything.

00:25:46.430 --> 00:25:50.540
It touches much like
the veins in our body.

00:25:51.980 --> 00:25:54.590
These natural systems keep us alive

00:25:56.660 --> 00:26:01.040
when any kind of flow is
blocked, atrophy occurs,

00:26:02.150 --> 00:26:04.580
harming not only our fish relatives,

00:26:05.450 --> 00:26:07.130
but also our way of life.

00:26:17.720 --> 00:26:21.350
When you change the landscape,
you change the people.

00:26:27.530 --> 00:26:30.260
- When the rivers run backwards,

00:26:32.180 --> 00:26:33.950
when the grass refuses to grow,

00:26:37.280 --> 00:26:38.660
when things have changed

00:26:38.660 --> 00:26:42.170
and we don't know what had
happened, how it happened,

00:26:42.170 --> 00:26:46.050
or why, that's when we have

00:26:46.050 --> 00:26:47.580
to move to restore things.

00:26:50.130 --> 00:26:52.410
- Water is everything that it touches

00:26:52.410 --> 00:26:54.720
and that's the way water reacts to us.

00:26:56.220 --> 00:26:59.640
So if we poison water,
water will poison us.

00:27:12.960 --> 00:27:15.395
The dams are forming these lakes

00:27:15.395 --> 00:27:18.215
and they're creating sediment
that should be moving through

00:27:18.215 --> 00:27:20.910
and the sediment is causing channelization

00:27:20.910 --> 00:27:24.720
and it's causing issues for
the salmon migration issues

00:27:24.720 --> 00:27:29.550
where salmon live in
the water, their actions

00:27:29.550 --> 00:27:30.750
of going to the ocean

00:27:30.750 --> 00:27:33.360
and returning have effects to the land.

00:27:33.360 --> 00:27:35.730
And so we see that intertwineness

00:27:35.730 --> 00:27:38.640
that binds these things together.

00:27:38.640 --> 00:27:40.920
If you can imagine hydrogen

00:27:40.920 --> 00:27:45.600
and oxygen just rolling
amongst itself downhill

00:27:45.600 --> 00:27:49.980
and keeping itself cool
versus sitting stagnant

00:27:49.980 --> 00:27:53.370
and allowing the sun to, to warm it.

00:27:53.370 --> 00:27:54.930
That's what's happening to water

00:27:54.930 --> 00:27:56.940
and water's reacting to what we're doing

00:27:56.940 --> 00:27:58.470
to it in a negative way.

00:28:01.470 --> 00:28:04.800
- The way out of this
problem is not more storage,

00:28:04.800 --> 00:28:07.320
it's better management, better policy.

00:28:07.320 --> 00:28:11.820
And that actually comes into
the issue with flooding as well

00:28:11.820 --> 00:28:15.090
because some of the dams
are, are managed in part

00:28:15.090 --> 00:28:16.230
for flood control

00:28:17.130 --> 00:28:22.020
and with flood regimes changing
because of climate change

00:28:22.020 --> 00:28:25.050
and maybe the risk of flooding
moving earlier in the year,

00:28:25.050 --> 00:28:28.260
which our paper shows it's
likely to happen on the snake.

00:28:28.260 --> 00:28:30.330
It changes the way the risk

00:28:30.330 --> 00:28:32.130
of flooding is distributed over the year.

00:28:32.130 --> 00:28:35.280
And so that means that the,
the reservoir rule curves

00:28:35.280 --> 00:28:37.860
that govern how the the dams are managed

00:28:37.860 --> 00:28:39.180
also needs to change.

00:28:39.180 --> 00:28:42.930
So there's just a whole lot
of changes that need to happen

00:28:42.930 --> 00:28:47.040
to manage water better
for the aggregate benefit

00:28:47.040 --> 00:28:49.530
of people and ecosystems.

00:28:53.730 --> 00:28:55.440
- It's complicated.

00:28:55.440 --> 00:28:59.700
The more you know about a
problem, the harder it is

00:28:59.700 --> 00:29:00.930
to say yes or no.

00:29:01.830 --> 00:29:06.240
It's really important for people
to gain as much familiarity

00:29:06.240 --> 00:29:07.740
with the problem as possible

00:29:08.760 --> 00:29:10.050
because then you're starting

00:29:10.050 --> 00:29:13.170
to look at strengthening an idea

00:29:14.490 --> 00:29:17.730
because the idea is how
do you have a relationship

00:29:17.730 --> 00:29:22.350
with water that's going
to be transgenerational?

00:29:24.540 --> 00:29:27.480
And how do you modify
a structure like a dam

00:29:27.480 --> 00:29:31.110
or a hydro project so that you
can still have a relationship

00:29:31.110 --> 00:29:32.760
with cheap electricity?

00:29:34.710 --> 00:29:36.480
Those aren't easy answers.

00:29:36.480 --> 00:29:39.510
The easy thing to say is,
yeah, take the dams out,

00:29:39.510 --> 00:29:41.290
but what are the consequences of that?

00:29:42.370 --> 00:29:44.470
The easy thing is the
damn should stay there,

00:29:44.470 --> 00:29:46.510
should they shouldn't be modified.

00:29:46.510 --> 00:29:48.550
What are the consequences of that?

00:29:48.550 --> 00:29:50.625
You know, that's, that's, that's

00:29:50.625 --> 00:29:52.570
where the real work is right there.

00:30:03.280 --> 00:30:08.080
- Everything that defined neer's people

00:30:08.080 --> 00:30:10.900
was based on that relationship
with land and water.

00:30:21.760 --> 00:30:24.280
Our land has been utterly transformed,

00:30:24.280 --> 00:30:28.450
but yet there's an expectation
by people who are ignorant

00:30:28.450 --> 00:30:32.740
of our life and ignorant of
who we are that we're expected

00:30:32.740 --> 00:30:37.450
to exist in that, that
idealized historical context.

00:30:37.450 --> 00:30:40.030
When the land has been utterly changed

00:30:46.510 --> 00:30:49.450
by changing the land, by
the changing the rivers,

00:30:49.450 --> 00:30:51.970
you changed us and we've had to adapt.

00:30:51.970 --> 00:30:54.520
Those were forced changes.
Those aren't changes we wanted.

00:30:56.440 --> 00:30:58.150
- You can tell

00:30:58.150 --> 00:31:01.540
how endeared a population is

00:31:02.560 --> 00:31:05.260
to its young people by the
quality of their water.

00:31:08.740 --> 00:31:11.260
- So as we're taught to understand

00:31:11.260 --> 00:31:12.370
and the way a life

00:31:12.370 --> 00:31:17.370
that our people followed
is water is is the first,

00:31:17.620 --> 00:31:20.560
it's the basis for all of life.

00:31:20.560 --> 00:31:22.990
We are reminded of this,

00:31:22.990 --> 00:31:26.440
especially in our ceremonial activities.

00:31:26.440 --> 00:31:29.830
What these ceremonies do is remind us of

00:31:29.830 --> 00:31:31.780
how we're accountable to this land.

00:31:32.680 --> 00:31:35.710
And a lot of our life is connected to

00:31:35.710 --> 00:31:40.480
what the new people referred
to and manage as resources.

00:31:40.480 --> 00:31:42.400
But for us it's a part of our life.

00:31:45.400 --> 00:31:49.360
- We have this term anma, which
includes all of my ancestry

00:31:49.360 --> 00:31:52.930
that's gone now and animal people.

00:31:52.930 --> 00:31:55.570
And those animal people are elder kinfolk.

00:31:55.570 --> 00:31:58.960
For us, the way that I look at my ancestry

00:31:58.960 --> 00:32:01.270
and animal people is the way

00:32:01.270 --> 00:32:03.315
that outsiders now should be looking at

00:32:03.315 --> 00:32:04.990
indigenous populations.

00:32:04.990 --> 00:32:08.560
We carry a sensitive
relationship with this landscape.

00:32:08.560 --> 00:32:12.040
That's an example that
people have to turn to

00:32:12.040 --> 00:32:14.350
and deeply analyze

00:32:14.350 --> 00:32:17.860
because the survival

00:32:17.860 --> 00:32:21.340
of the human species
resides upon your ability

00:32:21.340 --> 00:32:22.840
to have a sensitive relationship

00:32:22.840 --> 00:32:24.940
with your landscape and water.

00:32:44.870 --> 00:32:47.690
I think most human minds understand

00:32:47.690 --> 00:32:49.010
that they're connected to something.

00:32:56.000 --> 00:32:58.640
We're distancing ourselves from the things

00:32:58.640 --> 00:33:02.300
that are absolutely necessary
for us to subsist and exist.

00:33:03.950 --> 00:33:06.590
You know, those relationships
are changing faster than ever.

00:33:12.350 --> 00:33:16.850
- We're bringing together all
of this way of understanding,

00:33:16.850 --> 00:33:19.525
way of knowing that stretches us

00:33:19.525 --> 00:33:24.525
and connects us to our very
creation as pu as NEPA's people.

00:33:24.530 --> 00:33:29.240
So every time that we
go and fish for salmon

00:33:29.240 --> 00:33:33.080
and we consume salmon, it's a
reminder of our very creation.

00:33:37.205 --> 00:33:39.380
- I think the wild card really is

00:33:39.380 --> 00:33:42.740
how resilient this landscape
will be to a changing climate.

00:33:42.740 --> 00:33:46.160
I have concerns that, you
know, we're only gonna see

00:33:46.160 --> 00:33:48.955
water temperatures continue to increase.

00:33:48.955 --> 00:33:52.580
We're gonna see summer base
flows continue to decrease.

00:33:52.580 --> 00:33:54.260
We're certainly gonna see a shift

00:33:54.260 --> 00:33:56.630
to a more rain dominated system.

00:33:56.630 --> 00:33:59.030
So even though you know it's
predicted we're gonna see more

00:33:59.030 --> 00:34:02.600
precipitation in the winter,
most of it's gonna fall as rain

00:34:02.600 --> 00:34:04.880
and it's not gonna stick
on the landscape as long.

00:34:04.880 --> 00:34:07.975
So I think it's essential
that we find these areas

00:34:07.975 --> 00:34:10.190
of cold water refugia within the system

00:34:10.190 --> 00:34:13.040
and try to, you know, what
we've been doing is, you know,

00:34:13.040 --> 00:34:16.610
flying thermal infrared
imagery on drones and planes

00:34:16.610 --> 00:34:19.490
and trying to identify
cold water seeps coming in

00:34:19.490 --> 00:34:20.840
and to protect those area.

00:34:20.840 --> 00:34:22.975
'cause we know that fish
hole up in those areas

00:34:22.975 --> 00:34:25.070
during the hottest months of the year.

00:34:25.070 --> 00:34:28.070
And I think, you know,
implementing strategies like

00:34:28.070 --> 00:34:30.050
that at scale are gonna be more

00:34:30.050 --> 00:34:32.600
and more important as we try to adapt and,

00:34:32.600 --> 00:34:35.930
and to actually build some
resiliency into the landscape for

00:34:36.920 --> 00:34:39.590
the organisms that we, we
share this landscape with.

00:34:42.320 --> 00:34:45.740
I do see as our climate shifts

00:34:45.740 --> 00:34:48.050
and I look at climate projections, that

00:34:48.980 --> 00:34:51.050
there will be an increasing frequency

00:34:51.050 --> 00:34:53.605
of extreme rain events in our region.

00:34:53.605 --> 00:34:55.190
And I do have some concerns

00:34:55.190 --> 00:34:59.030
that over time our infrastructure
is going to be jeopardized

00:34:59.030 --> 00:35:01.610
by flooding events, which we've,

00:35:01.610 --> 00:35:04.010
during my short time here
I have seen increase in

00:35:04.010 --> 00:35:06.800
infrequency and severity.

00:35:06.800 --> 00:35:09.980
- This landscape is a Bible.

00:35:11.120 --> 00:35:16.070
And out of that are all of
the values that I connect

00:35:16.070 --> 00:35:17.930
to that have sustained me, that have

00:35:17.930 --> 00:35:19.790
provided for me to be
here to make choices.

00:35:19.790 --> 00:35:24.740
And so I have a responsibility,

00:35:24.740 --> 00:35:29.450
not a right, a responsibility to give that

00:35:29.450 --> 00:35:32.030
to my future generations.

00:35:49.980 --> 00:35:53.490
- We are all indigenous, no matter

00:35:53.490 --> 00:35:55.290
what nations you come from

00:35:56.820 --> 00:35:58.770
because we are all earth people.

00:36:00.090 --> 00:36:04.920
And with that we carry a
responsibility to protect

00:36:04.920 --> 00:36:09.270
what is most important to us
and our future generations.

00:36:10.320 --> 00:36:14.970
As land and water protectors,
we have to be impeccable

00:36:14.970 --> 00:36:16.020
with our balance.

00:36:18.150 --> 00:36:22.680
- The Standing Rock Reservation
was created to specifically

00:36:22.680 --> 00:36:26.280
to bring sitting Bull back
into the territory here.

00:36:27.570 --> 00:36:31.590
During that time, United
States was in phase two

00:36:31.590 --> 00:36:33.210
of their expansion.

00:36:39.060 --> 00:36:41.910
They had completed phase
one, which was to get all

00:36:41.910 --> 00:36:43.980
of us west of the Mississippi.

00:36:43.980 --> 00:36:48.660
And phase two was to remove all

00:36:48.660 --> 00:36:51.330
of the planes Indians to the southwest.

00:36:52.980 --> 00:36:56.130
We destroyed their phase two

00:36:56.130 --> 00:37:01.020
for expansion in this country,
which marked us forever.

00:37:01.020 --> 00:37:02.760
And we have been in this

00:37:04.170 --> 00:37:07.500
their retribution ever since.

00:37:23.165 --> 00:37:26.280
LaDonna went to Sacred Stone Camp

00:37:27.150 --> 00:37:30.060
and created that place to

00:37:31.170 --> 00:37:33.480
hold our own on the river.

00:37:33.480 --> 00:37:37.110
The Cannonball at the
mouth of the Missouri.

00:37:37.110 --> 00:37:39.600
That was April 1st, 2016.

00:37:40.770 --> 00:37:44.370
By August 10th there were over
10,000 people who had come.

00:38:06.505 --> 00:38:07.045
- How? How

00:38:11.640 --> 00:38:16.145
No DPO camp was north of
Cannonball, North Dakota right by,

00:38:16.145 --> 00:38:17.670
right by the Cannonball River.

00:38:18.840 --> 00:38:21.960
And no DAP was Dakota Access Pipeline.

00:38:23.160 --> 00:38:26.040
And they were bringing a
pipeline down from Canada

00:38:27.060 --> 00:38:30.960
and they were gonna go across
the Missouri River Water

00:38:30.960 --> 00:38:32.940
of Life, the mini, we call it

00:38:35.290 --> 00:38:39.280
all the water that goes
into the mini, mini

00:38:39.280 --> 00:38:40.810
so is the Missouri River.

00:38:42.070 --> 00:38:43.480
That's our life right there.

00:38:44.650 --> 00:38:46.720
We depend on that water for everything

00:38:49.990 --> 00:38:54.370
- Eagle over the seven council.

00:38:54.370 --> 00:38:55.900
- It's always been about the water,

00:38:57.190 --> 00:39:00.435
it's always been about our
free choice to, to make

00:39:00.435 --> 00:39:05.435
that decision to protect
our future generations.

00:39:05.470 --> 00:39:06.820
You know, that's the difference is

00:39:06.820 --> 00:39:09.670
that we think ahead corporations.

00:39:09.670 --> 00:39:11.260
Think about the bottom line, the dollar.

00:39:13.120 --> 00:39:16.360
It's always the Lakota,
it's always the Dakota

00:39:16.360 --> 00:39:18.100
Standing Rock has nothing to prove.

00:39:18.100 --> 00:39:21.225
We know who we are, we're
the descendants of those

00:39:21.225 --> 00:39:23.290
that stood up.

00:39:23.290 --> 00:39:26.500
We make strides, then we're
pushed back, but we never stop.

00:39:27.790 --> 00:39:30.880
You know, it's a paradox that
we're even here live talking.

00:39:30.880 --> 00:39:34.420
You know, those of our
ancestors that were killed,

00:39:34.420 --> 00:39:37.000
that were taken from their
homes, that were, you know,

00:39:37.000 --> 00:39:41.080
attempt to destroy us,
we're always in the fight.

00:39:59.645 --> 00:40:03.160
- The H BPA are sitting both people

00:40:05.110 --> 00:40:06.190
geographically.

00:40:06.190 --> 00:40:11.080
We are the buffalo, the BPA
are the horn of the buffalo.

00:40:11.080 --> 00:40:16.080
We are the vanguard, we are
the frontline, the protectors

00:40:16.120 --> 00:40:18.400
of Lakota nation.

00:40:18.400 --> 00:40:21.190
And we have an obligation to protect.

00:40:22.645 --> 00:40:24.040
- And I always like to talk

00:40:24.040 --> 00:40:26.740
to my non-native friends about being a

00:40:26.740 --> 00:40:28.360
Lakota and being hunk papa.

00:40:28.360 --> 00:40:29.470
And they're like, man, you must be

00:40:29.470 --> 00:40:32.200
so lucky you're from a
tribe, your hunk papa

00:40:32.200 --> 00:40:34.180
or your Lakota, your Sioux, right?

00:40:34.180 --> 00:40:37.240
And I said, well you know
what, you're a tribal man too.

00:40:37.240 --> 00:40:38.770
Everybody comes from a tribe,

00:40:38.770 --> 00:40:41.260
even if it was on the
other side of the ocean

00:40:41.260 --> 00:40:45.850
and you protected what
you had we're survivors

00:40:45.850 --> 00:40:50.440
and protectors of an ancient
way that we've always lived

00:40:50.440 --> 00:40:51.760
and it's never changed.

00:40:55.360 --> 00:40:58.600
Right now some of the main
issues is the Army Corps

00:40:58.600 --> 00:41:00.250
of Engineers Master Manual.

00:41:00.250 --> 00:41:04.540
The Army Corps of Engineers
runs the Missouri River when

00:41:04.540 --> 00:41:07.000
they dammed it up with
the Flood Control Act.

00:41:07.000 --> 00:41:08.475
Right now the mismanagement

00:41:08.475 --> 00:41:10.960
of the river is really
causing a lot of problems

00:41:10.960 --> 00:41:12.100
with Lake O Wahi.

00:41:14.380 --> 00:41:15.730
We don't actually call it a river no more.

00:41:15.730 --> 00:41:16.930
We call it a lake

00:41:16.930 --> 00:41:19.750
because a river is no
longer a river when it

00:41:19.750 --> 00:41:21.070
can't flow freely.

00:41:21.070 --> 00:41:24.370
So when you dam up a river,
which creating is reservoir,

00:41:24.370 --> 00:41:27.400
we're in Lake O Wahe Reservoir right now,

00:41:29.260 --> 00:41:32.535
the Lake O Wahe Reservoir at
all seven reservoirs is the

00:41:32.535 --> 00:41:33.680
bastard reservoir.

00:41:34.910 --> 00:41:37.220
So what happens to downstream

00:41:37.220 --> 00:41:40.340
or upstream from each one
of them dams is Lake Oahu.

00:41:40.340 --> 00:41:43.550
And what it does is it goes
like this, it fluctuates.

00:41:43.550 --> 00:41:47.360
And what does a fluctuating
river cause It cause erosion on

00:41:47.360 --> 00:41:48.955
the bank and on the banks

00:41:48.955 --> 00:41:52.220
of the Missouri River
here on Standing Rock,

00:41:52.220 --> 00:41:53.720
we buried our dead.

00:41:55.370 --> 00:41:57.050
We didn't think ever

00:41:57.050 --> 00:42:01.580
that this river Minosh
was gonna ever be flooded

00:42:01.580 --> 00:42:03.980
because we didn't know what that meant.

00:42:04.940 --> 00:42:07.640
Since all of our communities
and all our gardens

00:42:07.640 --> 00:42:08.720
and everything was growing

00:42:08.720 --> 00:42:10.940
and this lush area of this Missouri River

00:42:10.940 --> 00:42:13.640
before the dams, that's
where we all lived.

00:42:13.640 --> 00:42:17.090
And so we have bones along
the river, along the banks,

00:42:17.090 --> 00:42:22.010
we have skulls, we have
a lot of our relatives

00:42:22.010 --> 00:42:23.660
that are along the banks.

00:42:23.660 --> 00:42:25.465
And so we have looters from the other side

00:42:25.465 --> 00:42:29.600
of the river coming over and
get, grabbing baby skulls and

00:42:29.600 --> 00:42:32.150
and bones and they're
taking it back over and,

00:42:32.150 --> 00:42:34.250
and whatever else that's
inside the coffins

00:42:34.250 --> 00:42:36.410
with their loved ones, you know, artifacts

00:42:36.410 --> 00:42:38.060
and stuff, they're taking them over

00:42:38.060 --> 00:42:39.890
and they're selling them in museums.

00:42:39.890 --> 00:42:42.205
So that's one of the
biggest things that I do

00:42:42.205 --> 00:42:45.140
as a water resource manager or a route

00:42:45.140 --> 00:42:47.300
or director of this tribe, is I deal

00:42:47.300 --> 00:42:50.060
with every day is not trying
to look out there and,

00:42:50.060 --> 00:42:53.360
and wonder if that boat is
a fisherman or a looter,

00:42:53.360 --> 00:42:54.680
but having to find out

00:42:54.680 --> 00:42:57.770
where our relatives are
at along the rivers.

00:42:57.770 --> 00:43:00.500
Because now the low water right

00:43:00.500 --> 00:43:04.520
to this day is at record low.

00:43:04.520 --> 00:43:08.360
But you look up there at Fort
Berthold, at sa like saa,

00:43:09.350 --> 00:43:12.050
they're only down six inches.

00:43:12.050 --> 00:43:13.760
We're down 15 feet.

00:43:17.210 --> 00:43:19.400
The mismanagement of the Missouri River

00:43:19.400 --> 00:43:20.930
because of the master manual

00:43:20.930 --> 00:43:24.590
and the Army Corps of
Engineers is killing our tribe.

00:43:28.310 --> 00:43:29.840
- You know, there's a song that says

00:43:29.840 --> 00:43:31.040
that everything is sacred.

00:43:40.130 --> 00:43:42.140
This the earth is sacred. So pray

00:43:49.640 --> 00:43:51.085
then they'll say water,

00:43:57.500 --> 00:43:58.940
accept water secret.

00:43:58.940 --> 00:43:59.940
So pray

00:44:01.910 --> 00:44:05.150
- We are not going to have western law.

00:44:05.150 --> 00:44:10.150
We're doing it based on
customary law, the natural flow,

00:44:10.640 --> 00:44:15.020
so that it includes those
20 million Americans

00:44:15.020 --> 00:44:19.340
who depend on this system
that includes them.

00:44:19.340 --> 00:44:23.990
So we're not saying this is
Indian country, this is ours,

00:44:23.990 --> 00:44:26.150
this is for humanity.

00:44:37.530 --> 00:44:41.610
- Water is not a resource,
water is a living thing.

00:44:51.810 --> 00:44:55.620
- It started to happen in the
19th century when settlers

00:44:55.620 --> 00:44:57.660
started to come into the west

00:44:57.660 --> 00:45:01.800
and they would establish
homesteads, they would do mining,

00:45:01.800 --> 00:45:03.060
they would do other things.

00:45:03.060 --> 00:45:05.070
They would require the use of water.

00:45:05.070 --> 00:45:08.070
That started the development
of a common law system,

00:45:08.070 --> 00:45:10.050
a system that's based on the mining act

00:45:10.050 --> 00:45:13.080
of from the 19th century, which
is a priority based system.

00:45:13.080 --> 00:45:16.685
And it became the system
in western states of how

00:45:16.685 --> 00:45:20.700
to stake a claim, if you
will, to the use of water.

00:45:20.700 --> 00:45:21.960
And it became a basis

00:45:21.960 --> 00:45:25.170
by which at the local level
really kind of local judges

00:45:25.170 --> 00:45:27.840
who if there was a conflict
between water users,

00:45:27.840 --> 00:45:30.750
they would use that system to be able to

00:45:30.750 --> 00:45:32.160
resolve those conflicts.

00:45:32.160 --> 00:45:33.480
And it was based on priority.

00:45:33.480 --> 00:45:36.515
So whoever could show that
they had the earliest claim

00:45:36.515 --> 00:45:40.650
and of use to that fresh
water resource in in the west,

00:45:40.650 --> 00:45:41.520
they were the ones who would

00:45:41.520 --> 00:45:43.020
prevail if there was a conflict.

00:45:43.020 --> 00:45:45.900
That be then became codified in the state

00:45:45.900 --> 00:45:50.670
of Oregon in 1909 when the
legislature passed the the first

00:45:50.670 --> 00:45:55.260
water act that put in statute this,

00:45:55.260 --> 00:45:57.990
this prior appropriation seniority system.

00:46:00.450 --> 00:46:01.680
- One of the aspects

00:46:01.680 --> 00:46:05.250
of the prior appropriation
doctrine is use it or lose it.

00:46:05.250 --> 00:46:08.820
If you are allocated X amount
of water between these months,

00:46:08.820 --> 00:46:09.935
two or three years in a row,

00:46:09.935 --> 00:46:12.450
if you don't use your entire allocation,

00:46:12.450 --> 00:46:14.670
your allocation is reduced.

00:46:14.670 --> 00:46:17.640
And so this is a very strong incentive not

00:46:17.640 --> 00:46:19.500
to conserve water in a drought

00:46:19.500 --> 00:46:24.300
because the way prior
appropriation handles a drought is

00:46:24.300 --> 00:46:25.740
to, you know, some

00:46:25.740 --> 00:46:29.310
of the most recent water
rights holders get no water

00:46:29.310 --> 00:46:31.170
and everybody else gets
their full allocation.

00:46:31.170 --> 00:46:33.330
So it's, it's not very economic.

00:46:33.330 --> 00:46:35.790
Now different states have
developed different ways

00:46:35.790 --> 00:46:37.770
of handling it and I
actually wrote a paper

00:46:37.770 --> 00:46:40.110
with some colleagues
after the 2001 drought,

00:46:40.110 --> 00:46:42.870
which is when things really
blew up in the Klamath.

00:46:42.870 --> 00:46:44.645
Comparing how Oregon

00:46:44.645 --> 00:46:48.420
and Idaho implemented our
appropriation doctrine

00:46:48.420 --> 00:46:49.980
and how they've changed it over the years,

00:46:50.850 --> 00:46:53.100
Idaho redefined beneficial use

00:46:53.100 --> 00:46:56.645
to include leaving the
water in the stream so

00:46:56.645 --> 00:47:00.870
that it could help fish
and generate hydropower.

00:47:00.870 --> 00:47:03.210
And then incidentally, by
leaving it in the stream

00:47:03.210 --> 00:47:04.740
and not pumping it out,

00:47:04.740 --> 00:47:07.620
you reduce the enormous electricity demand

00:47:07.620 --> 00:47:09.720
involved in pumping water.

00:47:09.720 --> 00:47:12.840
In some cases 500 feet
high out of the Snake River

00:47:14.100 --> 00:47:15.600
- Western water law.

00:47:15.600 --> 00:47:17.675
And the prior appropriation
system was built out

00:47:17.675 --> 00:47:20.700
of the 19th century
principles manifest destiny

00:47:20.700 --> 00:47:23.910
where individualism was at the fore.

00:47:23.910 --> 00:47:25.230
And I think it's embodied

00:47:25.230 --> 00:47:27.660
to a certain degree in
this water right system,

00:47:27.660 --> 00:47:31.000
it's all based on these
individual users' needs

00:47:31.000 --> 00:47:32.440
that they pursue over time.

00:47:33.490 --> 00:47:36.370
What presents itself under that
circumstance is when you get

00:47:36.370 --> 00:47:38.980
to an era of scarcity like we're in now

00:47:38.980 --> 00:47:42.700
and where those individual water
rights are having an impact

00:47:42.700 --> 00:47:45.880
on the basin, what does
that mean for the community?

00:47:46.810 --> 00:47:49.570
Our obligation is to protect
those most senior users,

00:47:49.570 --> 00:47:52.090
whoever they are, whatever use it is.

00:47:52.090 --> 00:47:54.550
And the question I think
for the community is

00:47:54.550 --> 00:47:56.590
how do they grapple with that?

00:47:56.590 --> 00:47:58.935
Do those senior uses really reflect their

00:47:58.935 --> 00:48:00.250
highest priorities?

00:48:00.250 --> 00:48:03.700
If they don't, then that's a challenge.

00:48:06.130 --> 00:48:09.340
Water has long had a, a
tradition of conflict.

00:48:10.510 --> 00:48:13.270
Our agency's often in the middle of that.

00:48:13.270 --> 00:48:15.160
I don't know that we can undo that.

00:48:15.160 --> 00:48:17.380
I don't know that there's
an easy way to resolve that.

00:48:17.380 --> 00:48:20.715
But I do think that
there's a better way for us

00:48:20.715 --> 00:48:23.110
to invest our time and energy.

00:48:23.110 --> 00:48:27.700
And that is through
longer term conversations

00:48:27.700 --> 00:48:31.810
that are inclusive, that
involve the broader community

00:48:31.810 --> 00:48:33.645
and help people really think about

00:48:33.645 --> 00:48:35.260
what their future is gonna look like

00:48:38.080 --> 00:48:40.840
- Of the Jack Hammers of
Grand Coulee Thunder, a call

00:48:40.840 --> 00:48:43.480
to arms against the desert water,

00:48:50.350 --> 00:48:54.550
water for rich Brown Earth
spreading out as big as Delaware.

00:49:15.700 --> 00:49:17.200
- We're 14 Confederated tribes

00:49:17.200 --> 00:49:19.090
and vans of the Yakima nation

00:49:19.090 --> 00:49:21.220
that make up probably
almost a third of the state

00:49:21.220 --> 00:49:24.430
of Washington is our area that
we seeded within the treaty.

00:49:30.940 --> 00:49:33.340
We're one of the few tribes
in the nation that has gone

00:49:33.340 --> 00:49:34.930
through a complete adjudication

00:49:34.930 --> 00:49:36.580
for water within their basin.

00:49:37.480 --> 00:49:40.480
And that laid established
a lot of the rules and,

00:49:40.480 --> 00:49:43.270
and guidelines that we use in
the principles that we have

00:49:43.270 --> 00:49:44.500
for what our treaty rights are.

00:49:46.060 --> 00:49:48.580
1905 is a big date in the Akon Basin

00:49:48.580 --> 00:49:51.940
because that's when all the
water in the Akon basin was

00:49:51.940 --> 00:49:54.820
considered taken up and that anybody

00:49:54.820 --> 00:49:56.950
after that, if a drought came

00:49:56.950 --> 00:50:00.340
or they would be a lower
priority in receiving water.

00:50:00.340 --> 00:50:02.230
And so with that, we ended up

00:50:02.230 --> 00:50:04.330
where the reservation was parceled out

00:50:04.330 --> 00:50:07.095
and each parcel had a
different amount of water.

00:50:07.095 --> 00:50:08.980
And, and I think that was fundamental

00:50:08.980 --> 00:50:11.020
and to, to bring an ag to the reservation.

00:50:15.340 --> 00:50:16.870
Pretty soon you had a bunch

00:50:16.870 --> 00:50:20.710
of non-Indians farming on
the reservation, leasing

00:50:20.710 --> 00:50:22.840
or stealing or

00:50:22.840 --> 00:50:24.610
however you wanna call it,

00:50:24.610 --> 00:50:27.170
they were acquiring our land base.

00:50:27.170 --> 00:50:31.970
And by the time it came to the
seventies, most of the land,

00:50:31.970 --> 00:50:34.670
40 to almost 50% of it was in fee status.

00:50:34.670 --> 00:50:37.760
And the other was either
allotted or the tribes.

00:50:39.740 --> 00:50:42.890
Ag has never been
successful for tribal people

00:50:42.890 --> 00:50:45.530
and there's a reason
why our land is held in

00:50:45.530 --> 00:50:47.480
trust by the federal government.

00:50:47.480 --> 00:50:50.990
Our land cannot be used as
collateral in loans to banks

00:50:50.990 --> 00:50:54.140
to be able to, to do more
higher profit type of crops.

00:50:54.140 --> 00:50:56.840
And so our membership has
always stayed into low value

00:50:56.840 --> 00:50:59.450
alfalfa, corn and those kind of crops.

00:51:00.620 --> 00:51:03.170
There's a lot of people that
were, were building wealth,

00:51:03.170 --> 00:51:05.480
but we were left out as a community.

00:51:06.740 --> 00:51:10.105
Just the system that that's
gamed against our community.

00:51:10.105 --> 00:51:12.410
I think that is an important
thing to recognize.

00:51:18.170 --> 00:51:19.610
- I think there's disconnects

00:51:19.610 --> 00:51:22.850
and misunderstandings
about like land and water.

00:51:22.850 --> 00:51:25.610
I think that that is built
on basically a system

00:51:25.610 --> 00:51:27.800
that was designed to figure out how

00:51:27.800 --> 00:51:30.170
to take it from tribal
members historically.

00:51:31.610 --> 00:51:36.440
So you look at some of
the records from 1911,

00:51:36.440 --> 00:51:38.065
1920s time period,

00:51:38.065 --> 00:51:41.000
and you can see some of
our tribal members fighting

00:51:41.000 --> 00:51:43.610
with the federal government
about water rights.

00:51:43.610 --> 00:51:47.090
You're putting somebody in
a predatory practice of,

00:51:47.090 --> 00:51:49.130
of basically selling them their water

00:51:49.130 --> 00:51:51.170
that they already have their rights to.

00:51:51.170 --> 00:51:53.420
And so I think historically
when you've never addressed

00:51:53.420 --> 00:51:55.610
that, when you, the federal
government has never addressed

00:51:55.610 --> 00:51:56.870
that and tried to see like, Hey,

00:51:56.870 --> 00:51:58.880
what do we need to do to write that?

00:51:58.880 --> 00:52:00.560
I think yeah, that kind of gets carried

00:52:00.560 --> 00:52:01.730
through the generations

00:52:01.730 --> 00:52:04.280
and the voices get a little
bit stronger about it.

00:52:08.570 --> 00:52:10.490
- And I think it's an
exciting time for us to,

00:52:10.490 --> 00:52:13.940
to change this from this
very, this long history

00:52:13.940 --> 00:52:18.020
of negative outcomes for our
community of land being stolen,

00:52:18.020 --> 00:52:19.430
of deals being done,

00:52:19.430 --> 00:52:21.560
that were not always in the best interest,

00:52:21.560 --> 00:52:24.620
that the priorities never
being the tribal members'

00:52:24.620 --> 00:52:26.840
priorities, but always
the non-Indian farmers'

00:52:26.840 --> 00:52:28.760
priorities on the reservation.

00:52:28.760 --> 00:52:29.900
I think we're gonna turn that to

00:52:29.900 --> 00:52:32.150
where the priorities will
come back to our community

00:52:32.150 --> 00:52:33.620
and we'll come back to who we are.

00:52:36.680 --> 00:52:38.510
- I have a background in engineering

00:52:38.510 --> 00:52:42.080
and I grew up on the Yakima reservation.

00:52:42.080 --> 00:52:43.610
Been here pretty much my whole life.

00:52:45.440 --> 00:52:50.180
We went from 200 acres in
1982 to about 1600 acres.

00:52:50.180 --> 00:52:50.450
Right now

00:52:56.030 --> 00:53:00.320
the Yakima Reservation
is a checkerboard of, of

00:53:00.320 --> 00:53:03.350
what they call trust and fee lands.

00:53:04.610 --> 00:53:06.295
Fee lands could be owned

00:53:06.295 --> 00:53:09.560
by non-Indians on the Yakima Reservation.

00:53:09.560 --> 00:53:14.560
Probably 90, 95% of the
actual water users though

00:53:14.690 --> 00:53:16.520
are the fee land owners

00:53:16.520 --> 00:53:20.450
because we don't have a lot
of tribal farming projects.

00:53:22.310 --> 00:53:25.260
We draw water from the Yakima River

00:53:25.260 --> 00:53:27.690
through the Wato Irrigation Project.

00:53:27.690 --> 00:53:31.770
And, and so the Wato Irrigation
project has a diversion dam

00:53:31.770 --> 00:53:34.050
where we divert water from the river

00:53:34.050 --> 00:53:36.660
and then it goes through
a series of canals.

00:53:38.525 --> 00:53:41.970
- I I think water is,
is the foundation for

00:53:41.970 --> 00:53:44.250
what our economy will be in the future.

00:53:44.250 --> 00:53:45.360
That is one side of it,

00:53:45.360 --> 00:53:48.810
but also it, it is a strength
that we will have to be able

00:53:48.810 --> 00:53:52.320
to practice and be yakima's
and, and practice our way

00:54:05.670 --> 00:54:08.400
- By purchasing our farm.

00:54:08.400 --> 00:54:12.180
We, we, we could have
possibly maybe doubled the

00:54:12.180 --> 00:54:15.420
representation of the tribe's fee lands.

00:54:19.890 --> 00:54:23.220
I hope that people realize
that, you know, we all have

00:54:23.220 --> 00:54:25.950
to support our own local communities and,

00:54:25.950 --> 00:54:30.240
and that working together, you know, is

00:54:30.240 --> 00:54:32.520
so much better than fighting each other.

00:54:34.050 --> 00:54:38.130
If the tribe is successful
in this farming venture,

00:54:38.130 --> 00:54:40.020
the community has to
be successful as well.

00:54:42.120 --> 00:54:43.620
- I'm John Lee Ox.

00:54:43.620 --> 00:54:47.790
I am the project manager for
Yakima Nation Ag Development.

00:54:47.790 --> 00:54:48.990
I work in conjunction

00:54:48.990 --> 00:54:51.575
with our newly acquired
Yakima Nation Farms,

00:54:51.575 --> 00:54:54.600
which is a 1500 acre produce farm based

00:54:54.600 --> 00:54:55.950
outta Wapato Washington.

00:54:55.950 --> 00:55:00.540
It, as a tribal member, I
really see our, our ability

00:55:00.540 --> 00:55:03.450
to take, take back management

00:55:03.450 --> 00:55:06.210
and control of these
sort of resources and,

00:55:06.210 --> 00:55:08.550
and utilize that to
strengthen ourselves again.

00:55:08.550 --> 00:55:11.820
'cause there was a time where
things got a little muddy.

00:55:11.820 --> 00:55:14.880
So, but as a I see us now, we're able,

00:55:14.880 --> 00:55:16.650
we're reclaiming a lot of things.

00:55:16.650 --> 00:55:18.720
We're rediscovering a lot of things

00:55:18.720 --> 00:55:22.560
and culturally I feel like we're, we're

00:55:23.400 --> 00:55:24.810
at a pivotal time where I think we're

00:55:24.810 --> 00:55:26.160
gonna start getting stronger.

00:55:26.160 --> 00:55:29.460
I think that there's a way when
you work with the resources,

00:55:29.460 --> 00:55:31.950
when you work with historically
what's been there when

00:55:31.950 --> 00:55:34.620
you're gathering elders stories,

00:55:34.620 --> 00:55:36.270
when you're including native language,

00:55:36.270 --> 00:55:39.630
which is a thousands year
old data set of the land,

00:55:39.630 --> 00:55:40.980
then you're going to have projects

00:55:40.980 --> 00:55:45.330
that are more cost efficient
and more effective.

00:55:45.330 --> 00:55:48.270
If you want to proceed with
projects that ignore all of

00:55:48.270 --> 00:55:50.730
that, then it's a little bit more bleak.

00:55:53.070 --> 00:55:55.085
- We believe that, that
it will be the tribes,

00:55:55.085 --> 00:55:58.710
the the yakimas, the Ellas and
Ezers and the Warm Springs.

00:55:58.710 --> 00:56:01.110
All of us will be a part of the solution.

00:56:01.110 --> 00:56:04.805
And we stopped asking to
say, you know, the state

00:56:04.805 --> 00:56:06.810
and feds, why don't you fix it?

00:56:06.810 --> 00:56:08.430
And we started doing it ourselves.

00:56:18.480 --> 00:56:20.970
- Being a native farmer
is just super badass.

00:56:20.970 --> 00:56:23.140
This farm is just a
resource for everybody.

00:56:23.140 --> 00:56:25.960
It's a place to gather, heal, eat, learn,

00:56:28.270 --> 00:56:30.130
let us have something

00:56:30.130 --> 00:56:32.320
because everyone's
trying to take literally

00:56:32.320 --> 00:56:33.430
everything from us.

00:56:45.820 --> 00:56:47.740
So I'm really protective of the farm.

00:56:47.740 --> 00:56:51.940
It means a lot because we're
providing a resource that's not

00:56:51.940 --> 00:56:54.220
so much food, but it's our culture.

00:56:57.550 --> 00:56:59.620
Just learning what the
land wants us to do,

00:56:59.620 --> 00:57:01.210
what everybody wants versus

00:57:01.210 --> 00:57:03.970
what mother nature is
telling us is gonna happen is

00:57:03.970 --> 00:57:04.990
the reality of things.

00:57:04.990 --> 00:57:08.170
And I'm cool with it.
There's a gap right now

00:57:08.170 --> 00:57:11.290
with our elders passing with
the youth coming up a lot

00:57:11.290 --> 00:57:12.340
of trauma healing

00:57:12.340 --> 00:57:16.870
or not a lack of resources
to heal correctly.

00:57:16.870 --> 00:57:18.370
And food brings that together.

00:57:21.310 --> 00:57:23.170
Preserve what culture is

00:57:23.170 --> 00:57:25.990
around you at the time in a healthy space

00:57:25.990 --> 00:57:28.270
and then leave that in a better

00:57:28.270 --> 00:57:29.590
place for the next generation.

00:57:31.270 --> 00:57:34.840
The main issues about water is getting it.

00:57:36.580 --> 00:57:38.920
It's not based off of
what the farmer needs.

00:57:38.920 --> 00:57:41.500
It's water law, which is antiquated,

00:57:41.500 --> 00:57:43.570
it's ineffective, it doesn't work.

00:57:46.150 --> 00:57:48.820
My work will continue whether
there's farming or not

00:57:48.820 --> 00:57:51.970
because there's so much
educational component behind it.

00:57:51.970 --> 00:57:54.310
I'm one of the few farmers
out here that's native.

00:57:54.310 --> 00:57:56.230
I don't think they
care, but I'll make sure

00:57:56.230 --> 00:57:58.540
that they're reminded that

00:57:58.540 --> 00:58:00.940
we still have important work to do.

00:58:00.940 --> 00:58:02.830
And maybe it's more
important than their work.

00:58:05.410 --> 00:58:08.230
People are manipulating our resources,

00:58:08.230 --> 00:58:09.700
they're not communicating well.

00:58:09.700 --> 00:58:11.620
It's not anyone's to dictate.

00:58:11.620 --> 00:58:13.960
We're just there to care for it.

00:58:16.810 --> 00:58:18.730
There's a huge shift definitely in the

00:58:18.730 --> 00:58:19.840
food sovereignty movement.

00:58:19.840 --> 00:58:21.760
It's kind of like, look
out, we're coming in hot.

00:58:21.760 --> 00:58:23.020
If you're gonna be in the way you need

00:58:23.020 --> 00:58:24.880
to move and we'll go around you.

00:58:24.880 --> 00:58:27.370
Or that's just what I do.
'cause I don't really have a

00:58:27.370 --> 00:58:28.390
lot of time on the planet.

00:58:29.320 --> 00:58:30.550
If your ego's in the way

00:58:30.550 --> 00:58:33.910
or your behaviors, I'll
let you sit with that

00:58:33.910 --> 00:58:36.340
and I'll go around you
and continue to work

00:58:36.340 --> 00:58:38.590
and pave the path for the
seven generations ahead.

00:58:55.265 --> 00:58:58.330
- As food-based cultures,
we pray to the land,

00:58:59.290 --> 00:59:02.440
to the plant relatives, and to the water.

00:59:04.780 --> 00:59:07.390
The light shines upward from the earth.

00:59:11.860 --> 00:59:14.800
It is a knowing within the soil

00:59:14.800 --> 00:59:17.050
and a faith within the people

00:59:17.980 --> 00:59:20.535
that their traditional foods will

00:59:20.535 --> 00:59:21.535
- Return.

00:59:23.000 --> 00:59:24.920
- We live in a, a very semi part

00:59:24.920 --> 00:59:27.890
of the Arizona up on the
Colorado plateau, about 45

00:59:27.890 --> 00:59:29.000
to 6,000 feet.

00:59:29.000 --> 00:59:30.830
And we have a bunch of desert shrubs

00:59:30.830 --> 00:59:32.060
and, and brushes out here.

00:59:32.060 --> 00:59:34.855
And so a lot of sandy soils up here.

00:59:34.855 --> 00:59:37.070
And for us to even raise
anything out here is

00:59:37.070 --> 00:59:38.240
pretty much incredible for me.

00:59:38.240 --> 00:59:39.920
And so that to me, that's real dry farming

00:59:39.920 --> 00:59:41.480
because you're not, you're not,

00:59:41.480 --> 00:59:43.130
not only are you not using irrigation,

00:59:43.130 --> 00:59:47.120
but it's actually dry water's.

00:59:47.120 --> 00:59:49.670
Everything to me, it means
it's not a commodity.

00:59:49.670 --> 00:59:51.440
It's, it's, it's a simple way of life.

00:59:51.440 --> 00:59:52.550
It's attached to who we are.

00:59:52.550 --> 00:59:55.760
It's has very, very spiritual significance

00:59:55.760 --> 00:59:58.490
because all of our ceremonies
out here at Hope Hopi, we pray

00:59:58.490 --> 01:00:01.940
for water, we pray for moisture,
whether it be snowfall or,

01:00:01.940 --> 01:00:03.320
or, or the monsoon rain.

01:00:16.115 --> 01:00:19.580
Well, I think that disconnect
is, is at least for the people

01:00:19.580 --> 01:00:23.120
who have never experienced
the droughts, you know, the,

01:00:23.120 --> 01:00:25.580
the conservation needed like Hopi has

01:00:25.580 --> 01:00:28.220
and seeing the value of
it by having to go out.

01:00:28.220 --> 01:00:31.340
I mean every year, you know,
praying for moisture to come

01:00:31.340 --> 01:00:32.780
and things like that
and going through some

01:00:32.780 --> 01:00:36.320
of these psychological
downgrades, I'd have to say no.

01:00:36.320 --> 01:00:37.700
If you, unless you experience it,

01:00:37.700 --> 01:00:38.990
you really don't understand it.

01:00:39.830 --> 01:00:42.950
A lot of people have never been
to that realm yet, you know,

01:00:42.950 --> 01:00:44.720
they've never been without it.

01:00:44.720 --> 01:00:46.490
And so after a while,

01:00:46.490 --> 01:00:49.820
I think the disconnect comes
from you becoming numb to,

01:00:49.820 --> 01:00:52.190
to the actual water really is, you know,

01:00:52.190 --> 01:00:54.230
it's no longer looked
at something spiritual

01:00:54.230 --> 01:00:56.575
and something that's,
that you pray for it.

01:00:56.575 --> 01:00:58.040
It's something that's just given to you.

01:01:00.800 --> 01:01:04.105
That field has, has a lot
of, not only peacefulness,

01:01:04.105 --> 01:01:06.410
but it has a lot of
healing qualities to it.

01:01:07.970 --> 01:01:10.520
It shapes you because
you're becoming one with

01:01:10.520 --> 01:01:12.200
that from the minute you plant with that,

01:01:12.200 --> 01:01:13.220
with your planting stick

01:01:13.220 --> 01:01:14.720
to putting those seeds in the ground

01:01:14.720 --> 01:01:17.120
and to watching them
come up, you know, it's,

01:01:17.120 --> 01:01:18.565
it's a beautiful thing to see.

01:01:18.565 --> 01:01:21.350
It's like you become a, an
instant parent for a while,

01:01:21.350 --> 01:01:24.715
you know, and then those, those
stocks, they get mature old

01:01:24.715 --> 01:01:26.450
and they fade back into the ground again

01:01:26.450 --> 01:01:28.790
and they always leave
you something, you know,

01:01:28.790 --> 01:01:30.950
they always leave you something
for the next generation.

01:01:33.710 --> 01:01:36.950
- The more that we can
communicate, it's just feels better

01:01:38.210 --> 01:01:40.910
walking alongside your relative.

01:01:40.910 --> 01:01:42.500
There's always something to gain.

01:01:42.500 --> 01:01:44.600
And the end result would be

01:01:44.600 --> 01:01:48.230
that we're just gonna survive longer.

01:01:48.230 --> 01:01:50.540
You have to always be working together

01:01:50.540 --> 01:01:54.410
or you're not really showing
gratitude to the full intention

01:01:54.410 --> 01:01:57.260
of why we exist as native people.

01:01:57.260 --> 01:01:59.900
- You know, we're trying
our best to adapt,

01:01:59.900 --> 01:02:04.670
but I think our adaptation is
only based upon our experience

01:02:04.670 --> 01:02:06.770
with the land and knowing the land.

01:02:06.770 --> 01:02:11.770
And unfortunately that is
very short for some people.

01:02:11.780 --> 01:02:13.130
You know, in my mind when,

01:02:13.130 --> 01:02:16.700
when human populations start
started coming on this earth,

01:02:16.700 --> 01:02:18.110
people could figure that out.

01:02:18.110 --> 01:02:20.640
Well, we're gonna adapt,
we're gonna change,

01:02:20.640 --> 01:02:23.160
but unfortunately we're
running outta time.

01:02:29.670 --> 01:02:32.040
I just think we need to
open up the doors more

01:02:32.040 --> 01:02:34.350
to indigenous people,
whether they have a PhD

01:02:34.350 --> 01:02:37.350
or not, to be at the table to
hear what they have to say.

01:02:37.350 --> 01:02:39.690
Our knowledge goes back centuries

01:02:44.160 --> 01:02:46.710
when I was a kid and
my grandfather, we went

01:02:46.710 --> 01:02:49.020
to go gather a particular
plan and it wasn't,

01:02:49.020 --> 01:02:51.240
and we finally found one after
about three hours of walking

01:02:51.240 --> 01:02:54.630
around and, and he told
me to leave it there.

01:02:54.630 --> 01:02:55.970
And I said, man, that's we,

01:02:55.970 --> 01:02:57.540
we were looking for this plant all day.

01:02:57.540 --> 01:02:59.100
Why am I gonna leave here? You know?

01:02:59.100 --> 01:03:00.420
And so he says,

01:03:00.420 --> 01:03:02.910
'cause that's for the
next generation, you know,

01:03:02.910 --> 01:03:04.740
and the next one after that, you know,

01:03:04.740 --> 01:03:09.185
and so forth down the line,
rather than stopping at seven,

01:03:09.185 --> 01:03:12.000
you go way back or you go way ahead.

01:03:12.000 --> 01:03:14.310
You know, you don't, you
don't put a number on it,

01:03:14.310 --> 01:03:15.870
you just let it go from generation

01:03:15.870 --> 01:03:17.940
to generation to generation.

01:03:17.940 --> 01:03:20.970
And so, 'cause seven to
me is a minimal number.

01:03:20.970 --> 01:03:23.460
You know, I'm a 250th generation farmer.

01:03:31.890 --> 01:03:34.290
I really tell people they
really need to love themselves,

01:03:34.290 --> 01:03:36.450
you know, and maybe they'll
slow down just enough

01:03:36.450 --> 01:03:38.465
to figure out what's out
there, you know, the,

01:03:38.465 --> 01:03:40.410
the the important things
that are out there, right?

01:03:40.410 --> 01:03:42.390
Instead of just walking past everything,

01:03:43.410 --> 01:03:47.010
sometimes I'd get sad and, and
I remember to just look down

01:03:47.010 --> 01:03:49.620
and watch a little ant go
about 20 feet, you know?

01:03:49.620 --> 01:03:51.990
And that was cool, man.
'cause I slowed myself down

01:03:54.960 --> 01:03:59.960
- A song that speaks of water within our

01:04:00.150 --> 01:04:01.890
cultural way.

01:04:03.750 --> 01:04:07.860
It's a ceremonial song that
many people have a reticence

01:04:07.860 --> 01:04:10.140
by which to allow it to be recorded.

01:04:12.960 --> 01:04:17.820
I am the child of my parents'
generations who were willing

01:04:17.820 --> 01:04:21.360
to embrace the technology
that was given to them

01:04:21.360 --> 01:04:23.160
to use as a tool.

01:04:23.160 --> 01:04:27.600
The portion that I will
highlight talks about

01:04:27.600 --> 01:04:30.445
how the water has affected our world.

01:04:51.015 --> 01:04:51.505
Charles

01:04:59.585 --> 01:04:59.705
a

01:05:09.605 --> 01:05:09.825
oh,

01:05:42.070 --> 01:05:44.530
- We are connected to all living things.

01:05:46.090 --> 01:05:49.120
They have become part of
our DNA through centuries

01:05:49.120 --> 01:05:50.500
of coexistence.

01:05:52.900 --> 01:05:54.700
We are poisoning our lifeblood

01:05:54.700 --> 01:05:57.160
and destroying the animals that connect us

01:05:57.160 --> 01:05:58.870
to our creation stories.

01:05:59.770 --> 01:06:01.780
These actions will echo

01:06:01.780 --> 01:06:05.170
through generations if
we don't come together

01:06:05.170 --> 01:06:06.640
to create solutions.

01:06:11.380 --> 01:06:14.140
- There was a whole what was
called the termination era,

01:06:14.140 --> 01:06:17.110
where the United States was
looking to pick out tribes

01:06:17.110 --> 01:06:20.500
that they believed were wealthy enough to

01:06:20.500 --> 01:06:23.835
no longer need a relationship
with the United States.

01:06:23.835 --> 01:06:25.750
It was all about assimilation.

01:06:27.610 --> 01:06:30.400
So they, they, they picked
us out as one of the tribes

01:06:30.400 --> 01:06:31.810
to be terminated.

01:06:31.810 --> 01:06:33.820
And it was an absolute disaster.

01:06:34.690 --> 01:06:38.050
A lot of folks fled as the
tribal institutions dissolved.

01:06:40.420 --> 01:06:42.910
You know, when the, when
the norms, the institutions

01:06:42.910 --> 01:06:47.620
that any community has are
suddenly gone, it results in,

01:06:47.620 --> 01:06:50.470
you know, what, what social
scientists call an me Weak,

01:06:50.470 --> 01:06:55.300
weak norms and suicide rates skyrocketed,

01:06:55.300 --> 01:06:58.000
alcoholism skyrocketed.

01:06:58.000 --> 01:07:00.910
It just really created
a whole lot of problems

01:07:00.910 --> 01:07:02.355
that we're still recovering from.

01:07:14.470 --> 01:07:19.470
The settlement process was
an incredibly harmful process

01:07:19.510 --> 01:07:23.140
for water quality in
the upper Klamath Basin.

01:07:24.220 --> 01:07:27.370
When settlers arrived,
we had the largest stand

01:07:27.370 --> 01:07:29.680
of Ponderosa pine west of the Mississippi.

01:07:30.820 --> 01:07:33.730
So the first thing we did was
to cut all the timber off.

01:07:34.630 --> 01:07:38.530
Law of unintended
consequences says is that

01:07:38.530 --> 01:07:41.230
things will happen that you
don't expect from your actions.

01:07:41.230 --> 01:07:44.320
So one of the unexpected things
was when we cut all those

01:07:44.320 --> 01:07:48.070
big trees off and use them, the forest

01:07:48.070 --> 01:07:50.860
because nature of pours a
vacuum decided to fill it

01:07:50.860 --> 01:07:54.280
with billions of baby trees,
all of which need water.

01:07:54.280 --> 01:07:58.330
And so we've seen a
gradual decrease in water

01:07:58.330 --> 01:08:00.460
quantity on the landscape.

01:08:02.650 --> 01:08:06.130
- So the k clima basin has repeatedly had

01:08:07.180 --> 01:08:09.550
drought declarations
over the last 20 years.

01:08:09.550 --> 01:08:11.200
In fact, more years than not,

01:08:12.610 --> 01:08:16.700
drought is not enough water to meet needs.

01:08:16.700 --> 01:08:18.620
We can talk about ecological drought.

01:08:18.620 --> 01:08:21.830
And so that's what the, the earth needs.

01:08:21.830 --> 01:08:26.830
The living things we can talk
about agricultural drought,

01:08:26.840 --> 01:08:29.000
not enough water to grow crops.

01:08:32.210 --> 01:08:36.470
- We then brought in cattle to
graze on that now open land.

01:08:36.470 --> 01:08:40.280
And that cattle grazing
was largely uncontrolled,

01:08:40.280 --> 01:08:42.590
so the cattle had access
to all the streams.

01:08:43.610 --> 01:08:46.340
That process of removing all

01:08:46.340 --> 01:08:47.935
that vegetation from the streams

01:08:47.935 --> 01:08:50.660
with cattle resulted in sediment,

01:08:50.660 --> 01:08:53.810
mud essentially flowing
into upper Klamath Lake.

01:08:53.810 --> 01:08:56.450
That mud is naturally high in phosphorus,

01:08:56.450 --> 01:08:59.750
but was controlled by the vegetation

01:08:59.750 --> 01:09:00.890
around the water bodies.

01:09:14.690 --> 01:09:17.210
The short distance between there

01:09:17.210 --> 01:09:20.330
and the lake is very telling, right?

01:09:20.330 --> 01:09:23.360
Because most of the
phosphorus that's creating all

01:09:23.360 --> 01:09:26.090
of the water quality problems in the lake

01:09:26.090 --> 01:09:28.010
are coming out of the Wood river valley.

01:09:42.080 --> 01:09:45.710
- I don't think they
really know how to honor

01:09:47.300 --> 01:09:50.600
and respect 'cause they never had it.

01:09:50.600 --> 01:09:52.370
I think if they learn to

01:09:52.370 --> 01:09:57.140
and really understand what it
means to take care of the land

01:09:57.140 --> 01:10:00.955
and the water, that this

01:10:00.955 --> 01:10:02.240
area would be different.

01:10:04.220 --> 01:10:08.540
And of course, we'd all
be working together.

01:10:21.290 --> 01:10:24.350
I'll just keep praying
for it, praying about it.

01:10:25.520 --> 01:10:30.170
I look out there and just say my prayer

01:10:30.170 --> 01:10:33.350
and hopefully one day that

01:10:33.350 --> 01:10:36.110
things start moving in a good way.

01:10:42.260 --> 01:10:45.080
- Now that sediment is uncontrolled.

01:10:45.080 --> 01:10:46.400
It enters upper Klamath Lake

01:10:46.400 --> 01:10:51.400
and fuels an algae bloom
that kills fish that are

01:10:51.950 --> 01:10:54.620
sacred to the, to the Klamath tribes.

01:11:15.540 --> 01:11:18.480
Fish need clean water
in the right amounts.

01:11:24.330 --> 01:11:27.900
The analogy that can be
best used is the atmosphere

01:11:27.900 --> 01:11:30.780
that we have is about 20% oxygen.

01:11:30.780 --> 01:11:32.010
If I put you in a room

01:11:32.010 --> 01:11:34.530
with 10% oxygen, you
wouldn't last very long.

01:11:34.530 --> 01:11:36.780
That's effectively what
we've done with the fish.

01:11:39.780 --> 01:11:42.300
We've taken the thing
that they evolved to need

01:11:42.300 --> 01:11:46.770
and we've removed and then
dirtied what was left.

01:11:55.110 --> 01:11:58.950
- I wish the water was
clean, I wish it was healthy.

01:11:59.850 --> 01:12:02.520
And when the water's not
healthy, we're not healthy.

01:12:20.040 --> 01:12:23.790
- That's what really I think
keeps me awake at night is,

01:12:24.750 --> 01:12:27.900
you know, I think we're
at the culmination of some

01:12:28.800 --> 01:12:30.300
unsustainable practices

01:12:30.300 --> 01:12:33.690
and attitudes that have
been underway for a century

01:12:33.690 --> 01:12:36.690
and a half here locally.

01:12:36.690 --> 01:12:40.260
And when you start having
species go extinct, you know,

01:12:40.260 --> 01:12:43.680
they're, they're not coming
back To have them go extinct,

01:12:43.680 --> 01:12:45.660
you know, on the watch of myself

01:12:45.660 --> 01:12:50.460
and this tribal council is
just terrifying, you know?

01:12:50.460 --> 01:12:53.760
And, and I know how long our memories are.

01:12:53.760 --> 01:12:56.880
You know, we look back and
are proud of our ancestors

01:12:56.880 --> 01:12:59.610
and we think about our
generations to come.

01:12:59.610 --> 01:13:02.910
And I, I don't, I don't
want to see that happen,

01:13:02.910 --> 01:13:06.450
but it, you know, we're one
catastrophic event in the

01:13:06.450 --> 01:13:07.890
lake from that happening.

01:13:11.460 --> 01:13:13.530
- The water law itself is very complex.

01:13:13.530 --> 01:13:15.570
Then you've got these multiple interests.

01:13:15.570 --> 01:13:17.400
Federal Endangered Species Act.

01:13:17.400 --> 01:13:19.950
You've got multiple
species, some down river,

01:13:19.950 --> 01:13:22.200
some up above the lake.

01:13:22.200 --> 01:13:26.190
You've got interests of the
irrigators, you've got interests

01:13:26.190 --> 01:13:27.780
of the federal government,
you've got interests

01:13:27.780 --> 01:13:28.895
of the state government.

01:13:28.895 --> 01:13:31.860
And it's just, it's a
very complicated area.

01:13:35.970 --> 01:13:38.945
- We also have largely uncontrolled

01:13:38.945 --> 01:13:40.440
groundwater pumping here.

01:13:40.440 --> 01:13:42.000
We don't have a system

01:13:42.000 --> 01:13:45.780
where surface water is
disconnected from groundwater.

01:13:45.780 --> 01:13:48.210
All of it is connected
through the, the soil.

01:13:49.140 --> 01:13:51.510
So during drought years,

01:13:51.510 --> 01:13:54.870
we pump groundwater when
surface water isn't available,

01:13:54.870 --> 01:13:59.580
which means that we're still
removing water from the system.

01:13:59.580 --> 01:14:03.000
That groundwater pumping then
results in less surface water,

01:14:03.000 --> 01:14:05.225
which of course then results
in more groundwater pumping

01:14:05.225 --> 01:14:06.630
because there le there's less available.

01:14:06.630 --> 01:14:09.900
So it's a zero sum game when
it comes to water quantity.

01:14:09.900 --> 01:14:13.810
Here there are too many straws pulling

01:14:13.810 --> 01:14:15.010
out of the system,

01:14:31.305 --> 01:14:32.680
- As is human nature.

01:14:32.680 --> 01:14:36.070
The people want to find
water in the easiest

01:14:36.070 --> 01:14:37.690
and most convenient way possible.

01:14:37.690 --> 01:14:40.510
And surface water was where people went

01:14:40.510 --> 01:14:42.220
to get their water needs met.

01:14:42.220 --> 01:14:46.270
So most of the development
of water in the 19th century

01:14:46.270 --> 01:14:47.590
and through the first half

01:14:47.590 --> 01:14:50.080
of the 20th century was surface water.

01:14:50.080 --> 01:14:52.810
What we started to find
by the mid 20th century is

01:14:52.810 --> 01:14:55.270
that those surface water
rights were harder to get

01:14:55.270 --> 01:14:58.060
because it, it had been
developed pretty fully

01:14:58.060 --> 01:14:59.685
by the mid 20th century.

01:14:59.685 --> 01:15:01.780
We started to see irrigators

01:15:01.780 --> 01:15:04.240
and the agricultural communities
start to take advantage

01:15:04.240 --> 01:15:05.830
of the cheaper electricity

01:15:05.830 --> 01:15:08.830
and started to develop
groundwater at a rate

01:15:08.830 --> 01:15:11.200
and a scale that we had not seen before.

01:15:11.200 --> 01:15:13.630
Over time, as we issue more

01:15:13.630 --> 01:15:17.710
and more water rights
over many decades, we knew

01:15:17.710 --> 01:15:20.260
that at some point there
would be not enough water

01:15:20.260 --> 01:15:21.705
to continue to do that.

01:15:21.705 --> 01:15:24.040
And in many basins across the state,

01:15:24.040 --> 01:15:27.550
we stopped issuing new
surface water rights long ago.

01:15:27.550 --> 01:15:28.600
We're now getting to the point

01:15:28.600 --> 01:15:31.660
where I think we're gonna be
putting the brakes on issuing

01:15:31.660 --> 01:15:33.975
groundwater rights in many
areas around the state

01:15:33.975 --> 01:15:37.120
- As we have successfully been able

01:15:37.120 --> 01:15:38.710
to make calls on surface water.

01:15:39.670 --> 01:15:41.380
Many of the, the ranchers

01:15:41.380 --> 01:15:44.730
and the farmers have
responded by mining the,

01:15:44.730 --> 01:15:49.390
the groundwater and
our own scientists have

01:15:49.390 --> 01:15:52.180
worked with government scientists
and we've got test wells

01:15:52.180 --> 01:15:54.070
and things up on the marsh,

01:15:54.070 --> 01:15:57.130
and we can see the water
levels just declining.

01:15:57.130 --> 01:15:59.020
You know, you can see them
recover a little bit in the

01:15:59.020 --> 01:16:00.880
winter and then drain back down.

01:16:00.880 --> 01:16:04.630
But progressively that line
is getting lower and lower.

01:16:04.630 --> 01:16:07.450
We've tried to put a lot of
pressure on the state of Oregon

01:16:07.450 --> 01:16:11.080
to get what's called a critical
groundwater designation,

01:16:11.080 --> 01:16:13.870
but it can take years and years and years.

01:16:13.870 --> 01:16:16.840
And the, the courts have
told us that we're not able

01:16:16.840 --> 01:16:18.880
to regulate groundwater at this point.

01:16:18.880 --> 01:16:20.350
- But we know that surface water

01:16:20.350 --> 01:16:22.390
and groundwater can be connected

01:16:22.390 --> 01:16:27.225
and we want to be, make sure
that we aren't allocating

01:16:27.225 --> 01:16:30.130
or over allocating the resource
to an extent where it starts

01:16:30.130 --> 01:16:32.380
to impact existing users in the system.

01:16:33.430 --> 01:16:35.650
- If we're were really up to us,

01:16:35.650 --> 01:16:37.240
we would do things differently.

01:16:39.040 --> 01:16:40.510
We were doing things differently

01:16:40.510 --> 01:16:43.725
before the first footprint ever set

01:16:43.725 --> 01:16:45.550
here on our territory.

01:16:46.630 --> 01:16:48.430
The water was clean.

01:16:48.430 --> 01:16:51.520
I'm sure our ancestors
drank from the lake.

01:16:55.210 --> 01:16:56.320
- What is going on down here?

01:16:56.320 --> 01:16:58.780
It is the lack of kindness

01:16:58.780 --> 01:17:02.680
and respect for na natural systems

01:17:03.820 --> 01:17:06.835
and for the people who lived
here and still live here,

01:17:23.510 --> 01:17:27.260
- People can just come here
and then pack up and leave

01:17:27.260 --> 01:17:29.030
and go somewhere else

01:17:29.030 --> 01:17:33.835
and abuse other people's water,
other tribal territories,

01:17:33.835 --> 01:17:36.920
water, it's easier for them to do that.

01:17:37.970 --> 01:17:40.730
But because native people

01:17:40.730 --> 01:17:43.975
and tribes are connected
to the land, that's

01:17:43.975 --> 01:17:48.380
how Creator had it for us,
gave us all instructions on

01:17:48.380 --> 01:17:50.450
to be caretakers of
the land and the water.

01:17:53.180 --> 01:17:56.360
- My great-grandpa owned the property

01:17:56.360 --> 01:17:58.010
that we're on right now,

01:17:58.010 --> 01:18:01.345
and it was given to
the family from the BIA

01:18:01.345 --> 01:18:03.050
through the latte process.

01:18:03.050 --> 01:18:05.240
It's been passed down through generations.

01:18:06.500 --> 01:18:11.500
So we're not allowed water to irrigate to

01:18:11.690 --> 01:18:14.900
continue with what my grandparents left.

01:18:14.900 --> 01:18:18.020
It gives me connection to my ancestors

01:18:19.400 --> 01:18:22.400
and my family that has passed.

01:18:23.870 --> 01:18:26.390
It's definitely something that
we wanna leave for our kids,

01:18:26.390 --> 01:18:30.770
but if there's no water,
it's gonna be gone.

01:18:33.020 --> 01:18:36.410
And sadly, it's connected to our family,

01:18:36.410 --> 01:18:38.990
unlike the ranches around us.

01:18:38.990 --> 01:18:41.575
They can sell and go somewhere else,

01:18:41.575 --> 01:18:44.870
but this is where my family's from.

01:18:52.490 --> 01:18:56.810
- I can understand how if you've
had a lifestyle, you know,

01:18:56.810 --> 01:19:00.200
for three or four
generations that, you know,

01:19:00.200 --> 01:19:01.370
you have a whole cultures

01:19:01.370 --> 01:19:04.970
and communities built up around
that, that you wouldn't want

01:19:04.970 --> 01:19:06.260
that to change.

01:19:06.260 --> 01:19:09.680
And we certainly don't
enjoy causing problems

01:19:09.680 --> 01:19:11.870
for people's livelihoods.

01:19:11.870 --> 01:19:16.100
But, you know, our way of
living has been being impacted

01:19:16.100 --> 01:19:18.500
for, you know, at least 150 years.

01:19:18.500 --> 01:19:21.500
And we're certainly not gonna sit by and,

01:19:21.500 --> 01:19:24.175
and watch entire ecosystems fail so

01:19:24.175 --> 01:19:27.290
that unsustainable agricultural
practices can go on

01:19:27.290 --> 01:19:29.870
for another, you know, five or 10 years.

01:19:31.670 --> 01:19:32.990
- Why do we have these dams?

01:19:32.990 --> 01:19:34.790
Why do we have this water policy?

01:19:34.790 --> 01:19:37.040
The West Water was developed in a way

01:19:37.040 --> 01:19:38.240
to encourage settlement.

01:19:38.240 --> 01:19:42.670
When you settle somewhere, there is a,

01:19:42.670 --> 01:19:47.605
a very deep sense of the
rightness of being there

01:19:47.605 --> 01:19:49.940
and of owning,

01:19:50.780 --> 01:19:52.760
you know, that land.

01:19:52.760 --> 01:19:54.770
And to a large extent that water,

01:19:55.640 --> 01:19:57.620
if your family has
farmed this land for four

01:19:57.620 --> 01:20:00.560
or five generations, it is who you are.

01:20:00.560 --> 01:20:02.600
It is so fundamental to your identity.

01:20:02.600 --> 01:20:06.770
And so talking about
changing water availability,

01:20:06.770 --> 01:20:08.790
it isn't just an economic question,

01:20:08.790 --> 01:20:11.670
it is an identity challenge.

01:20:11.670 --> 01:20:14.160
- It's just so, it's just so fascinating

01:20:14.160 --> 01:20:16.145
because there's, this
is the most important

01:20:16.145 --> 01:20:17.310
resource we have, right?

01:20:17.310 --> 01:20:20.765
And, and people are just by

01:20:20.765 --> 01:20:22.620
and large not paying attention.

01:20:23.670 --> 01:20:25.950
I think the best thing that
people could do would be to try

01:20:25.950 --> 01:20:29.400
to act now before the problem hits.

01:20:29.400 --> 01:20:32.070
Because once the problems
really start to hit,

01:20:32.070 --> 01:20:34.680
these are not simple things to resolve.

01:20:34.680 --> 01:20:39.240
And, and it's a lot
better to be able to come

01:20:39.240 --> 01:20:41.850
to the table and look for solutions

01:20:41.850 --> 01:20:43.290
before you have a crisis.

01:20:45.780 --> 01:20:49.650
- I have spent the last
25 years tearing out steel

01:20:49.650 --> 01:20:51.660
and concrete and PVC

01:20:51.660 --> 01:20:55.080
that basically shelf life has ended.

01:20:56.040 --> 01:21:00.750
We've added 35 CFS to the stream.

01:21:00.750 --> 01:21:03.450
A stream we used to dry up
for the last a hundred years

01:21:03.450 --> 01:21:05.610
that now with the tribes

01:21:05.610 --> 01:21:08.490
and PGE are bringing salmon

01:21:08.490 --> 01:21:10.320
and steelhead back to the stream.

01:21:11.940 --> 01:21:15.330
The first steelhead swam
into sisters last year.

01:21:15.330 --> 01:21:16.890
The last time there were steelhead running

01:21:16.890 --> 01:21:19.020
through sisters was 1885.

01:21:19.020 --> 01:21:23.850
So as a result, we now
have mitigated drought

01:21:23.850 --> 01:21:26.520
and climate change by piping

01:21:26.520 --> 01:21:28.770
and modernizing the whole district.

01:21:28.770 --> 01:21:31.050
In turn, we then have been able

01:21:31.050 --> 01:21:34.680
to put a solid flow in y choose Creek

01:21:34.680 --> 01:21:39.420
for the first time since
the late 18 hundreds.

01:21:39.420 --> 01:21:43.200
And as a result, the, the red band trout,

01:21:43.200 --> 01:21:44.490
the reds exploded.

01:21:45.390 --> 01:21:49.500
And also then we started
to see you now have water.

01:21:49.500 --> 01:21:52.110
So you now have the
ladder for the steelhead

01:21:52.110 --> 01:21:56.430
and the chinook to travel up
the creek and spawn and rear.

01:21:56.430 --> 01:21:58.050
Yeah, it's a, it's a,

01:21:58.050 --> 01:22:01.440
a adaptive management
experiment for the moment.

01:22:01.440 --> 01:22:06.120
You know, it took us a hundred
years to take all the water

01:22:06.120 --> 01:22:09.330
and build the dams and
cause all these problems.

01:22:09.330 --> 01:22:10.980
It's probably gonna take us 20

01:22:10.980 --> 01:22:14.730
or 30 years to figure out
all the perfect solutions

01:22:14.730 --> 01:22:15.780
to bring the fish back.

01:22:20.070 --> 01:22:23.790
Seven districts in just
Deschutes basin area will install

01:22:23.790 --> 01:22:25.110
over a billion dollars

01:22:25.110 --> 01:22:27.120
of infrastructure in the next 20 years.

01:22:27.120 --> 01:22:30.420
There's never been that kind
of investment in the West.

01:22:33.060 --> 01:22:37.110
Senator Jeff Merkley has
been an incredible champion

01:22:37.110 --> 01:22:40.200
for the irrigation
districts with this program.

01:22:40.200 --> 01:22:41.700
But this drought

01:22:41.700 --> 01:22:44.580
and this climate change is so serious

01:22:44.580 --> 01:22:49.440
that if we don't do this,
we will be sorry for the,

01:22:49.440 --> 01:22:50.580
the next couple hundred years.

01:22:54.150 --> 01:22:58.830
- I think there's an interesting
paradox that most people,

01:22:58.830 --> 01:23:00.000
I don't know about the whole world,

01:23:00.000 --> 01:23:05.000
but at least Americans care deeply about

01:23:05.020 --> 01:23:08.440
indigenous peoples and
the environment and,

01:23:08.440 --> 01:23:13.440
and wanting folks to be
able to live in a good way

01:23:13.930 --> 01:23:15.310
until it affects them.

01:23:16.540 --> 01:23:20.800
You know, when, when it's too
close to home, when they have

01:23:20.800 --> 01:23:24.550
to make changes in order
for others to be able

01:23:24.550 --> 01:23:26.290
to survive

01:23:26.290 --> 01:23:31.210
or to honor treaties, then
there's a whole lot of reasoning

01:23:31.210 --> 01:23:35.860
and political rhetoric that
goes into why that's a bad thing

01:23:35.860 --> 01:23:37.900
and why we can't do that.

01:23:37.900 --> 01:23:41.230
I have no doubt that most of
the folks that, that we argue

01:23:41.230 --> 01:23:45.220
with right over the water see
themselves as good stewards

01:23:45.220 --> 01:23:47.530
of the land as environmentalists

01:23:48.490 --> 01:23:51.700
and us as somehow outrageous in our,

01:23:51.700 --> 01:23:54.220
in our desires and our claims.

01:23:54.220 --> 01:23:57.070
So I guess what I would say is

01:23:58.630 --> 01:24:02.020
everybody needs to pay
attention to being responsible

01:24:02.020 --> 01:24:05.800
for their own actions if we're
gonna make it through this,

01:24:05.800 --> 01:24:07.960
and I'm not talking just
about the Klamath Basin,

01:24:07.960 --> 01:24:09.820
I'm talking about global warming.

01:24:09.820 --> 01:24:13.000
You know, this, this
problem isn't unique to us,

01:24:13.000 --> 01:24:15.850
although it's, I think, exacerbated here

01:24:15.850 --> 01:24:18.970
and it's certainly a big deal
for, for the Klamath tribes.

01:24:33.670 --> 01:24:34.900
- And when there's no more water,

01:24:34.900 --> 01:24:36.400
when there's the last fish in the river,

01:24:36.400 --> 01:24:37.810
when there's no more berries,

01:24:37.810 --> 01:24:39.670
no more roots, what are you gonna do then?

01:24:39.670 --> 01:24:41.410
Let's make it so we
don't get to that point.

01:24:41.410 --> 01:24:43.090
'cause no one's gonna know
what we're gonna do then.

01:24:43.930 --> 01:24:45.190
Right now is the time to do it.

01:24:45.190 --> 01:24:47.920
We can't sit around and wait
for someone else to do it.

01:24:47.920 --> 01:24:49.390
It's up to you as an individual

01:24:49.390 --> 01:24:51.640
and not just me as a spokesperson for it

01:24:51.640 --> 01:24:53.025
or any other big wig.

01:24:53.025 --> 01:24:54.940
It's up to you as an individual skill.

01:24:54.940 --> 01:24:57.850
People think, oh, it's just
me. I can't change anything.

01:24:57.850 --> 01:24:59.620
A person can change the world

01:24:59.620 --> 01:25:01.360
and we need to stop sitting
around acting like we need

01:25:01.360 --> 01:25:02.800
to rally all these people up all the time.

01:25:02.800 --> 01:25:05.920
No, you can change the
world if you want to.

01:25:05.920 --> 01:25:07.600
You just gotta get up and do it.

01:25:07.600 --> 01:25:10.360
Fighting for this water
isn't just fighting

01:25:10.360 --> 01:25:13.540
for it in the indigenous
people and their rights.

01:25:13.540 --> 01:25:15.880
It's fighting for what
creator had instilled in us

01:25:15.880 --> 01:25:17.200
from the very beginning.

01:25:17.200 --> 01:25:19.840
This water, it connects
people, it connects tribes,

01:25:19.840 --> 01:25:21.280
it connects the world.

01:25:21.280 --> 01:25:23.410
And it is important that
we always come back here

01:25:23.410 --> 01:25:26.770
to this river and reminisce
how you did used to grow up

01:25:26.770 --> 01:25:29.050
with the water and how it is different now

01:25:29.050 --> 01:25:31.270
and what you can do to
make it back to that way.

01:25:31.270 --> 01:25:32.440
It's not impossible.

01:25:35.470 --> 01:25:38.140
- It, it's simple to say water is life,

01:25:38.140 --> 01:25:39.430
but it's beyond that.

01:25:39.430 --> 01:25:40.515
It, it's everything.

01:25:40.515 --> 01:25:43.215
I mean, climate change has taken its toll.

01:25:43.215 --> 01:25:44.800
You, you see California

01:25:44.800 --> 01:25:46.630
where the ev you know the river is

01:25:46.630 --> 01:25:48.730
everything is running dry.

01:25:48.730 --> 01:25:52.750
We have done a fine job of
destroying what was natural.

01:25:54.190 --> 01:25:57.880
And if we don't understand that
by now, I mean shame on us.

01:25:57.880 --> 01:25:59.260
Mother Nature has

01:25:59.260 --> 01:26:02.740
provided for us like no
other. And now we need to take

01:26:02.740 --> 01:26:03.740
- Care her.

01:26:08.480 --> 01:26:10.520
- Now we must stand

01:26:10.520 --> 01:26:14.090
and protect what is ours.

01:26:14.090 --> 01:26:15.265
Our people stood

01:26:15.265 --> 01:26:19.910
and fought in 18 55, 18 56

01:26:19.910 --> 01:26:23.780
over the disputes of land encroachment.

01:26:23.780 --> 01:26:26.420
Will it come to the day
that we must also stand

01:26:26.420 --> 01:26:29.330
and take arms to protect our water rights?

01:26:29.330 --> 01:26:31.100
I hope that day is not coming,

01:26:31.100 --> 01:26:34.610
but if it has to, are we
willing to take that step

01:26:34.610 --> 01:26:38.390
for not only us but our
children of future generations?

01:26:38.390 --> 01:26:41.180
- We can't give up on the
hope that we could get

01:26:41.180 --> 01:26:42.770
to help it get right.

01:26:42.770 --> 01:26:44.570
It will be the creator that gets it right,

01:26:44.570 --> 01:26:48.560
but we got to help and we
gotta be part of that story.

01:26:48.560 --> 01:26:53.560
- Powerful, powerful human
beings are powerful in life

01:26:54.020 --> 01:26:57.350
and that's a gift from the first gift

01:26:57.350 --> 01:27:00.080
that the creator gave us was that water.

01:27:00.080 --> 01:27:04.400
- We need to quit being
portrayed as victims.

01:27:04.400 --> 01:27:06.355
You know, we've been here a long time.

01:27:06.355 --> 01:27:10.400
Our victimhood was a long
time ago. We're still here.

01:27:10.400 --> 01:27:12.865
And I think people need to
understand that, that we're here

01:27:12.865 --> 01:27:15.050
because we're resilient.

01:27:15.050 --> 01:27:17.450
And no matter what you throw
at us, we're still here.

01:27:17.450 --> 01:27:20.240
- Every tribe has critical
knowledge to them.

01:27:21.320 --> 01:27:24.200
It is my job that if I learn, I'm going

01:27:24.200 --> 01:27:25.580
to share as much as I can.

01:27:25.580 --> 01:27:27.265
And I, I do have to be cautious.

01:27:27.265 --> 01:27:29.600
But I'm a teacher first

01:27:31.400 --> 01:27:34.430
and if I learn it, I'm gonna share it

01:27:34.430 --> 01:27:37.520
because I know I wanna know
that when I'm standing at

01:27:37.520 --> 01:27:40.820
that door in front of
the creator, that I know

01:27:40.820 --> 01:27:44.360
that I gave back as much as I was given

01:27:44.360 --> 01:27:46.220
- Upta, we will never fade.

01:27:47.285 --> 01:27:49.340
We'll never fade if we
make sure we never fade.

01:27:50.870 --> 01:27:54.170
So many tribulations
are gonna come our way.

01:27:54.170 --> 01:27:55.430
And I know it's not gonna be easy,

01:27:55.430 --> 01:27:58.040
but this is something
we gotta fight to do.

01:27:59.150 --> 01:28:02.645
We have it in each of us to fight.

01:28:10.610 --> 01:28:12.350
- What does the future look like

01:28:14.060 --> 01:28:15.980
when you stand next to a stream?

01:28:16.820 --> 01:28:17.840
What is it telling you?

01:28:20.150 --> 01:28:23.330
If you can't hear it, come closer.

01:28:27.140 --> 01:28:30.290
Mimi. Wi water is life.

01:28:33.620 --> 01:28:34.970
We still have time.

01:28:43.970 --> 01:28:48.530
The only way forward is together

01:28:52.040 --> 01:28:53.040
- Is law.

01:29:02.130 --> 01:29:05.220
- What the fuck is flake
though? Don't ask them.

01:29:05.220 --> 01:29:08.760
What do we know? What
I forgot is better than

01:29:08.760 --> 01:29:10.440
whatever they remember.

01:29:10.440 --> 01:29:12.240
Nevermind a mouth it.

01:29:12.240 --> 01:29:15.540
It's quiet phone time to
put the temper tantrum

01:29:15.540 --> 01:29:17.100
to the quiet corner.

01:29:17.100 --> 01:29:19.680
Hush. That's enough. Said the rule.

01:29:19.680 --> 01:29:24.450
No suckers allowed to break
bread or sun. The daylight.

01:29:24.450 --> 01:29:28.560
Lightning in the thunder sun,
moon scars in the hunger,

01:29:28.560 --> 01:29:32.645
abundance and bundles in shuffles towers

01:29:32.645 --> 01:29:35.340
and tunnels, views and
valleys, waves and bigs.

01:29:35.340 --> 01:29:38.370
Streak shoot from sun ran earth

01:29:38.370 --> 01:29:41.040
and ain't scared of no what?

01:29:41.040 --> 01:29:43.860
Type of stay off my track.

01:29:44.745 --> 01:29:48.390
De top five on on them.

01:29:48.390 --> 01:29:52.110
Superly top bro equals diving on them.

01:29:52.110 --> 01:29:55.440
You wire Ryan homie you
won't play with Maya Mo.

01:29:55.440 --> 01:29:58.710
Smokey, big Chief Heart rate.

01:29:58.710 --> 01:30:02.580
Big Beat BY Ya seen
straight jacket come clean.

01:30:02.580 --> 01:30:05.040
Big said it was a dream. Now what's the.