Please Support our Right to Ceremony and email Forest Service Chief Tidwell

I emailed this to Tom Tidwell, Forest Service Chief. Posting with all the typos and awkward sentence structure of someone writing at midnight with apologies. If you can email ttidwell@fs.fed.us and cc

To the Forest Service Chief, Tom Tidwell ttidwell@fs.fed.us, and cc Randy Moore rmoore@fs.fed.us (who is under him), it would be so appreciated!

Dear Chief,
Something is not right in California. The state has little to do with it. On Forest Service Land, these past days, the US Forest Service Rangers interfered with the peace and dignity of a ceremony called H'up Chonos done by a tribe of traditional California Natives, the Winnemem Wintu. This ceremony is held when there is no other place to turn except to prayer to right a wrong. The wrong is that the women's coming of age ceremony is being disrupted by drunk boaters hurling racist remarks, insults and other boats playing loud music disruptions one could not even imagine at a communion or bat mitzvah. The tribe is asking for a mere 400 yards of a small segment of the river to be closed for only four days. The Forest Service has turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to evidence of health and safety issues, harassment, and abuse of human rights.

During the ceremony, not only did the Forest Service vehicles come through backed by a canine unit, but they came through on their boat backed by coast guard and auxiliary coast guard daily, several times on Saturday. It was constant disturbance by the Forest Service vehicles. Then, on Sunday, when many of the people who came to stand with the tribe were gone, and a flotilla of recreational boats and speedboats came by harassing, yelling, making obscene gestures, and the engines very rattling and noisy, and going faster than the speed limit -- all with children in the water -- there was no Forest Service presence. Clearly they did not care about preserving peace on the river. Their attention was to cause intimidation and disturbance to ceremony.

This show of force did nothing but prove to the participants who came, many for the first time, to a Winnemem ceremony that the Federal Government has a grudge against a small traditional historical tribe, materially poor, but rich in culture and stubborn in their perseverance to exist despite the drowning of their homelands, the loss of their sacred lands, and the erasing of their tribal status under the Reagan administration along with 90 percent of the California Indians, 300,000 people. The story becomes more shocking the deeper one digs.

California recognizes the Winnemem as a tribe with the passage of joint resolution 39. The tribes of California recognize the Winnemem. New Zealand, and other leaders of nations recognize the Winnemem whose chief holds a chair at the UN Permanent Forum of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Certainly that is enough recognition for the Forest Service Region 5 Forester, the Shasta Trinity Forest ranger and her Supervisor to close 400 YARDS of a small branch of the McCloud River, a branch which is not navigable at the other end by the bridge. That should be enough recognition to support a ceremony which comes only when there is a young woman in the tribe comes of age to happen in peace and dignity. The Concessionaire has no problem with the tribe. The people of Redding if one were to look at the informal survey done by their local paper have no problem voting 70 percent for closing the river for the ceremony. One hundred percent of the boats, all who turned around when tribal members and their supporters asked them to respect the ceremony have no problem.

The only boats who disturbed the peace of the ceremony was a US FS boat with 6 armed rangers, with sunglasses, bullet proof vests motoring toward a group of people who were sunning on the slope watching at the boats being turned respectfully away, a banner flying "River Closed" as high over the river as the bridge was. As the USFS boat neared, the uniformed armed men standing, demanded the families of spectators to back up -- and as they scrambled up, little children, grannies, two or three lines of rangers, armed, a couple with dogs had crept up behind them. They turned ceremony into a para-military exercise.

Something is not right in California but the state has little to do with it.

It cannot be that the Federal Government has a prejudice against this small tribe of 125 people, so much so they would render them without the right to religious freedom under the Native American Religious Freedom Act, the right to carry on in their traditional way, the right to bring their young women into womanhood as Winnemem women resolved by any human rights document, including the UN Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples which acknowledges the special need for the particular land for ceremony. What could motivate a government to ignore a people as they use all roads to petition, close doors on them when they come to plead their case and appear only to harass, bully and intimidate them from practicing their way of life.

I am shocked and upset. I am writing this because if I don't, if freedom ends here, if human rights ends here for this tribe, tyranny wins. It will eventually erode this country. Please, show that there is heart in the Federal Government for this California traditional tribe who just want to be who they are and follow their way of life, their humble, simple life of service to nature and who pray for humanity and all of Creation. I hope that someone clear over there in Washington DC can lead on a foundation of civility, humanity and commons sense. It's not happening here in California and the state has little to do with it.

Misa Joo
Eugene, Oregon
cc: Mayor Kitty Piercy, Eugene, Oregon, a Human Rights City
Chief Caleen Sisk, Winnemem Wintu
Randy Moore Region 5 Forester, USFS

War Dance Report 1 to Winnemem Support Group

WSGO was represented at the H'up Chonos Ceremony by Ruth Koenig, Will Doolittle, Lemuel Charley, Kayla Godawa, Julie Bacon, CAER, Bird from Ashland, Marilyn Sanchez, CAER, and myself.

The Forest Service did not close the river, but we have a lot of information now, one being we have the capability, as we have demonstrated, to close down the river and there are hundreds who will come out to do it. We have educated many more people face to face through the presence of allies, the press, the American Friends Society observer and other observers as well as filmmakers from Mendincino, indie radio, San Francisco Chronicle, the local paper, a local tv station. Thanks to Will and Marc, the Winnemem website has had day by day reportage. Plus, actually, Dadigan has investigated and found out the identities of some of the people who harassed us on the day after most of our supporters went home.

More importantly we have put out our strong prayers through this important ceremony that Winnemem have used throughout their existence when they are put against the wall and have only prayer and their strong sacred places and the Fire to turn to. These prayers have given us the guidance we need to move forward, and as the Chief says, we will be supported and helped. Everything will be alright.

I am very touched by the heartfelt support from Oregon. The Wild Salmon Run funds literally will be used for one of two things. Both are critical for the survival of the Winnemem and help prevent Cultural Genocide. I am not over-stating the case. Without the women's puberty ceremony for the next Chief there would have been serious repercussions. The possibility of the dam builders' plan to continue on with a project which would devastate us a second time, this time drowning the sacred places which survived the initial construction, looms over us and makes it even more critical to have Balas Chonos for Marisa, our next leader. If they are allowed to build Shasta Lake Dam higher, this is the last women's puberty ceremony and must be accomplished. Women are the web which holds the tribe. Without the traditions, ceremonies, the sacred places, the Winnemem will not be able to carry on as Winnemem. We are in serious times and our next young Chief who will someday succeed Caleen and Florence Jones before her must be as strong as she can be. The Chief may have to use the funds to secure the ceremonial grounds one more time due to the fact it falls on a popular money making holiday.

Or the Chief may still choose to use the Wild Salmon Run funds to bring at least one Maori representative to be witness at Balas Chonos and help insure safety and peace rather than to secure the area for the ceremony. Then that one representative will be with the Winnemem as they work to press forward their salmon proposal to tribal allies or other allies. So many needs.

Check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPBHbxkVf1o&feature=player_embedded with Karen Smoot speaking. Oregon was represented! WSGO, CAER, Earth First, Occupy, CLDC, Klamath, Grand Ronde, Wasco, and individuals who just heard about it, allies from Olympia through Portland down to Ashland, we were there. Oregonians provided the lawyer, the climbers, the trainers for the blockade along with River Keepers of CA. Oregonians worked hard in the kitchen -- which I call the REAL Cross Cultural Workshop 101. Oregonians staffed the information and welcome table at the entrance which was coordinated to Ruth Koenig, Winnemem's representative. She has many stories to share about that! It was both enjoyable to welcome everyone, and stressful dealing with press and Forest Service rangers who came to count numbers or intimidate, but some were touched by that Ruth Koenig faith in humanity and couldn't help . . . well, being human. Oregonians turned the boats around respectfully out in kayaks, rafts, river boats. And Oregonians all felt changed by the experience. One doesn't really know the Winnemem until they come to visit and be hosted on their sacred lands. More from Eugene have now experienced what Winnemem and who Winnemem truly are.

There were 210 of us at the ceremony. When the Sheriff first flew helicopter above and the first time the Forest Service canine vehicle and second four wheel drive cased us out there were about 30 people, but each day the numbers grew. We learned a lot. We trained. We demonstrated to ourselves and disbelievers that closing the river was do-able. Little five year old Daysean, big snapping dark eyes, long braids was just getting out of his raft with his brother and cousin. I said, "I saw you turn some boats away! "

/He nodded his head with a big broad smile.

"What did they say? What did you say?" I was curious.

/He stared back trying to think about it and said, "I forgot." just as I realized, of course! He's five. His brother's about 9. They probably just paddled up to the motor boat looking innocent, cute, and sincere and the boaters remembered, "oh, it's that ceremony thing" and turned their boats around smiling at the cuteness of these sincere brave children. How can Daysean know why they turned their boats. They just did it, everytime he rowed up, cheeks red with the effort of rowing his little lime green and purple blow up boat his Auntie Caleen brought back from Eugene's Good Will out on 11th Street, and looked up at them with a smile. How could he know he did it by just being Daysean.

We now have an idea of whom we are facing -- and it is not a Forest Service who wants to accommodate a safe and peaceful ceremony and respect our traditions and the young women of the tribe. They are still measuring public opinion, how strong is the support for the Winnemem tribe. So please, keep trying to reach Randy Moore's ears and heart. Keep sending in resolutions from your tribes and organizations. Keep emailing him. Check out the website on how to help. Share the videos and stories we put up. Let me know if I can help with this effort by supplying templates and so forth. And donations are really needed. Donations are always welcome in this summer of three ceremonies, and having to pay for our ceremonial grounds. And we still want to bring six Maori partners to help push our salmon plan during the week following Balas Chonos.Please join us if you can for the June 30 - July 3 ceremony at the McCloud. More info to follow on the Winnemem website.

The Chief asked everyone to spread the word and bring the people you trust. I'm putting this out there in the hopes that some of you will join us June 30 - July 3, arriving on the 29th if you can. Go to the website www.winnememwintu.us/ and Marc Dadigan will let you know important info -- what to bring, what's the weather, donation food list, sacred color days -- meaning we wear a different colored t-shirt each day at these events so we can see each other being so spread out. So, June 30 is yellow, July 1 is red, July 2 is black and July 3 is white.

It might be a good WSGO project to sell tees in those colors at Puberty -- especially yellow and red. Not everyone have those colors. If there's a push for that, it might be something we do since thanks to the US FS, the Chief and the dancers may not be able to make it June 16 for a dinner fundraiser.

Chief Caleen Sisk told us that behind each war dancer were a hundred war dancers. Behind her was 100 Winnemem chiefs. That is what helps the tribe carry on. During this time in their history she has been told by those ancestor spirits to tell the world and the good people of the world will listen. She has put out the call. Your presence as witnesses or as boaters closing the river will influence history and will help this tribe continue.

The Winnemem are like the salmon they feel responsible to speak for, and the sacred lands they protect -- mighty but without those who care whether they exist or not will not stay. We live in those times. We have to say something if we want water, if we want salmon to exist in the rivers, if we want Winnemem to sing to the waters and dance to bring the salmon home.

Again thank you for your Oregon support! Caleen really appreciates her Oregon allies. Misa

Report 2 to Winnemem Support Group on War Dance

Today I am reporting to you the excesses of force used by the US Forest Service to disrupt the Winnemem Wintu H'up Chonos Ceremony.

First: here's a quote made by Michael Preston from the SF Chronicle reporter who stayed three days and two nights at the ceremony: It is a concise thoughtful description about what H'up Chonos is.

"People get hung up on the words 'war dance,' but H'up Chonas actually means that we have no more answers and our last resort is doing this dance in spiritual defiance of whatever is threatening our livelihood," said Michael Preston, one of the dancers. "We are asking the spiritual realm for help."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/05/25/MNJE1OLUPQ.DTL#ixzz1wMaM71Eb

The facts of what the tribe did in following regulations, procedures and permit acquisition:

The Tribe with the help of supporters had a permit through the concenssionaire of the McCloud campground and had paid for all the spots of the fairground. the relationship between tribe and concessionaire is very good. WE HAVE A PERMIT ALREADY! You've probably read how the FS talk about that we need a permit and need to sign an amended permit yada yada. And in the end on day three, they leak to the press that tthe permit they are wasting the public's time in the newspapers and making an issue about won't close the river. WE ALREADY HAVE A PERMIT from the concessionaire AND THE ONLY THING WE ARE ASKING FOR AND ALWAYS ASKED FOR IS A RIVER CLOSURE which this blankety blank permit process the made up for the newspaper won't even give us.

The tribe held a peaceful ceremony for four days. There are people, especially children, in the water all the time. Children's Rock is submerged except for a tip, and the children are always clambering on it and swimming around it. A rope with a banner closing the river was instituted on Day 3 for a couple of hours and was taken down when commanded to by the forest Service.

Except for the two hours where we hung a banner as high as the bridge 300 yards up river, there was no reason for police presence at a camp which was paid for, where all rules were being followed. As for the river closure, we thank all the recreational boaters who wished us well. The only deliberate disruptions of ceremony where by law enforcement, especially the US Forest Rangers.

On day 4, when everyone was gone, before our final War Dance, we were harassed by a flotilla of big boats and jet boats but honestly, by that time, learning that the Forest Service was camped across from us (four vans), watching us from that vantage point for at least a3 of the days, and because of the timing being when all of our boaters and allies were gone, we had thoughts they may have sent in this flotilla of harassers. For sure, they did not come over across with their boats or vehicles to dissuade the harassment, and protect our little ones in the water when a clear and present danger occurred.

List of disruptions of the H'up Chonos Ceremony by authorities.

Day One: Buzzed for a half hour by the Sheriff's Department (helicopter)
Arrival in four wheel canine unit backing up Fores Service armed men as they went through the camp stopping to order people who were parked legally that they need to park legally, and telling the dancers who had torn down the blackberry bushes invading a section where they were holding the dance and making it into a dance area that he could cite them but would not and they must cease working on that area immediately. In fact, the oncessionaire was very pleased to see the blackberry bushes out, and the huge work to make a nice flat area on the slope.

Day Two: On this day we were exercising trial runs of getting out on the water, blowing up the rafts and so forth. The Sheriff cruised by our camp many times as did the Coast Guard a number of times interfering with the ceremony. There was also a volunteer Coast Guard boat which cruised by many times through our ceremony. Even though on this day we were just out on the water and not instituting a closure, boaters would come up to the buoy and some would even express their solidarity with us and turn around themselves. Our people boating heard the forest Service who were in a boat outside the buoy encouraging fishermen who seemed to be honoring our ceremony to to go through the ceremonial stretch saying there's really good fishing on over by the bridge. The Forest Service actually entered the camp a number of times as the campers began arriving with two large 4-wheel vehicles, one a canine unit. The Coast Guard also came through and stopped and told somebody that they heard the Sheriff' would be coming through and to call if we needed help. The forest Service came through, got out of their vehicles armed, of course, and stood and watched the people who came to support our dance for a brief while behind other onlookers then left.

Day Three: All of the above. Lots of uniforms and press. However, this was the day we put one banner up on the bridge and then stretched the rope with caution yellow ribbons and our banner out. When our rafts, and kayaks got into the water, we lifted up the banner and put it as high as the McCloud Bridge was at the other side. Now both banners flew. It was beautiful. A lot of cheering and laughter for the two hours between times the boats and kayaks went up to recreationists and converse with them asking them to respect our ceremony. Each boat would immediately go back, some wishing us luck, some apologizing, all respectfully. We were relaxed and watching this scene when the use of force I described by the Forest Service with several men, uniformed and armed, three standing up and shouting backed by a big Coast Guard boat forcing the wimen and children sitting on a rocky slope to Get Back quickly, and shouting as they clambered up only to be met at the top with about three rows of armed uniformed men and this time with a couple of dogs. The back rows, honestly, looked kind of embarrassed. It didn't help, I suppose, that people were generally friendly with then. they began to walk off with the dogs and there was some concern they were going to do unlawful searches and amp up the confrontation, but instead, apparently they were trying to find a place for their dogs to pee.

We were commanded to take down the banner. You can see in Will's fourth video how that went. We complied peacefully to everything.

After that was our last War Dance. That's when Caleen got the message that it was not going to be easy. But there were 100 of the old war dancers behind each war dancer and 100 Chiefs behind her. Without themn, as Michael says, we could not do this. The State can crush the fraction of the 125 remaining in the tribe. The State can scare away 210 allies with their dogs, their planes, their boats, their cars. That is what a show of force does. They do not do violence. They just show what they have accessible. They show they do not respect the ceremony and interrupt it daily at any time they want. They show how many other paramilitary organizations they have in their pocket. They reveal themselves.

And guess what, "they" is the Forest Service, the stewards of the forest we've been trying to accommodate to have a full closure for a peaceful ceremony, trying to work with them.. Not a day went by where they did not interfere with our ceremony. This isn't about mixed usage of the river, or their favoring recreation. The US FS doesn't go all out to disturb, to intimidate, spending the energy and time, the money twenty times over than a simple mandatory river closure for ceremony as is the law as we interpret the laws meant to protect human rights. This weekend, we learned, this is something bigger.

This is for another reason, and looming in our minds is the resurrected planning of the further raising the dam. We stopped it with a War Dance in 2004. the CA legislature did not give them the funds. We also found out about the fish. We have a successful plan to reintroduce the fish with all the laws that protect it into these various waters. NOAA and federal laws require fish being introduced above the dam.

But the BOR, the Westland's Water corporation do not want a successful salmon plan. They do not want protection laws. They do not want the Winnemem people to continue on. This plan for the McCloud system which would not only drown out the homelands of the tribe as it did, but would drown out everything else in that valley -- a valley which will be under a lake -- has been thought of a long time ago. it's not paranoia to imagine that the water profiteers had their state's Governor in their pocket when he went to DC to be President. It is Ronald Reagan's administration that took care of "the Indian problem" which might slow "progress in CA" and the salmon problem with their short federal recognition list.

Young MIke Preston's quote for the Chronicle, "our last resort is doing this dance in spiritual defiance of whatever is threatening our livelihood. We are asking the spiritual realm for help.: The only people who know how to successfully get through genocide, cultural or the genocide the Winnemem suffered from the 19th century through being killed for money or even up into the 50's of being herded and kidnapped into boarding schools and survived is to follow traditional Indians who have survived somehow. With this thought, everyone is invited to stand with the Winnemem June 30 to show in spiritual force and friendship that there will not be another step toward genocide here in this peaceful valley, where the river is still considered clean, and the mornings are filled with bird songs, where the eagle flies low and rises up with a fish in his talons, where deer, otter, and geese are plentiful, where the people who know the true names of the medicines, the rocks, the pools still pray for them and sing and dance for them and where the wild salmon will return.

So the prayers were danced, sang and made by all of us at one fire, the 200 allies and tribe. The mountains around us know. the river knows. The animals of river land and sky know. The heavens know. Those ancient witnesses, the oak trees know that we are in this fight for survival for the next generations for the tribe and for this Nature. June 30 - July 3, McCloud Campground on the Winnemem River. Plenty of camping space. Join us to pray, dance, and on the fourth day watch Marissa and her attendants swim across from their bark huts like little otters and emerge -- Marisa, a young woman, finally joining the women circle. We will watch the women's dance, deer dance, and dance the flower dance together and Feast celebrating this beautiful culture and this beautiful spiritual spot.



Please "like" the Winnemem Website, asks Marc Dadigan webmaster.
https://www.facebook.com/winnememwintu

Here's a link to the SF Chornicle article.
"People get hung up on the words 'war dance,' but H'up Chonas actually means that we have no more answers and our last resort is doing this dance in spiritual defiance of whatever is threatening our livelihood," said Michael Preston, one of the dancers. "We are asking the spiritual realm for help."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/05/25/MNJE1OLUPQ.DTL#ixzz1wMaM71Eb

The Winnemem Tribe is asking for support from the Winnemem Support Group to keep writing letters and spreading the word of your support for the Women's Coming of Age Ceremony and the tribal women's right to ceremony, their human right to keep their way of life alive.

War Dance Articles

"People get hung up on the words 'war dance,' but H'up Chonas actually means that we have no more answers and our last resort is doing this dance in spiritual defiance of whatever is threatening our livelihood," said Michael Preston, one of the dancers. "We are asking the spiritual realm for help."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/05/25/MNJE1OLUPQ.DTL#ixzz1wMaM71Eb

Winnemem Wintu Tribe closes McCloud River During War Dance

Posted on 30 May 2012
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By Dan Bacher

Winnemem Wintu Tribe members joined with members of other Indian Tribes and environmental activists in multi-colored kayaks and rafts to place a banner over the McCloud River on Lake Shasta proclaiming “River Closed" on Saturday, May 26.

The direct action took place in conjunction with the Tribe’s four-day War Dance (H’up Chonas in the Winnemem language) held from May 24 to May 27 at the site where they have held their Coming of Age ceremonies for thousands of years.

The War Dance signified the tribe’s spiritual commitment to defend at all costs the ceremony from heckling, flashing and other disruptions by recreational boaters that have occurred in previous years.

I arrived at the ceremony just as the banner was being strung up on a cable over the river. Members of the Winnemem, Karuk, Yurok, Hoopa Valley, Pit River, Miwok and other Tribes and activists from Earth First!, Klamath Justice Coalition, Klamath Riverkeeper, Occupy Oakland and the American Indian Movement worked together to erect the banner and to keep boaters from going up the river.

"Where have you been? We've been here for 10,000 years," quipped Gary Mulcahy, Winnemem Wintu leader and organizer of a previous War Dance at Shasta Dam in September 2004, when I arrived. "What took you so long?"

After the closure banner had been in place for over an hour, U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Coast Guard officials demanded that the banner be taken down. To avoid arrests, the Tribal members and activists complied with the request; this was a “practice run” for the upcoming Coming of Age ceremony.

“We have been backed into a corner with no other choice,” said Caleen Sisk, Winnemem Wintu spiritual leader and chief. “We should be preparing for Marisa’s ceremony, setting down prayers, making regalia, getting the dance grounds ready, making sure it happens in a good way. But instead we have to fight simply to protect our young women from drunken harassment.”

At the end of the War Dance on the river on Sunday, there was a massive, apparently orchestrated disturbance that demonstrated the exact reason why a closure of the river to all boating traffic by the Forest Service is so badly needed.

A fleet of 10 boats and jet skis motored through the ceremony at high speeds, flipped off tribal members, did doughnuts near their sacred sites and generally tried to intimidate the teens, elders and young women who made up most of the people left, according to the Tribe.

“On the final day, the Angry People made their presence known with a thundering powerboat armada, smashing the tranquility of our event, and proving the Truth of our concerns for the safety of our ceremony participants,” said Caleen Sisk, Chief and Spiritual Leader of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe.

Supporters of the Tribe posed the question: What other religion would ever face that level of intimidation and fear for simply wanting to hold a spiritual ceremony in peace?

Sisk emphasized that the Forest Service "is not being forthright with the permit process for closing the river for our ceremony. They're not communicating with us. We found out on Friday during the War Dance that even if we get a permit for the ceremony, there is a different permit process required for closing the river."

"There is not a very good faith effort on behalf of the Forest Service; they made us believe that the special use permit they said we needed was the process required to close the river. They're making it up as they go," she stated.

This is not the first time that the Tribe has been forced to conduct a War Dance in recent years. In September 2004, the Tribe held a War Dance at Shasta Dam to protest the federal government's plan to rise the dam, a plan that would inundate Puberty Rock and other sites sacred to the Tribe.

The same federal government that is refusing to close the river for the ceremony is the same one that plans to raise Shasta Dam. "We've already been flooded out one time when Shasta Dam was built," said Sisk. "We won't be flooded again. If the dam is raised, Puberty Rock will be 25 feet under water."

Then in April 2009, the Tribe held a two-day War Dance on the banks of the American River in Sacramento to to bring attention to decades of injustice and destruction of their cultural sites by the federal government. Male dancers in traditional feathered headdresses, accompanied by female singers in white dresses, performed the ancient ceremony around a sacred fire to the steady beat of a wooden drum.

After that ceremony, Tribal leaders and their pro bono lawyers filed a lawsuit at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Columbia. The suit against six federal agencies and two current federal agency heads alleged that their actions have resulted in the “destruction or damage” to the Tribe’s sacred cultural sites in Shasta County.

The Tribe was federally recognized until 1985 when a clerical error eliminated the Winnemem from the list of recognized Tribes.

The Tribe has played a leadership role in the battle to restore the Delta and stop the construction of the peripheral canal to export more water to corporate agribusiness and Southern California. The Tribe is now working on an ambitious plan to reintroduce winter run chinook salmon, now thriving in the Rakaira River in New Zealand, to the McCloud River above Shasta Dam.

Here is the video of Sunday's disturbance at the Winnemem's ceremony. Please share and take action for the rights of indigenous people to hold ceremony in peace and dignity: http://youtu.be/nW9WClzC5Og/

Please contact the US Forest Service, and anyone else you think could make a difference, to tell them to allow a closure of the river for their Coming of Age ceremonies:

Randy Moore, Regional Forester
707-562-8737
rmoore [at] fs.fed.us

For more information, go to the following links:

Press Release: War Dance Scheduled for May 24-May 27
http://www.winnememwintu.us/2012/05/21/press-release-war-dance/

Photos from Winnemem Wintu May 26th War Dance
http://www.flickr.com/photos/79496947@N04/sets/72157629929809948/with/7284846044/

Video:
Day 1 -- War Dance for Safe Coming of Age Ceremony
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Boa2gmLQcA&feature=relmfu

Day 2 -- War Dance for Safe Coming of Age Ceremony
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGB2CthnwKA&feature=relmfu

Day 3 -- War Dance for Safe Coming of Age Ceremony
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=927rV2BO7T4&feature=relmfu

Day 4 -- War Dance for Peaceful Coming of Age Ceremony
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nW9WClzC5Og

Boats Close River For Winnemem Wintu Ceremony - May 26 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPBHbxkVf1o&feature=plcp

Media Coverage
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/05/25/MNJE1OLUPQ.DTL
http://www.redding.com/photos/galleries/2012/may/28/winnemem-wintu-war-dance/20879/
http://www.krcrtv.com/news/31114827/detail.html
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2012/05/21/18713874.php

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Dan Bacher is an editor of The Fish Sniffer, described as "The #1 Newspaper in the World Dedicated Entirely to Fishermen."

Wills videos he uploaded each day:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1B3EADF606C64875&feature=view_all