Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3622 Oct. 13-27, 2017 | Page 18

16 Oct. 13 - 27, 2017 MAP FEATURE Anglers fishing for salmon on the public dock in Walnut Grove. J VOL.36 • ISS. 22 Photo by DAN BACHER, Fish Sniffer Staff. Winnemem Wintu Tribe Run For Salmon Boats From Pittsburg to Sacramento ames Netzel of Tight Lines Guide Service and Robert Reimers of Rustic Rob’s Guide Service recently donated their services to take leaders of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe and their allies in their boats from Sacramento to Colusa on the Run4Salmon. Netzel drove the Pittsburg to Sacramento stretch of the river in his boat on September 12, while Reimers boated the section from Sacramento to Colusa section on September 15. Last year was the first year of the Run4Salmon, when re- tired captain James Cox drove tribal leaders on the Pittsburg to Sacramen- to stretch and retired captain Rene Villanueva covered the Discovery Park to Colusa stretch. The Run4Salmon is a “partici- patory, prayerful journey” that took place this year from September 9 to 22 to ‘raise awareness and build public support to help protect and restore declining salmon populations, California river systems and indigenous lifeways.” The run was preceded by a press conference featuring Ohlone leader Corrina Gould of the Confederated Villages of Lisjan and Chief Caleen Sisk of the Winnemem Wintu at the West Berkeley Shellmound site in Berkeley on Friday, September 8. The two highly respected women leaders announced their mutual alliance to protect California’s indigenous sacred sites and the state’s endangered salm- on runs from development. Different sections of the run fea- tured running, walking, boating and bicycling and ended with a paddle in dugout canoes up Shasta Lake and the McCloud River arm, as well as a horseback ride to a village site where the tribe conducted a ceremony. The run for salmon traces the route of winter run Chinook salmon from the estuary at Vallejo all of the way to the Mc- Cloud River where it enters The Delta Cross Channel Gates suck water – and salmon and other fish – from the Sacramento River to the Mokelumne and San Joaquin rivers – and then down to the state and federal pumping facilities in the South Delta. Photo by DAN BACHER, Fish Sniffer Staff. Lake Shasta. The tribe is trying to reintroduce the original run of McCloud winter run Chinooks. now thriving on the Rakaira River in New Zealand, where they were introduced over a hundred of year’s ago, back to their ancestral home on the McCloud. The tribe has set up a Go Fund Me site to raise money to conduct DNA Testing of the Rakaira River salmon Native California peoples re- lied on salmon for their sustenance, culture, religion and livelihoods for thousands of years. Today the salm- on, including the winter run, a are threatened with of extinction due to extreme water diversions, dams, pol- lution, climate change and Governor Caleen Sisk, Chief and Spiritual Leader of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, and Captain James Netzel of Tight Lines Guide Service on the journey between Pittsburg and Sacramento. Photo by DAN BACHER, Fish Sniffer Staff. Jerry Brown’s proposed Delta Tun- nels, a project that environmentalists and tribal leaders say would nearly guarantee the destruction of Califor- nia’s salmon runs. The fight to save the salmon and preserve sacred sites brought these two leaders together. “The salmon that came up our rivers and took care of my ancestors are the same salmon that spawn in Chief Sisk’s river and took care of her ancestors,’ said Gould. “Our tribe has an ancient proph- ecy,” said Chief Sisk. ‘When there are no more salmon, there will be no more Winnemem Wintu people.”- For this reason, we believe that we must do everything we can to bring back our salmon. This is our Dakota Access Pipeline: we have to wake the people up before we are standing in front of bulldozers, and we will.” “We can’t restore the salmon with- out the help of hundreds of thousands