In June, the federal government admitted to the ongoing harms of dams on the Columbia River. It was a historic first. This came in the form of a Department of Interior report called "Historic and Ongoing Impacts of Federal Dams on the Columbia River Basin Tribes.” It acknowledges that not only are the basin’s dams obliterating salmon, they’ve also wreaked havoc on #Indigenous economies, health, environmental conditions, and spiritual practices. Here's the report: https://www.doi.gov/media/document/tribal-circumstances-analysis
As of yesterday, the Klamath River is flowing freely for the first time in a century (via press release in my inbox). More info:
ICT
After 100 years, salmon will swim the Klamath - ICT
Workers are breaching the final dams on a key section of the Klamath River, clearing the way for salmon to swim freely through a major watershed ne...
OPB invited me into the studio today to talk about Badger Mountain and why the solar developer has paused operations there. #Indigenous #PNW #Oregon #Washington
opb
Eastern Washington solar project paused amid concerns around Indigenous cultural sites
An investigation from High Country News and ProPublica earlier this year revealed a solar developer omitted culturally significant sites from its l...
Earlier this year HCN and ProPublica investigated a solar development threatening tribal cultural resources on Badger Mountain in Eastern #Washington. Today's news: the solar developer, Avangrid Renewables, has paused permitting operations on Badger Mountain in part to reevaluate tribal input. #Indigenous #GreenColonialism #PNW #Climate #RenewableEnergy
High Country News
Washington solar project paused amid concern about Indigenous sites - High Country News
Avangrid Renewables said they plan to review comments from tribal nations and private landowners.
After a 3 year investigation, the federal government has acknowledged that it invested $23.3B (adjusted) in a boarding school system to break up #Indigenous families and communities, and destroy language and culture. The report suggests that the US should invest that same amount of money in family reunification, language revitalization, and Indian education to help repair the havoc wreaked by 400 schools from 1871 to 1969, which killed at least 973 children. https://www.npr.org/2024/07/30/nx-s1-5051912/interior-dept-report-indian-boarding-schools
In June I went out to the Hanford Site in #Washington---often called the most contaminated place in the Western Hemisphere. It’s also Umatilla, Yakama, Nez Perce and Wanapum ancestral lands. This site was part of the secretive Manhattan Project during WWII and the Cold War. The world’s first industrial-scale nuclear reactor, called the B Reactor, still stands here. The B Reactor produced the plutonium that went in the bomb code named “Fat Man,” which the US dropped unnecessarily on Nagasaki.
image image