AUDIO:

"The EcoNews Report," Nov. 1, 2025.

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TOM WHEELER:

Welcome to the Econews Report. I'm your host this week, Tom Wheeler, Executive Director of EPIC, the Environmental Protection Information Centre. And joining me is my friend, Alicia Hamann, Executive Director of Friends of the Yale River. Hey, Alicia.

ALICIA HAMANN:

Hey, Tom, happy to be here today.

WHEELER:

And joining us is one of our dear friends, Amy Bowers Cordalis, the author of the new book, The Water Remembers, My Indigenous Family's Fight to Save a River and a Way of Life. Amy, it's so lovely to see you again.

AMY BOWERS CORDALIS:

Aiy-ye-kwee, how are you? It's great to be here.

WHEELER:

It's funny, you've been on the show in the past, but now you have a new book to talk about, which is fantastic. And I've seen a lot of lovely things online about the book. I'm excited to read it. It just came out this week. So I imagine you are incredibly busy doing press junkets and all the things that come with a new book. So I appreciate you taking the time to talk the little old Econews report.

CORDALIS:

Oh, not little at all, extremely important. And you are spreading the good word. Thank you for having me. I'm honored to be here.

WHEELER:

Al, so most folk on the North Coast are going to be familiar with the Yurok tribe, the largest tribe in California, and has been such an important cultural player up here. But some of our listening audience is not from the North Coast and might not be familiar with the Yurok tribe. So you are a member of the Yurok tribe. Can you describe the Yurok tribe and its culture and its relationship with the Klamath River?

CORDALIS:

Yes, thank you. So my family is from the village of Requi, which is right on the mouth of the north side of the Klamath River. And like all Yurok families, we've resided there since time immemorial. Yurok country was very broad. There was over a million acres within our aboriginal territory, and it spread through much of what is now the Redwood State and National Park, just below False Klamath Cove, all the way down into, what is that, the Little River, and then up into the high country, kind of that first coastal range. And colonization happened, but we were able to remain on a reduced territory. The Yurok Reservation straddles the Klamath River from my village all the way up to the village of Weitchpec, which is 45 river miles, a mile on either side. And we are, and have always been, a fishing people. We fished in the ocean, and many people don't know that about us, but we did fish in the ocean and collected different seaweeds and abalone and mussels and whatnot from the ocean.

One of our most prized first foods are, and were, the ney-put which is the Yurok word for salmon, which translates literally to, that which we eat. The Klamath River, historically, was the third largest salmon-producing river in the whole lower continental U.S. I mean, can you believe that that, like, that was in our backyard? I mean, all people who live on the North Coast, like, that's where you are. You are in salmon country. And for Yurok, because we were in salmon country, our whole way of life revolves around salmon, around sturgeon and steelhead and candlefish and eels. And so we're fishing people. Everything we do in one way or the other, whether it's like making nets, tending boats, eating fish, preparing fish, whether it's praying, even our ceremonies go down to world renewal. Whether it's the exercise of sovereignty, it's all about trying to protect the fish and those first foods, because it's critical to the exercise of and continuance of our way of life and who we are as people on this earth.

WHEELER:

So to be Yurok is to fish in some respect. Well said. But we now have the product of colonization, which is less fish. We've seen a dramatic change to the Klamath River and to the people of the Yurok tribe. Can you talk briefly about the impact of colonization and what changed in the river such that it's no longer the vital food source that it once was?

CORDALIS:

Yeah, I think these statistics nail it. So by 1910, 90% of California indigenous population had been slaughtered. So only 10% remained. By 2010, over 90% of the Klamath salmon runs had also disappeared. So like in our day and age now, we are down to single digit percentages of Klamath salmon. The reason for both losing the people and losing the salmon was frankly because of colonization, right? When the newcomers came, there was a genocide and it removed many of the people from the land and from the river. And we've been slowly trying to recover, trying to reestablish our rights. And much of that history is in the book. There's this real rich history of treaties, failed treaties, Supreme Court cases, huge protests against federal marshals with full riot gear in the salmon wars of the 1970s.

And so Yurok people, and this is true for all the people in the indigenous peoples in the Klamath, we've been fighting just to be for the last 150 years. And that history isn't told. People don't know about it. And I felt strongly about writing about my family's contributions to that fight and telling that history in a narrative format, right? So like, it's not academic, it's in a narrative format and written from the indigenous perspective. Because I wanted the world to hear these stories that I grew up hearing on the river bar fishing and fish camp with my family and hear them the way that my relatives told me, which was full of like, I don't know, triumph and heartbreak and humor, right? And so that's how the book is told. So yeah, we've been fighting for our sovereignty and our way of life. And now that's sort of come to this historical victory of Klamath dam removal. Yeah.

HAMANN:

I'm curious if you want to go into a little more detail on what it means on a personal level for you to be sharing your culture with those outside of your culture. And kind of why I think about this, I've got this young daughter, a core part of her personality and her identity is that she is a wildlife defender. She is all about like, my mom saves fish and I'm going to do that. Also, Brooke Thompson's book, I Love Salmon and Lampreys Children's is just like a huge part of our, like teaching her about other cultures and this whole history of stewardship. And yeah, so I'm just I'm wondering, what does it mean to you to be sharing that very personal and incredible journey that you and your people have been on with folks who are outside of that?

CORDALIS:

Yeah, thank you. That's a powerful question. And first, kudos to you for raising a wildlife defender. Tribal sovereignty or any kind of sovereignty starts at home, so I can tell you're doing a phenomenal job.

HAMANN:

Oh, thank you.

CORDALIS:

Sharing the Yurok worldview and our experience is very delicate, very delicate, because there are things that are appropriate for sharing and things that are not. The role of ceremony is deeply important and informs the Yurok world, but there are things that are not appropriate to share in a book. And so I really tried to work with Yurok elders and religious practitioners to very carefully share the values that inform Yurok worldview and advocacy without going too far to disclosing things that maybe isn't right or appropriate for a public audience. And so it was this real delicate balance. And also there's great responsibility.

One of the things that the book actually starts with the creation story for Yurok and the creation story is public. It's shared in different places. And I, in my book, share how my family taught it to me. And that is that before the earth was created, that there were all these spirits that were lonely in the universe and they wanted to come together and have a place to be and to have community. And so the creator made the earth and formed the sort of core of the earth and then the waterways and then the plants and the animals and the humans laugh and said, all this is made for you and you'll never want for anything so long as you live in balance with the natural world. And for Yurok, what that meant is that we have the great privilege of being the beneficiary of that historical abundance of the lower Klamath Basin, but we also have a duty. And this is the important part, a duty to steward and protect those resources and make sure that our use never depletes or harms those resources.

And so I wanted to share that with people because that is a value of sustainability that people could adopt in their own lives through their daily practices and worldview. And so it was things like that, that I felt that we could share those and that could help humanity think about how we might be able to live in balance. And I think that's really important in this moment because one, like obviously during colonization and when the newcomers came, they didn't listen to how the indigenous peoples lived on the land and they found this country of great abundance, but they didn't think that humans had tended that and had created that when in fact we did. The abundance they saw was because of indigenous management and worldview. And so now we're at this place where we're in a climate crisis, right? Like things are dire, but we don't have to continue that way. And climate dam removal proves that, but also to understand climate dam removal, you have to understand the values underneath, which I tried to share through the book, through the creation story, but then also through stories shared through my family's experience over the last 150 years. And that's all in the book. So I hope that, I hope like readers will enjoy those, but then also like I hope the book inspires people to think hard about how they could live in balance.

HAMANN:

And I think an important, I think one of the really difficult challenges we face right now is that living in balance requires participation from everyone. And so I appreciate the effort you've gone through to provide that information and that context to people because yeah, we all, we need more buy-in on the concept of living in balance.

CORDALIS:

Yes. I'd love to elaborate on that, but do you have a question, Tom?

WHEELER:

Oh, please elaborate. No, I'm just kidding.

CORDALIS:

Thank you. Well, you are right. So it requires participation from everyone. And one of the lessons I learned through climate dam removal was that there wasn't one champion of climate dam removal. Instead, there were thousands and probably thousands and thousands of people working in big and small ways together toward a common goal to climate dam removal for over 20 years. And that's how we did it. And we had, from my perspective, the indigenous peoples of the basin led that effort. But then we worked hard to create allies and coalitions of NGOs, of federal and state government workers, of politicians, of business. And we all came together in multiple moments in order to accomplish what people thought was impossible, the world's largest river restoration project. And so you're absolutely right that it does require participation of everyone to restore balance. And another reason why I felt strongly about writing the book is because I tried to put sort of the bones of climate dam removal into the book so that people could read it and then learn, basically, so that it's out there for folks and how they can get involved.

WHEELER:

You are listening to the Econews Report. Joining us is one of our dear friends, Amy Bowers-Cordalis, the author of the new book, The Water Remembers, My Indigenous Families Fight to Save a River and a Way of Life. So Amy, I love your concept of duty, and it's obviously one that is deeply felt by you. Fulfilling that duty to stewardship can be expressed in a lot of different ways, and you went down a particular path. Can you explain how you ended up being an environmental attorney working to get dams out?

CORDALIS:

I thought, so I was, I love music and Europe culture. We are deeply embedded in music and our medicine is carried through our songs. And so I, I love music and I thought I was going to go and be a folk singer or a diva or something like that. And then the 2002 fish kill happened. And at that time I was in college and I was home working for the Europe tribal fisheries department as a fish technician. And I remember being on the boat as the fish were dying and observing their dead bodies lining the banks of the Klamath three, four layers deep. I remember dead distorted famine bodies like circling in the eddies of the river. It smelled like a war zone and I felt so helpless and like there was nothing that we could do. It looked like a war zone.

And for, for me, I, and I think many people felt this way. It felt like it was an active ecocide against Yurok people. And I thought about all that my family, all that my tribe all that indigenous peoples had done up and from, colonization, well, even before colonization when we were living in balance with the natural world and how wonderful and beautiful everything was. And here we were in 2002 and this massive attack had been launched against us by the hands of the then vice president, Dick Cheney who had ordered the water to be diverted which caused the fish kill along with the bad conditions of the dams. And I just thought we're still at war with the US. And I really felt this moment where my great grandmother, Geneva Mattz who ... she had passed away 20 years before but she was a fierce advocate for Yurok rights for Indian rights. And I just, I swear, I felt her move through me and she told me I had to fight. And then my next thought was I'm gonna be a lawyer and try to work for my people and try to prevent this from ever happening again.

And so that's, I never wanted to be a lawyer. I don't, I think the law is interesting but I never wanted to be a lawyer until that moment but then it was such a profound moment and experience that it launched me into a legal career. And you know, I wasn't the only one who was motivated in that way. There were many indigenous peoples on the Klamath who had that exact reaction. I think about fierce leaders, Barry McCovey, Molly Myers, Frankie Myers, Annalena Hillman, Leaf Hillman, Chook Chook. I mean, on and on and on, all of these warriors and even non-native people. Some of the, even like the federal and state biologists who came in and worked so hard, our tribal leaders. I mean, it's hard to even all the different people. So many people were motivated by that fish kill to dedicate their life to saving the Klamath salmon. And so that's kind of how we, and really like that was the fish kill for better or worse launched the Undamn the Klamath movement. And I tried to write about this in the book and memorialize that because that it was so profound for so many people.

HAMANN:

It is interesting to think of that horrific event as something that really catalyzed this powerful movement. And I think the movement was probably always going to happen, but to have this singular moment that inspired so many people is just, yeah, it's one of those kind of like silver lining moments. Obviously, that was a terrible thing that happened, but like, what incredible momentum came out of that?

CORDALIS:

Yeah.

WHEELER:

So the Undam the Klamath movement, do you want to just give kind of a brief, brief history of the advocacy that ultimately led to dams coming out in what felt just like a rush, just it felt like no time at all. Once the dams started to come out, they were out. But there was so much history and so much advocacy and so much work done by yourself and by all those folks that you mentioned and so many others. Just perhaps a brief history of the struggle. And I imagine that this history is going to be useful for folks like Alicia who are thinking about dam removal on other rivers.

CORDALIS:

Yeah, so that question is one that I felt strongly answering in a way that honored my ancestors and the hard work of previous generations of Indigenous people on the Klamath because we never would have gotten to Klamath Dam removal without the brave, ferocious leadership and sacrifice of the previous generations. And so in the book, I tried to answer that exact question in a comprehensive way. And so it literally starts with the arrival of even Russian sailors in the Klamath River in the 1700s. And my ancestors, it's a kind of a funny story, actually, the way that it was told to me was that these Russian sailors somehow pierced the fog blanket and got into the mouth of the Klamath. And this is the 1700s. And so it's Yurok people, they see them, they've never seen people with white skin. And then on top of that, these Russian sailors were covered, like their bodies were covered with hair, and they had like their face, arms, super hairy, all of it. And they have little white bugs crawling in and out of their facial hair and their arm hair. And so my ancestors were like, nope, you're not getting off the boat. Like, no, head on. And so they kicked them out. And they, you know, and it wasn't violent, they left. But that was like that first interaction.

And then really, like, everything that happened after that contributed to Klamath Dam removal. So there was the failed treaty, but then there was the creation of the Yurok Reservation through an executive order in the 1850s. And then which basically reserved the Yurok tribes Aboriginal fishing rights within the reservation. So on the lower 45 miles of the Klamath River. And then in 1933, the state of California passed a law that prohibited all Yurok fishing. And this was like, making breathing illegal. And the state thought that the Yurok Reservation had been terminated by the General Allotment Act, which opened the reservation to non-Indian ownership. And so they thought it was no longer Indian country. And this launched like the people of the Klamath and including me, or not me, but my family into this almost 45 year battle of like fishing illegally. My uncle Ray, Raymond Mattz, who was really just our freedom fighter, he was like our Rosa Parks, was arrested 19 times by the state just for fishing on Yeah, on the Klamath River. And his Supreme Court case confirmed that the Yurok Reservation was still Indian country, and we still have fishing and water rights, reserve fishing and water rights, which are the supreme law of the land.

And then, and also those rights require a specific amount of habitat in order to produce enough fish for us to have a good lifestyle, right? Which then clearly fast forward to the fish kill, and all these fish dying down to single digit percentages of the historical salmon runs, the Yurok tribe closing its fisheries yearly, yearly. And so clearly, those rights were being violated. So then we get to 2002. And the fish kill happens. And people, it was sort of this like awakening to the larger world that like, if we don't change the way we manage the Klamath, it's, it's gonna die, it's gonna collapse, like end of story. And so the indigenous peoples of the Klamath launched one of the most brilliant grassroots campaigns ever, they went around the world protesting whoever owned the dams.

And eventually, the ownership of the dams came to Warren Buffett, one of the richest men in the world and his companies. And so they would go to their stakeholder meetings and protest and have signs of like, Warren Buffett kills salmon. And what that did was get the attention of the stakeholders, but also raise attention in the court of public opinion about how harmful these dams were. Then meanwhile, there was an opportunity and this is where the law comes in, in the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission FERC, which is the federal entity that issued a license to operate the Klamath dams. That license expired in 2007. And so in 2006, a relicensing proceeding in FERC started to basically decide the fate of the Klamath dams. And of course, Yurok and the Karuk tribes, our allies, various NGOs, fiercely advocated for Klamath dam removal, relying on those federally reserved rights, those rights that are the supreme law of the land, which means under the US Constitution, so the country's founding document, supreme rights, those federally supreme rights are the highest, most protected.

And so if there's like a state law or some other kind of contractual right, for example, those supreme federal laws are upheld if there's a conflict with the state or contractual rights. And so those environmental, those tribal rights became the foundation for the legal argument for dam removal. And in the end, they won the day. It was the tribal rights coupled with modern environmental laws, and then this teeny little, it's not teeny, but it's one section in the Federal Power Act, Section 8, that says, if you have a dam that has salmon or other fish that need fish passage, you have to have some kind of fish passage for them.

And get this, the Klamath dams were built without any fish passage. So put this in context, third largest salmon producing river in the whole lower continental US, and dams built between 1911 and 1962, built without any fish passage. So mid 2000s, when we're going through the proceeding, there was a requirement, a legal requirement that you install fish ladders in order to get the dams re-licensed. And that also is a lesson learned for us, which was there was an economic analysis done about whether it was cheaper to install the fish ladders and the other fish mitigation requirements to renew the license, or just take the dams out. Guess what? It was cheaper to take out the dams. And so that was a huge economic incentive. And all of a sudden, the power company had an incentive to work with us.

WHEELER:

So we have a long story here of the Yurok tribe, and it begins before European contact, what is sometimes called pre-history, which always feels like a wrong term for me, but before written European. And now we are at this really spectacular moment where the dams have come out and we're starting to see fish come back. We're seeing fish return to rivers that they haven't been in a hundred years. What is the next chapter in the Yurok tribe's history?

CORDALIS:

I hope it's one of healing and joy. And as you said, there are salmon that just blasted past the former dam section, past still two dams there on the river that have fish passage, blasted past that, blasted past Upper Klamath Lake, and now those salmon are in the Wood and the Williamson, the Sprague River. It's just remarkable. And it just goes to prove that when we restore ecosystems, nature heals itself. And that becomes a scalable model for pulling ourselves out of the climate crisis. And it's such a story of hope that I think we really need in this moment. Sadly, a lot of the people who worked on Klamath Dam Removal, a lot of the hardcore federal advocates, biologists, various people, they no longer work for the feds. So I wanna acknowledge all of the hard work of all of the warriors on the Klamath. And this book really is my love letter to the river, to the salmon, to all the people who worked so hard on dam removal. And there are a million wonderful stories about Klamath Dam Removal. And I hope that this book opens the door for others to share their story.

WHEELER:

Well, it is an exciting book. I'm so thrilled that we get to have a conversation about dam removal, about the Yurok tribe for folks who are outside of our area to learn about Northwest California and the really cool work that you and your friends and colleagues have done to restore the Klamath River. So Amy Bowers Cordell, author of The Water Remembers My Indigenous Family's Fight to Save a River and a Way of Life is available now. Get it from wherever you buy books.

CORDALIS:

And I also want to share that I will be at the Requa Inn talking about the book on Saturday, November 1st from 3 to 5. That is open to the public on, you can go to my Facebook page or my Instagram and there's a way to register for that. Also I will be at Cal Poly Humboldt on November, I think it's Friday, the 13th for an event there and you can check out their website. Yes, it's the 13th. And I'd love to see you all there, I'll be signing books, we can talk more and continue this conversation. So I hope you'll join me.

WHEELER:

Well, Amy, it's always a pleasure to have you on the show and you're welcome back anytime folks go pick up the book. The Water Remembers My Indigenous Families Fight to Save a River and a Way of Life. Thank you so much for joining the show. And we'll talk soon, OK?

CORDALIS:

Wok-hlew', thank you.

WHEELER:

All right, join us again next week on this time and channel for more environmental news from the North Coast of California.