Playlist: Judy Silber's Portfolio
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A Prayer for Salmon: Documentary Special Part 1 - A Protest at Shasta Dam (NPR Clock)
From Judy Silber | Part of the The Spiritual Edge: A Prayer for Salmon series | 59:00
A Prayer for Salmon - A Protest at Shasta Dam. In a peaceful protest, the Winnemem Wintu call out the U.S. government for its refusal to acknowledge the destruction caused by Shasta Dam.
THIS IS PART I OF THE DOCUMENTARY SERIES. Each hour-long special is formatted so that it can be heard as a standalone piece or as part of the series.
Later, we accompany the Winnemem Wintu to sacred sites near the McCloud River. The Winnemem Wintu's ancestors were born on this river, but today they must travel more than an hour whenever they want to visit. The federal government’s Shasta Dam and Reservoir Expansion proposal threatens sacred sites on the McCloud River and consequently, the Winnemem Wintu way of life.
A Prayer for Salmon: Documentary Special Part 2 - It's Illegal (NPR Clock)
From Judy Silber | Part of the The Spiritual Edge: A Prayer for Salmon series | 59:00
A Prayer for Salmon - It's Illegal. We go to Shasta Dam and learn about the history behind its construction in the late 1930s and early 1940s. We hear from Winnemem Wintu Chief Caleen Sisk about how a federal proposal to raise the dam even higher opens old wounds for the Winnemem Wintu and further threatens their tenuous survival.
A Prayer for Salmon is a new audio documentary series from KALW’s The Spiritual Edge podcast that tells the story of the Winnemem Wintu people and their clash with Northern California’s Shasta Dam. The dam’s construction turned California into an agricultural powerhouse. It also left the Winnemem Wintu displaced and without say over their land. The series details their fight to resist a proposed Shasta Dam Enlargement Project. It also highlights the Winnemem Wintu’s aspirations to return Chinook salmon to their homeland on the McCloud River, a major tributary of the dam.
THIS IS PART 2 OF THE DOCUMENTARY SERIES. Each hour-long special is formatted so that it can be heard as a standalone piece or as part of the series.
We go to Shasta Dam and learn about the history behind its construction in the late 1930s and early 1940s. We hear from Chief Caleen Sisk about how a federal proposal to raise the dam another 18 and a half feet opens old wounds for the Winnemem Wintu and further threatens their tenuous survival.
Later, an elder remembers indigenous life back before Shasta Dam was built. The legality of the proposal to raise Shasta Dam is considered. Meanwhile, Chief Caleen Sisk considers a new strategy to fight back: turning an adversary — the Westlands Water District — into an ally.
A Prayer for Salmon: Documentary Special Part 4 - Speaking for Salmon (NPR Clock)
From Judy Silber | Part of the The Spiritual Edge: A Prayer for Salmon series | 58:59
A Prayer for Salmon - Speaking for Salmon. At a sacred spring high up on Mt. Shasta, the Winnemem Wintu recount the beginnings of the world when salmon gave up their voices so that humans could speak. They now feel a special obligation to defend salmon in return for this gift. A biologist details Chinook salmon’s catastrophic decline since the arrival of Euro-American settlers to California and the Northwest.
When plans for the Shasta Dam Enlargement Project accelerate, the Winnemem Wintu decide to hold a war dance, their first in more than 100 years. Members of the community dream into existence songs, dances and regalia. News of the ceremony, and the tribe that declared war against the U.S. government on top of Shasta Dam, goes around the world. That leads to an unexpected message from Down Under.