To Be a Water Protector: The Rise of the Wiindigoo Slayers

the upcoming years, a window of federal review opens, as state, tribal,
In
and other interests look to federal decisions. A federal court has
shers
ordered a review, and the Nimiipu and the state push for an exit plan.
e
River Treaty is the 1964 agreement between the United States and
Columbia
that provides joint management of the river system. In May 2018,
Canada
US and Canadian o
cials began renegotiating the treaty. 29 Freeing the river
provide salmon to 5500 square miles of forests, lakes and ecosystems. As
will
come down to the south, policy makers come to recognize that old
dams
is not good technology in this case. And, for those who lack an
technology
geography, almost every dam has ooded a Native community
Indigenous
from Celilo (Columbia) to Oahe (Missouri/Standing Rock) — with
—
impacts.
devastating
story of Snake River and the dams is hardly unique to the region. Most
e
dam projects, from the Garrison to the Colorado River Project, have had
US
results for Native People. Canada is the same. With over 900
devastating
dam projects, the largest, whether Quebec Hydro, Manitoba Hydro,
mega
Hydro or BC Hydro, drown Native People.
Ontario
of resistance to James Bay 2 saved part of the ecosystem, but new
Years
came online just the same. Villages like South Indian Lake and Cross
dams
have been devastated by these dam projects as the world they know is
Lake
beneath turbulent waters. Time and time again, the Canadian
drowned
has promised Indigenous Peoples that dam projects will bring
government
but the truth is always far from that. As James B. Waldram from
prosperity,
Department of Native Studies, University of Saskatchewan, would write,
the
And in 1965, when the
rst winter’s snows melted around the new
community of Easterville making painfully visible the
Chemawawin
of soil and vegetation, and as the waters rising behind the Grand
lack
dam changed forever the face of the lake they knew so well,
Rapids
not only the shoreline but also the habitat for moose,
obliterating
and sh, the importance of this clause became evident. How
muskrat
the economy and the lifestyle of the Chemawawin people be
would
maintained in the face of such devastation? 30
with big dam projects continues to be a Canadian strategy,
Greenwashing
the British Columbia government announces it will move ahead with the
as
highly controversial Site C Dam project near Fort St. John.
e C$10.7