We accompany the Winnemem Wintu to sacred sites near the McCloud River. The federal government’s Shasta Dam and Reservoir Expansion Proposal threatens these sites and the Winnemem Wintu way of life.




“If we lose our sacred places then our belief is pretty much we lose being Winnemem. I mean, we’ll still have blood lines, but blood lines don’t really make tribes.”
— Caleen Sisk, Hereditary and Spiritual Leader of the Winnemem Wintu people



Shasta County, CA — The Winnemem Wintu gather strength and wisdom to defend their culture and way of life at sacred sites high up in the mountains above the McCloud River. June 17, 2018. Judy Silber/The Spiritual Edge



A Prayer for Salmon is an 11 part audio documentary series from KALW’s The Spiritual Edge 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.

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