Stand with Native Youth: Support Removal of the Snake River Dams

Stand with Native Youth: Support Removal of the Snake River Dams

Started
June 9, 2021
Petition to
Attorney General Kamala Harris and 3 others
Signatures: 27,157Next Goal: 35,000
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Why this petition matters

“America made a deal and promised that we would be able to fish forever. We can’t fish if there aren’t any salmon left.” – Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation Youth Leadership Council in their letter to President Biden

Stand with us in our call to President Biden to REMOVE the four lower Snake River dams and save salmon from extinction. Sign this petition and share it widely! 

As members of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation Youth Leadership Council, we are calling on President Biden to remove the four lower Snake River dams. These dams impact our right to fish under the tribe’s treaty with the United States.

If these dams aren’t removed soon, Snake River salmon will go extinct. Over the past two centuries, 400 barriers—including the four lower Snake River dams—have been built throughout the Columbia River basin, destroying traditional fishing sites and devastating salmon populations that Indigenous communities in the Northwest, like ours, have depended on for generations. The construction and continued operation of these dams violate our treaty fishing rights and the rights of many other tribes across the Northwest. 

Not only are salmon a critical food source, they’re also a part of our spiritual and cultural identity. In our language we are the "Wy-Kan-Ush-Pum" (salmon people). "Wy-kan-ish" (salmon) are important for our sacred life renewal ceremonies, our daily food, and for our economy. The salmon that swim from the "Naxiyam Wana" (Snake River) and "Nchi’- Wana" (Columbia River), into the Pacific Ocean, are family to us. They are "Wy-kan-ush Naymuma" (our salmon relatives). 

On June 9, 2021, we sent a letter calling on elected leaders and requesting a meeting with President Biden. We’ve been asked to wait for decades. Salmon are dying and we can't wait any longer. 

Sign our petition and stand with us in our call on President Biden to remove the four lower Snake River dams and save salmon from extinction.

Read the full letter to President Biden from the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation Youth Leadership Council here

The extinction of salmon means the continued erasure of Native peoples and the destruction of Native culture. Without salmon, future generations will not inherit values and teachings that have been passed down for thousands of years. 

Support now
Signatures: 27,157Next Goal: 35,000
Support now
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