♪♪
[ Crowd chanting in native language ]
♪♪
-If we could talk to the orca and the salmon in the Salish Sea
and the rivers whether we were invited here,
they would probably say we ruined our welcome.
Because we've destroyed almost everything that once was,
everything.
♪♪
Everything points back to salmon because it's like a web.
It's all connected.
And the ripple effect is severe. It's catastrophic.
And that's the time we're in right now.
-The Southern Residents are unique
because they're the only killer whale
that has chosen to survive mostly on just Chinook.
They will eat other salmon, but Chinook is their main diet.
And the Chinook numbers have just dwindled down to a part
where they can't sustain them and they can't sustain us.
My name is Ellie Kinley.
That's my English name,
and my traditional name is Tah-Mahs.
And I'm an elected official to our Lummi Natural Resources
and Fish Commission here at Lummi.
I'm a tribal member and a commercial fisher.
We consider ourselves the Salmon People,
but it's much bigger than that.
Back in the '80s and '90s,
we probably used to fish 60, 70 days out of the year.
We fished two and a half days last year.
Who are we without salmon? It's a part of who we are.
And I believe that you can see it
when you drive around our reservation.
You can see broken people.
We have the largest tribal fishing fleet in the nation.
And so when you start taking salmon away from us,
what you end up with is broken people.
♪♪
-I'm Jay Julius, and I'm a fisherman
from the Lummi Nation, and I am also the president
of the nonprofit organization called Se'Si'Le,
which in Lummi language
translates into "our grandmother."
♪♪
This once free-flowing river
that was a witness of the treaties of 1855
is now stagnant. Is now a lake.
And the Snake needs to be freed
in order for the salmon to survive,
in order for the orca to survive.
♪♪
-We've been doing this -- This is our 21st year
of traveling with these poles.
We started at 9/11, and from there, we --
it just kind of just kept going.
My name is Douglas James. I'm from the Lummi Nation,
part of the House of Tear Carvers.
These poles, you know, they unite people.
♪♪
What we're doing this year is that we're just trying
to stand in unity with all those that realize
if we don't do something to save the salmon,
they're going to be gone. There'd be no more.
-For the Lummi people and, you know, the Pacific Northwest,
and probably all tribes,
we believe we're related to all things in creation.
My name's Jewell James. I'm from the Lummi Indian Reservation.
I'm the head carver for the House of Tears Carvers.
The carving of the salmon on a totem is to remind us,
you know, that we have to have respect
or the salmon will disappear.
Then underneath the whale, when it's all assembled,
there are two eight-foot salmon
that go underneath to hold it up off the ground.
The whale, in this case, for the Lummi people,
they were older relatives. It's a large whale.
Then there's a baby whale on the nose of the whale.
The little whale on the nose,
that represents Tahlequah, her calf.
[ Waves splashing ]
-So Tahlequah had a baby that died shortly after birth.
And then she proceeded to swim thousands
and thousands of miles pushing her baby up on her nose
and pushed her all around for everyone to see.
And it was a clear message of look what you've done.
I just I can remember waking up and every day hoping,
"Oh, please, let her have let the baby go."
And she continued to do it for --
I can't even remember now, but I know it was over 14 days.
It was heartbreaking.
-We have created a catastrophic disruption,
and the Snake is just one of many.
It used to produce
some of the largest king salmon on this planet.
-If we can't change it,
they're going to disappear within ten years,
you know, because they're dying.
The water's going to heat up even more, you know,
and they need to get up river.
We need to get these dams removed.
[ Crowd chanting in native language ]
♪♪
-There are so few elders now that actually know of the life
before the dams.
My name is Maria Jim.
I'm a member of the Yakama Nation Tribe,
and I live here in Celilo Village, Oregon.
It used to be really, really loud here.
The, like, wy-am means to echo off the rocks
and that's because when the falls was here,
you could hear the falls echoing off of these rocks here.
[ Water rushing ]
In legends, animals were people,
and when the creator created the first man and woman,
we were fragile.
We needed fur to cover our bodies.
We couldn't live out in the elements
with just our bare skin. So the creator asked,
"Who would like to take care of these people?"
And the salmon was the first one to stand up and say, "I will.
I will swim up the river every spring and they can catch me.
My flesh and my body will sustain their body
so they could eat."
[ Crowd chanting in native language ]
♪♪
-As Salmon People, we all have the tales of our women
and our men who have sacrificed throughout time.
-Because now people are aware of our situation
and still our people are semi-invisible.
-Each of one of your tribes have a legend,
a story of the first boat, and were called Echo People.
The roar of the falls echoes in our heart.
It never left us.
-So I truly believe that our water is blessed.
I truly believe that our ancestors are here
taking care of us.
-My name is Nancy Shippentower.
My Indian name is Wakible.
I'm a 69-year-old great-grandma.
I'm from the Puyallup and Tulalip Tribe.
My grandfather told us that there was a time
when you could walk on the backs of the salmon
to cross the river.
That's how full these rivers were.
Because now, today, they're dying.
He goes, "I'm going to tell you that
when that salmon ceases to exist,
we, too, will cease to exist.
We will no longer be here."
-[ Speaking native language ] Amy Bowers Cordalis.
[ Speaking native language ]
That was an introduction in my own tribe's language,
the Yurok Tribe.
♪♪
We always lived on this land, and so we know how it works.
You know, and so if you want to restore something,
regenerate something, you bring it back.
You know, and so going to the First Peoples and saying like.
"Well, how did it work, you know, and how did you,
you know, Indigenous People, live here for thousands of years
in a sustainable way that didn't harm it?"
♪♪
-There's probably some teachings,
instructions of how to carry on in a respectful way
and a right way.
We're all in this together.
We are all in this together.
-At one time, we're all connected to the Earth --
north, east, west, and south, red, black, white, and yellow.
And so every plant, every animal,
every bird, every fish, has something for you.
This is why she was carved,
because our elders said that's one of ours.
[ Drumming ]
[ Chanting in native language ]
♪♪
-We have to decide for our future generations
as to what type of world we're going to leave behind.
And if we can make those changes during our generation,
then we can pat ourselves on the back.
But we have to be hopeful
and we have to believe that we can accomplish this,
that we can encourage people to join with us.
We all have to put our differences aside
and stand united, use your voice.
[ Speaking Native language ] you know,
that it's to bring people together,
you know, to stand together.
[ Speaking Native language ] means
to be of one heart and one mind.
-I just think we need to reopen our hearts
and our souls to that invitation
I think that's coming directly from Earth,
and land, and water, and all that's within.
I think they're inviting you back.
I think they're inviting us back to have that relationship.
We want to live together. We need to live together.
And we just need to be open, I think, to invite that back.
[ Waves splashing ]
[ Blow hole hisses ]
♪♪