TCBP Grantee Profile: Winnemem Wintu

About the Tribe

For the Winnemem Wintu, restoring Nur (Chinook salmon) to the Winnemem Waywaket (McCloud River) is their sacred responsibility. The Tribe’s recent salmon restoration work with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) allowed them to provide jobs for their people and placed salmon in their river for the first time since Shasta Dam was built. However, the Tribe continues to seek funding for a volitional passageway that would allow salmon to bypass the dam and for the return of the genetic descendants of their Nur from Aotearoa (New Zealand). In light of the Tribe’s recent land acquisitions, the Winnemem Wintu also continue to seek support in building economic and climate resilience through the development of an eco-village on their lands. Recent funding from the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) allowed for planning to begin through the Regional Early Action Planning Grant (REAP 2.0). 

Project Plans

When these partnerships with state and federal agencies began, the Tribe’s need for full-time, trained Tribal staff for their nonprofit and fiscal sponsor, Indian Cultural Organization (ICO), became apparent. The Tribal Capacity Building Program allowed ICO to build their capacity by providing funding to employ additional Tribal members to provide the administrative support necessary for the Tribe’s work on the eco-village and restoring the land and waterways in support of salmon return. The training and funding the Program has offered has helped support ICO seek funding that will allow their work to continue to grow in a way that is aligned with the Tribe’s goals and cultural responsibilities. 

Site Visit

The Winnemem Wintu hosted a site visit in Redding, CA that included a tour of Kerekmet, the site of the Tribe’s future eco-village, and Bollibokka, the site of the Tribe’s future Tribal fishery. The Tribe has been in partnership with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to restore endangered Chinook salmon to their waterways. The Tribe continues to fight for volitional passage that would allow the salmon to come home, with their people guiding the restoration of the land and waterways to make this possible. For the Winnemem Wintu, caring for salmon is their sacred responsibility, for they believe that “if Chinook salmon go, so do we.” The Tribe is also working to build a safe, sustainable, Tribal village on their lands that will provide housing, a community center, and economic opportunities for the Tribe; they share that “housing is important because it’s the foundation to get the Tribe back together.” 

Contact Information

Dessa Drake, Executive Director, Indian Cultural Organization 

dessa@winnemem.org 

Learn more about Winnemem Wintu.