Caleen Sisk: Tribal water rights suppressed for over 100 years

Droughts have long been a part of California’s history, and the Winnemem Wintu have songs about the water trails drying up and our need to pray for them to fill up again. For the Winnemem, it wasn’t necessarily a “drought” if there were long periods without rain because, more often than not, the rivers would still be full to keep the trees, the beavers, the mountain meadows and everything healthy in the watershed.

That’s why we think this much-ballyhooed drought is a not a natural disaster, but a man-made one. It’s the end result of the past 150 years of the destruction of our lands, water management based on greedy motives, and the suppression of the water rights of California tribes.

I believe this is one of the biggest misconceptions about the so-called drought. President Obama and the state agencies want to put the blame on climate change and note the lack of rain. Industrial agriculture tycoons want to blame fish and environmental “extremists” who are daring to support adequate water for fisheries and ecosystems. 


In reality, this is what happens when you clear-cut the trees, kill all the beavers, and murder the wolves. This is what happens when you dam the rivers until they choke and build giant pumps to move water to the desert to grow almonds and pistachios that are exported to China and abroad. They systemically eradicated Mother Earth’s plan that had California’s water system working so perfectly. Now drought is measured by a high water mark on a reservoir instead of the strength of the rivers.