Julian Ankney hosts this week’s show and brings audio from the April 21st and 22nd virtual WSU conference on “Native Sovereignty, Decolonization, Divestment, Reparations, and Environmental Justice: Constructing Coalitions at the Intersections,” interwoven with music from an all-Native line up of artists.
“Remembering ‘Salmon Scam’”: In a continuation of the “Fish Wars” of the 1960s and 70s, a 1982 federal sting operation scapegoated and criminalized Columbia fisher people for diminishing salmon runs. Wanapum fishing rights activist David Sohappy, Sr.; his son David Jr.; Bruce Jim, enrolled Warm Springs; and Wilbur Slockish, Jr., the Hereditary Chief of the Klickitat, were convicted in federal court and spent years in prison for exercising treaty-protected rights to fish in their usual and accustomed places. The segment features commentary from Bruce Jim, Chief Slockish, David Sohappy, Jr., Andy Sohappy, defense attorney Tom Keefe, Celilo Wy’am activist Lana Jack, and Celilo Wy’am fisher Lila Jack.
“Black-Indigenous Solidarity”: Kent Ford, co-founder of the Portland chapter of the Black Panthers, and activist-scholars Sky Wilson, and Danica Brown, enrolled Choctaw of the Watonlak Oshi “White Crane'' clan, discuss solidarity and intersecting struggles against racism, colonialism, and police violence, from AIM and the Black Panthers to Standing Rock and the George Floyd Uprising.
“Mourning, resilience, and resistance: The Story of the Celilo Wy’am”: Celilo Wyam activist Lana Jack reads from her short memoir, which appears in the Spring edition of Oregon Humanities. Jack recounts stories of growing up fishing with her father and sisters on the Columbia River and speaks to the stakes in the Celilo Wy-am struggle for federal recognition.
Photo of Lana Jack courtesy of the photographer, Josué Rivas.
- KBOO