Indian Country Today Newscast for 6/27/2025
It is good to look out and see what others are doing and thinking at all times.
Please watch, listen and comment with that in mind.
I wish you: Zoongide'ewin; "Strong heart" or "brave spirit". A common virtue in Ojibwe culture—peace through courage and balance within.
If you feel I have messed up any of the Ojibwe, I am sorry. Feel free to post corrections. I am sure that I and the various versions of AI will appreciate the help.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Partial Transcript via Chat GPT:
In Northern California, the Yurok Tribe is Reclaiming 47,000 Acres Along the Klamath River
Stewart Huntington reports:
It's easy to hear the river.
Now be still.
Can you hear the trees?
If you could, you might think they sound happy.
It's a safe bet Yurok Tribal Chairman Joe James thinks so.
Joe James:
"It's a very beautiful feeling. Makes your heart feel good, makes yourself feel whole."
James is celebrating the transfer, in May, of the final piece of a massive 47,000-acre return of Yurok ancestral lands along the Klamath River.
That comes on the heels of the removal in 2024 of the last of four major Klamath dams—part of the largest dam decommissioning in U.S. history.
Something remarkable is happening in the territory, especially given that May’s land return includes the Blue Creek Watershed—a vital cold-water cog in the Klamath ecosystem—says Yurok Wildlife Director Tiana Williams-Clausen.
Tiana Williams-Clausen:
“Blue Creek is one of the best, clearest, and healthiest tributaries that flow into the Klamath River, which is the heart of Yurok country.
When I hear it—when I think of Blue Creek—I think of balance.
Every day, as Indigenous people, as prayer people, we pray for balance in our ceremonies.
Blue Creek is a place of balance regarding our salmon, our cold water.”
Blue Creek is a place of balance now, yes—but for generations, it and the whole Klamath Basin were dominated by timber and power companies, grasping resources to feed a voracious consumer society.
Barry McCovey Jr., Yurok Fisheries Manager:
“It’s been under, honestly, destructive management for a very long time.
Our strategy goes back to the tenets of who we are as people, and that’s: we’re fix-the-world, fix-the-Earth people.
Our obligation is to restore balance to the world and to the Earth.
And recently, we’ve been really pushing hard on a lot of things.
We have the capacity now to do this type of work.
The dam removal on the Klamath—of course, that was a generational battle.
And now we have, on the heels of that, this major land-back initiative.
It was timberland, so we want to restore it, return diversity to that landscape, and return balance to that landscape.
And it all goes back to those core values—that’s why we’re here, that’s our job, and that’s what we do.
And it extends beyond that. That ideal extends throughout our lives.Everyone working in these positions is trying to restore balance to the world—whether that’s restoring streams, revitalizing language, or helping our people heal themselves.
Whatever that work is, it’s all moving in the direction of fixing the world and restoring balance.”“In my lifetime, I didn’t believe these types of things could happen.
And with the timber company and land-back here on our ancestral lands—that was hard to believe too, as a young person.”
As a young person, I never thought I’d see this moment.
Only recently have I really come to believe that dam removal happened—because it took so long and there were so many ups and downs in that battle, it was tough.
The land return is the culmination of decades of work with partners, including the Western Rivers Conservancy, which led the effort to cobble together some $70 million to purchase the land from Green Diamond Timber Company.
Nelson Matthews, President, Western Rivers Conservancy:
“We are incredibly honored and proud of our 23-year relationship with the Yurok Tribe and working on this critical acquisition—which is the largest land-back conservation effort in California to date.”
This is also a milestone in the effort to re-center Indigenous knowledge and focus on balance.
McCovey:
“To get access to that piece of our ancestral territory when I was young, you had to break the law—and that’s what we did.
But now, being able to see a future where myself and my children never have to experience that again—
we don’t have to be outlaws to exist in our own place, in our own homeland.
That’s an amazing feeling.”
For ICT, I’m Stewart Huntington.
In the Pacific Northwest: Salmon Restoration Funding Cut
A decision by the Trump administration could have devastating consequences for tribes with treaty-protected fishing rights.
Daniel Herrera reports:
The Trump administration has just cut funds for the Columbia River Basin. That means cuts to funding for the protection of salmon and other native fish populations.
In the mid-19th century, the U.S. government and several tribal nations in the Pacific Northwest entered into treaties guaranteeing these tribes the right to harvest on their own reservations.
But since then, federal actions—like dam construction—severely depleted fish populations.
Fast forward to 2023: former President Joe Biden issued a presidential memorandum to restore salmon populations in the Pacific Northwest.
The agreement was meant to channel more than $1 billion in new federal investments into wild fish restoration in the Columbia River Basin over the next decade.
It also included potentially breaching the four Lower Snake River dams to restore natural flows that could revive native salmon populations.
And Trump just ended that. He said this was a way to protect the American people from 'radical green agenda policies.'
Brian Bull, Senior Reporter at Buffalo’s Fire:
“You know, it’s going to go back into the courts. And I think a lot of people are optimistic that eventually the tribes will win out—but it’s just a matter of time and patience. As we’ve seen, this battle has been going on for at least 20, if not 30 years. People are dug in, and they’re ready to fight for their right to keep these salmon populations healthy and running—one way or another.”
For ICT News, I’m Daniel Herrera Carbajal.
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