Undamned: indigenous leadership in river restoration in North America

Abstract

Power lines buzz overhead, but your home is without electricity. Shareholders receive healthy dividends, but thousands of fish that you depend on for subsistence lie on the shore, sickened by parasites. Vacationers enjoy their reservoir-front second homes, but your ancient prayer places are flooded, hidden under the water. Throughout North America, hydroelectric dams were erected in the 19^th and 20^th centuries without the consent of Indigenous peoples, who bear the brunt of their impacts. Now, this aging water infrastructure is being addressed as a matter of truth and reconciliation, and to increase climate resilience. From the Klamath in California, to the Washougal in Washington, to the Eklutna in Alaska, to other tributaries throughout the US and Canada, there are numerous Indigenous-led efforts to remove dams, restore fisheries, and educate other peoples on relationships of responsibility, accountability, and reciprocity with rivers. Recognizing that each river is culturally and historically unique, this project centers the approaches, institutions, partnerships, policies, and processes that are facilitating the delicate, multiparty process of dam removal and river restoration, in order to advise and inform the development of more inclusive and just water policy.

This lecture is free and open to all. Registration is not required to attend in person.

More information about Professor Beth Rose Middleton Manning.