We apologize — the previously uploaded Chapter 11 has an audio glitch. It's now been corrected. To make sure everyone can access the corrected audio, we are uploading it again, here.  Spurred by drought, the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service accelerates a plan to restore winter-run Chinook salmon to the McCloud River. Chief Caleen Sisk weighs whether to collaborate with federal officials. Salmon spotted on Dry Creek for the first time in 30 years are celebrated as an answer to the Winnemem Wintu’s Run4Salmon prayer.

The Spiritual Edge

A Prayer for Salmon: AUDIO GLITCH FIXED. Chapter 11. The Return of Salmon

Spurred by drought, the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service accelerates a plan to restore winter-run Chinook salmon to the McCloud River. Chief Caleen Sisk weighs whether to collaborate with federal officials. Salmon spotted on Dry Creek for the first time in 30 years are celebrated as an answer to the Winnemem Wintu’s Run4Salmon prayer.

A Prayer for Salmon: Chapter 11. The Return of Salmon

The Winnemem Wintu board a plane bound for Christchurch, New Zealand. With the help of the Maori people, they hold a ceremony on the Rikkaia River and sing to the salmon there. Once back in the United States, Chief Caleen Sisk meets with every government agency she can to push the idea of bringing the New Zealand salmon back home.

A Prayer for Salmon: Chapter 10. Bringing the Salmon Home

When plans for the Shasta Dam Enlargement Project accelerate, the Winnemem Wintu decide to hold a war dance, their first in more than 100 years. Members of the community dream into existence songs, dances and regalia. News of the ceremony, and the tribe that declared war against the U.S. government on top of Shasta Dam, goes around the world. That leads to an unexpected message from Down Under.  

A Prayer for Salmon: Chapter 9. A War Dance and a Prophecy

At a sacred spring high up on Mt. Shasta, the Winnemem Wintu recount the beginnings of the world when salmon gave up their voices so that humans could speak. They now feel a special obligation to defend salmon in return for this gift. A biologist details Chinook salmon’s catastrophic decline since the arrival of Euro-American settlers to California and the Northwest.  

A Prayer for Salmon: Chapter 8. Speaking for Salmon

 In Part III, we follow the Winnemem Wintu's fight to return salmon to their river, the McCloud. That fight is predicated on strong spiritual and cultural ties to the fish. In the old days, they lit fires alongside the river to help them find their way. But with salmon no longer swimming in the McCloud River, the Winnemem Wintu feel a moral and spiritual obligation to bring them back. The journey is full of ups and downs and includes war dances. border crossings. trucks carrying fish. and ultimately, to everyone’s surprise, salmon eggs hatching in the McCloud River for the first time in about 80 years.

A Prayer for Salmon Part 3 Trailer

 The Run4Salmon bikes through rural areas in the upper Sacramento Valley where Euro American settlers changed the land to better suit an agrarian economy. The Winnemem Wintu and supporters remember the indigenous people who were forcibly removed and killed. An apology in Redding for the genocide may be well intentioned, but Chief Caleen Sisk insists action must accompany words.  

A Prayer for Salmon: Chapter 7. Agriculture and Genocide

 As the Run4Salmon continues to travel upstream, the Winnemem Wintu and supporters witness more obstacles faced by migrating salmon. Once a vast marshland, the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta was an important haven for juvenile salmon, but now is a gauntlet of human engineering. Chief Caleen Sisk stands up for salmon and water health at a bureaucratic meeting of Sacramento Valley water districts.

A Prayer for Salmon: Chapter 6. The Delta, A Habitat Destroyed

 The Winnemem Wintu and supporters start a two-week Run4Salmon prayer to call salmon back to the waters above Shasta Dam. The Run follows the salmon’s migration path from the ocean to the mountains. It starts in the Bay Area where the Winnemem Wintu and supporters encounter environmental devastation first set in motion 200 years ago.  

A Prayer for Salmon: Chapter 5. The Run4Salmon

In Part II, we shift the focus away from the fight against a bigger dam and towards a different struggle: for salmon. The Winnemem Wintu feel a close connection to salmon, a keystone species that impacts the well-being of other creatures and habitat around them. They miss them on the McCloud River where their ancestors fished. We journey alongside the Winnemem Wintu through the San Francisco Bay and up the Sacramento River to witness the obstacles faced by the fish. Along the way, we learn about the historical events that have shaped these waterways and threatened the continued existence of Chinook salmon populations here.

A Prayer for Salmon Part 2 Trailer

An elder remembers indigenous life back before Shasta Dam was built. The legality of the proposal to raise Shasta Dam is considered. Meanwhile, Chief Caleen Sisk considers a new strategy to fight back: turning an adversary — the Westlands Water District — into an ally.

A Prayer for Salmon: Chapter 4. It's Illegal

We go to Shasta Dam and learn about the history behind its construction in the 1930s and 1940s. We hear from Chief Caleen Sisk about how the federal proposal to raise the dam another 18 and a half feet opens old wounds for the Winnemem Wintu and further threatens their tenuous survival.

A Prayer for Salmon: Chapter 3. The Shasta Dam Enlargement Project

We accompany the Winnemem Wintu to sacred sites near the McCloud River. The federal government’s Shasta Dam and Reservoir Expansion Proposal threatens these sites and the Winnemem Wintu way of life.

A Prayer for Salmon: Chapter 2. A Visit to Sacred Sites

In a peaceful protest, the Winnemem Wintu call out the U.S. government for its refusal to acknowledge the destruction caused by Shasta Dam. The protest at the Shasta Dam Visitor Center reveals the Winnemem Wintu’s ongoing reality. They are ignored and later a security guard threatens to forcibly remove them.

A Prayer for Salmon: Chapter 1. A Protest at Shasta Dam

A Prayer for Salmon is coming soon! The series, which has been five-and-a-half years in the making, follows the Winnemem Wintu people as they resist a proposed Shasta Dam Enlargement Project that would flood their sacred sites, and fight to return Chinook salmon to their homeland on the McCloud River, a major tributary of the dam. Over the course of the eleven episodes, A Prayer For Salmon investigates the Shasta Dam and Reservoir Enlargement Project, which gained traction during the Trump years and proposes to raise the 602-foot dam even higher, which would flood important Winnemem Wintu sacred sites. Episodes then take listeners on a journey with the Winnemem Wintu and allies who walk, run, bike and boat on a two-week, 300-mile Run Salmon ceremony that follows the migration of Chinook salmon from the Pacific Ocean to historical spawning grounds above Shasta Dam. The podcast also follows the Winnemem Wintu’s nearly two-decade attempt to return Chinook salmon that originated in California, but now swim in New Zealand, to the heart of their homelands on the McCloud River where salmon have not swum for nearly 80 years.

A Prayer for Salmon Teaser

The Spiritual Edge podcast explores the shifting, modern landscape of religion and spirituality. You'll hear diverse stories of people and their communities. It’s a reflection of our collective reality, injected with a dash of hope. Produced in collaboration with KALW Public Radio, this is high production value audio. Season 1 of The Spiritual Edge launches with a series of intimate profiles called Sacred Steps — stories of people who show up as standout humanitarians and are challenging the status quo.

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