Calling Back Yuba River Salmon

Posted on October 15, 2009 | Filed Under: Dams & Dam Removal , Restoring Rivers

Caitlin Jennings
Communications Associate

From Steve Rothert, our California Field Office Director: 

On Saturday October 10th, more than 400 people gathered on the banks of the South Yuba River to join the Tsi-Akim Maidu Tribe in their annual Calling Back the Salmon ceremony. 

Similar to other events such as the Yurok Tribe’s Salmon Festival on the Klamath River, this event celebrates the return of salmon to the river and the bounty they once provided the tribe.  Today, Englebright Dam blocks salmon from reaching their historic spawning habitat in the South Yuba and Middle Yuba.  So today, the Calling Back the Salmon ceremony involves tribal members spearing a salmon below Englebright, and a group of “spirit runners” carrying the salmon 10 miles upriver to the ceremony site.  This video shows the runners crossing the South Yuba to the ceremony site, holding the salmon aloft.  Someday, through the work of American Rivers and partners such as SYRCL, salmon will be able to access this spot and the rest of their home waters without the help spirit runners.