MoveOn Petitions - Support Winnemem Cultural Survival - Tell Congress "No" to the Shasta Dam raise.

23.4.14

MoveOn Petitions - Support Winnemem Cultural Survival - Tell Congress "No" to the Shasta Dam raise.: We are a small, traditional tribe in Northern California, and we are struggling to survive as a culture and maintain our indigenous religious practices, which are all threatened by the U.S. government's proposal to raise Shasta Dam by 18.5 feet.

We were flooded out, and not compensated, with the building of Shasta Dam in 1945, and we lost many villages, burial sites and sacred sites beneath the Lake, a loss that still causes our people much heartache to this day. This latest proposal would inundate or damage more than 40 sacred sites, including our Coming of Age ceremony grounds on the Winnemem Waywaqat (McCloud River).

Representative Jim Costa, of Fresno, has introduced a bill, H.R. 4125,co-signed by a number of California Democratic Congressmen, to raise the dam. No mention of the standing debt to our people. Senator Diane Feinstein also supports the dam raise and will probably introduce a bill authorize it soon.