Land Stewardship
reciprocity as medicine.
“For this land is sacred to us. This shining water that moves in the streams and rivers is not just water but the blood of our ancestors. If we sell you land, you must remember that it is sacred, and you must teach your children that it is sacred and that each ghostly reflection in the clear water of the lakes tells of events and memories in the life of my people. The water’s murmur is the voice of my father’s father. The rivers are our brothers, they quench our thirst.
The river carries our canoes, and feed our children. If we sell you our land, you must remember, and teach your children, that the rivers are our brothers, and yours, and you must henceforth give the rivers the kindness you would give any brother.“
– Chief Si’ahl / Seattle, Chief of the Duwamish, Suquamish and allied Indian tribes to Franklin Pierce
ʔiykst (fight back)
sic cwix
Our flagship campaign, sic cwix (New River), centers the removal of the Enloe Dam and the restoration of the Similkameen River — a waterway of deep ancestral meaning — back to its natural state.
For more than a century, the Enloe Dam has stood on the Similkameen without ever producing power, blocking salmon from waters they once filled. Through presentations, materials, and community engagement across North Central Washington, we’re building the case — and the public will — to take it down. We work alongside the Upper and Lower Similkameen Bands, American Whitewater, the Conservation Alliance, and others who know this river deserves to run free.
We continue to raise awareness and build the case until the day that river runs free again.
siwɫkʷ prutəktər - water protectors
Water Protectors elevates Indigenous voices on the cultural and spiritual significance of our waterways, inspiring youth to actively care for, clean up, and respect every body of water and its spirit. Water is not a resource to us. It is a relative.