The newly unveiled Wintu Mural on the Cascade Theatre represents a watershed moment for Wintu and Indigenous people’s representation in what is now known as Redding. Conceptually designed by two local Wintu artists, the mural is the culmination of years of advocacy by a collective of Native activists and supporters.
With a focus on promoting community-wide healing, Sky Scholfield, a Shasta College graduate and tribal member, is shooting a documentary about the Pit River Tribe, whose ancestral lands span eastern Shasta and Modoc Counties. The film will explore the Pit River people’s occupations of PGE and national forest lands during the 60s and 70s and as well as their contemporary efforts to reclaim lands and cultural practices.
Today, in an agreement with the city of Chico, the Mechoopda tribe manages Verbena Fields. It’s an emerging model of what decolonizing land can look like, supported by partnerships between Native and non-Native communities.
Caples is running for the position against the incumbent, Judy Flores. During a recent political forum Caples insinuated that Native students are dangerous and suggested placing them in more restrictive educational settings based on their race. Native parents and educators say they fear Caples, if elected, could make public schools more hostile environments for their youth.
The Winnemem Wintu Tribe are part of a larger coalition that's petitioning California to correct water management plans they say harm the Pacific coast’s largest estuary and its surrounding communities. They connect today's disastrous conditions in the Delta to California’s legacy of discriminatory and anti-Indigenous water policies.
The land we now know as Redding has been a part of Wintu people’s vast homelands for thousands of years. Today, after surviving state-sponsored massacres, violent removals, and discriminatory legal doctrines, Wintu tribes remain almost entirely landless. For some Wintu people, the proposed sale of riverfront land is inseparable from the need to reckon with this often-suppressed history.
The brief has been submitted as part of an appeal in a case that addresses California’s entrenched water rights system, which prioritizes those who claimed water first, sometimes at the expense of those who need it most. The Winnemem Wintu Tribe argue the current system harms not only California waterways but also tribes, who’ve been historically excluded from claiming water rights.
Winnemem Wintu Tribal Member Michael “Pom” Preston is the co-director of a recent short documentary that has screened in more than 15 countries. One Word Sawalmem offers powerful Indigenous lessons about our relationship to water during a time of extreme drought. It's currently available to stream online for free.
From Indigenous sacred site protectors and former hippies to Trump supporters and conservative Christians, an eclectic Intermountain community collaborated last year to resist the proposed $300 million Fountain Wind energy project. Several key organizers talked to Shasta Scout about what the coalition’s story means for the future of the region and alternate energy.
A short survey offered in 2020 and again this year, offers respondents a chance to provide key data to Native researchers, advocating for the needs of Indigenous communities, nationwide. Local Native community members are invited to participate.
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