Release of ‘sacred’ salmon a spiritual moment
Salmon living in the wilds of New Zealand could help repopulate a sacred river in California. Dominic Harris finds out how.
Under a searing blue sky near the north bank of the Rakaia River, Caleen Sisk crouched beside a small stream and clutched a red bucket protectively to her chest.
Her fingers hovered over its precious contents – dozens of juvenile chinook salmon, each little more than a hand-span in length – and she murmured a quiet prayer.
Then, gently and carefully, she lowered the bucket to the surface, dipped it into the fast, gurgling flow and released the young fish.
For Sisk, chief of the Winnemem Wintu tribe of Native Americans in northern California, it was a deeply spiritual moment.
The salmon that spawn and are coveted by anglers in the Rakaia are the direct descendants of those that once filled the McCloud River in her people’s lands, fish that were decimated by the building of a dam across the Sacramento River in the 1940s.
Now, despite being more than 11,000km from their ancestral birthplace, efforts are under way to bring the salmon home.
‘‘Our belief is that whatever happens to salmon, happens to us,’’ Sisk said as she watched with delight as the little fish darted about among the weeds, some gobbled down by a large eel lurking nearby.
‘‘As they dwindle in numbers, we are also dwindling in number. So it is a very important connection to these fish, that one day they will be on the McCloud River.
‘‘To us that means that if the fish can come back to the McCloud, maybe we can too. If the fish grow in numbers, maybe our tribe can repopulate.’’
It is almost 120 years since fish culturalist Livingston Stone established a hatchery on the McCloud to replenish dwindling Atlantic salmon stocks.
Stone exported eggs around the world and McCloud salmon were taken to 14 countries, only surviving long-term in New Zealand.
For the Winnemem Wintu it was a blessing – the building of the Shasta Dam later blocked the salmon run on the Sacramento River and wiped out the original fish.
But in 2004 they discovered the Rakaia still holds the same species that was lost to them.
‘‘For our people it was like a beam of light,’’ Sisk said. ‘‘We believe we are so attached to the salmon that whatever happens to them, happens to us – so if they go extinct then so will we.’’
Sisk, along with her son and nephew, spent four days in 2010 singing and dancing by the Rakaia to re-establish their relationship with their ancestral salmon.
Now they are here to learn about what will come next – scientific tests to make certain the Rakaia salmon are the same as those originally on the McCloud.
Work will be carried out for 10 weeks from June to gather DNA and ensure they are ‘‘winter run’’ salmon, suitable for restocking the upper reaches of the McCloud.
If successful, salmon could be back on the river within a few years, something Sisk’s son, Michael Preston, said would be ‘‘heaven on Earth’’.
He said: ‘‘It’s very special for us, a fulfilling of a prophecy. We would have a food source back, a spiritual contact with the salmon. The ecosystem is crying out for the salmon to return, as well as the people.’’
They are being helped by Fish and Game, which oversees the rearing of the young salmon on the Rakaia.
Welcoming the Winnemem Wintu to release the salmon at Whisky Creek near Lake Coleridge yesterday, hatchery and compliance manager Dirk Barr said: ‘‘We want to thank you … you looked after them right from the beginning and here we are, 30 salmon generations on, and they’re the same fish.
‘‘After all these years of being lost, you have discovered them here in New Zealand. That’s an amazing thing to happen.’’
The visit is also a chance for Sisk and her family to reunite with Ngai Tahu, fellow custodians of the land that they now regard as family.
Sisk hugged John Wilkie, a kaitiaki or guardian of the waterways, as the young salmon were released.
He said: ‘‘We share the same feelings for nature and Mother Earth. People talk about religion, but I think it starts with papatu¯ a¯ nuku, the land, and they are the same.
‘‘The partnership is a privilege – they are like brothers and sisters now.’’