ACTION ALERT: Stand with Northwest tribes who are calling to restore salmon and remove the four lower Snake River dams
Black liberation and Indigenous self-determination are forever linked.
Fifty years ago, when four dams were built on the lower Snake River—one of the major rivers in our region—they flooded Northwest tribes’ ancestral lands, accustomed fishing sites, traditional plant-medicines, and burial grounds. And today, they are driving salmon to extinction, which is a violation of the treaty and human rights of Native people whose ways of life depend on salmon.
The dams are a manifestation of systemic genocide and Indigenous erasure. We WILL NOT stand by as our Native relatives’ rights, health, culture, and identities continue to be threatened and erased.
Act Now: Tell Senators Murray and Cantwell you stand with Northwest tribes who are calling for a holistic solution that restores salmon and removes the four lower Snake River dams.
Take Action Now
Send a message to the Senators Cantwell and Murray.
Click to contact Senator Murray | Click to contact Senator Cantwell
Here is a sample message you can use. Feel free to paste this into the above contact forms:
Senators Cantwell and Murray,
I stand with the Washington Black Lives Matter Alliance and Northwest Tribal Nations, who released this letter of solidarity: https://actionalert.blmalliancewa.org/AllianceNWTribesSolidarity
Restoring salmon is a human rights issue. The decline of salmon has been devastating to the Native people of our state. Beyond the ecological or economic devastation, the loss of salmon has violated the treaty and human rights of Native people.
I urge you to lead the Northwest in supporting a comprehensive solution to restore salmon that includes the removal of the four lower Snake River dams.
Removing these dams is the first step in correcting the injustices endured by Native people, but the solution cannot stop there. That is why I join tribes and the Alliance in calling for a comprehensive solution that also includes equitable investments for BIPOC communities.
The paradigm-shifting investments that are needed to replace the infrastructure of these dams will not make up for the decades of disinvestment in BIPOC communities, but could be a starting point that powers BIPOC-led economic opportunity, infrastructure solutions, and cultural revitalization.
Our region needs your leadership.
In solidarity with Black and Indigenous Lives in Washington,
[Your Name]