Public Identity and Recognition
Years have passed since the Hu’p Chonas, and although the dam has not yet been raised, plans to do so are still in the works. While a new sponsor could pick up the senate bill 2879 initiated by Sen. Campbell and push for the issue to be re-addressed, it is important to note the likelihood that most Californians and certainly most Americans continue to have no idea who the Winnemem are or what role the Shasta Dam has played in their lives. Without public understanding and support it seems unlikely that any senator will add this issue to their roster of concerns.
Indeed, actively seeking to find information about the Winnemem Wintu is a challenge even for someone with an advanced degree, and access to an amazing array of information packed databases. This is especially true if one wants to know more about the period of Winnemem history since the 1920’s. Perhaps this is why the Winnemem have produced a number of short informative documentaries outlining their history, and their sense of purpose in this world. Two particularly informative films, The Winnemem Way of Life – Water and Restoration - The Time Has Come are published on the Winnemem Wintu channel on YouTube.
The Winnemem Way of Life – Water, is the original video posted on the Winnemem channel. The video primarily explains who the Winnemem are. In the fist minute of the film Mark Franco explains, “We are the people who pray and sing for the water… that’s our job. We were put on the earth to do that. We are the water people, Winnemem means middle water.” The film also reasserts Winnemem traditional claims to the land beside and beneath Shasta Lake. Caleen Sisk-Franco stands at the edge of the lake and explains to viewers how the Winnemem were removed from their allotments during WWII and promised “like land to live on” a promise that has yet to be fulfilled by the US government.
To the visual back-drop of the 2006 Balas Chonas, tribal members describe how the loss of the land and the loss of recognition have impacted the people. The message is hopeful, and speaks of the people as returning to their old ways just as the salmon return to their homes despite tremendous odds. As the film closes with footage of the people singing at Panther Meadows, Mark Franco states, “Our struggle is your struggle. We pray for everybody, whether you’re Winnemem Wintu or you’re not. We’re trying to save you in the greater population. To save what you need for your generations too”.
This film ends with a message encouraging viewers to contact their congress people in support of Winnemem restoration. Perhaps it is no surprise then that the next film added to the Winnemem channel is a two part series called Restoration - The Time Has Come. This video, while informative, is somewhat more confusing than the first. Perhaps this is simply because it is difficult to explain what has happened to the Winnemem with regards to termination. Primarily filmed in interview style, Chief Sisk-Franco’s account of the Winnemem’s history since contact is supplemented with occasional maps and footage of the McCloud River. Mark Franco also briefly addresses the viewers. This film represents a different style of storytelling, one which feels highly personal, as if the viewer is being told Winnemem post-contact history directly by the leaders of the nation.
The Winnemem Youtube channel was established December 6, 2008. The channel hosts twenty-six videos which in total, have been viewed 11,385 times as of March 12, 2011. While some of the videos are highly produced while others feel very much like movie outtakes or home videos. This mix provides storytelling that is both very serious and mission driven, with stories that inform while they entertain. The mix also allows viewers of the channel to see the Winnemem as a dynamic contemporary nation of people.
The WinnememWintu YouTube channel is just a small portion of the Winnemem presence online. The tribe also maintains the domain http://www.winnememwintu.us/ which is a high-quality website, well designed, frequently maintained with links to their YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, and Twitter sites as well as an rss feed button.
The tribe also maintains two blogs, one is a tribal blog Winnemem Wintu – The Journey to Justice and the other a personal blog Mark Franco’s Bunkhouse Diary . The tribal webpage also features a blogroll of affiliated bloggers who may produce content relevant to the Winnemem. This blogroll includes: Agua University, California Environmental Water Caucus, Dancing Salmon Home, Environmental Justice Coalition for Water, Global Village School, Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages, Marc Dadigan, and the Sacred Land Film Project.
The tribe’s Facebook account, which is followed currently by 618 people, is linked to a number of other tribally and/or environmentally focused Facebook accounts, and includes an amazing array of still images, some as old as 1903. The photo albums on the page tell the stories of individual tribal members and hteir personal achievements, as well as the tribe’s story of political and cultural struggle.
The Winnemem presence on Vimeo is conducted through a channel called “Moving Image” which describes themselves as a Eugene, Oregon based production company that “creates video programs with heart: on-the-fly documentaries and carefully scripted dramas; educational and promotional projects; small and large budgets.”
Currently, the Vimeo link off the main Winnemem page is for the film project Dancing Salmon Home. This project is an extensive one both cinematically, environmentally and culturally, and has a web presence all of its own at http://www.dancingsalmonhome.com/.
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