I came to the realization that I was to do a protest hike this last summer. I was driving home from a weekend at a culturally significant place for a cultural camp. I was listening to classical music, driving through the snaking valley when it hit me, I am to fight for the Columbia River. All the information I had received about the plans for a nuclear fission plant, AI data centers and the historical relationship of man and the land we inhabit were racing around my head. The haunting images of the diggers and heavy machinery that has destroyed the land all around Touvelle and Table Rock brought about much unease. These disturbing images contrasted with the time I spent sitting peacefully along the powerful Rogue River watching Blue Heron’s fly around and living their way with the current Indigenous people singing, dancing, and engaging with the land and each other as their ancestors had many years ago.
Colonization won’t end, unless we shift our perspectives and rise against the perpetual harm being done to our bodies of water, bodies of life, and generally overlooked aspects of what keeps planet Earth alive. This is a stance for the future.
For many years I have looked for resources to heal not only my personal traumas but the historical and intergenerational trauma symptoms that plagued my family and those around me. I looked for ceremony and access to things greater than me, but with no avail. I thought of the rogue river trail of tears and taking part in the yearly run but did not feel it met the deeper calling within my soul. The thought of the ceremonies atop spirit mountain and other spiritual places pulled at me, however little support and access was given through my tribe. After doing various wellness treatments for trauma, like CBT, DBT and EMDR therapy throughout my 20’s, i felt a little bit of relief but still a hole within myself. I now know this hole within to be the soul wound. After finishing my B.S. in psychology (2021) I participated in a ketamine assisted psychotherapy treatment. I quickly noticed an enormous jump with my healing personally and a level of connection and awareness to the world around unlike ever before. My compassion grew from being human centered to noticing and caring for every living thing around me. I started to do land work, like Native gardening, habitat restoration and spending my free time hiking and connecting with nature. I also started offering my support and resources to my family to aid them in their healing and journey. This opened doors of connection not only with the ecological world around me but also with people taking part in similar work. People likeminded in my tribal community, my academic world, and even further.
Systematic oppression in our society is designed to destroy the individual--especially those of BIPOC and other impacted communities--and beat us into being submissive, blind consumers. I speak on the mental barriers that were inflicted upon me by the forced assimilation of myself and my ancestors from the formation of this country. Now I am using my voice and body to fight the continued colonization that the government and large corporations are trying to force upon us.
Hello, I am Julie. I am an enrolled member of The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde. A descendant of Klickitat, Molalla, Wasco, Chinookan, Klamath, French Matis, Filipino, Scandinavian, French Canadian and German people. As you can see, much of my roots are indigenous to the territory I currently inhabit; “Oregon”. I have deep personal and ancestral ties to imaɬ, The Columbia River. I grew up in “Sandy”where the tributary of imaɬ, the Sandy River flows. The presence and impact of the river has always been a constant part of my life. I remember spending time as a child fishing out on the Columbia River Gorge with my dad and siblings.
I grew up around the Columbia River. Accessing it for swimming, fishing and leisurely days of basking in the sun. It's always been a place of respite, relief, and sustenance for my self and my family.
ɬax̣ayam, djuli nayka yax̣al.
Story
My
F ight For THE Columbia River
The Hike Details
Travel Along the Columbia
We will be journeying from the upper Western corner of Oregon's political border to the Hanford Nuclear Site B. This will require 19 days of backpacking and camping!
The Hike will take place on June 15th and extend to July 4th as a final, conclusive, and socially important date. This choice was made to extend the impact of this immersive experience and journey away from normalized, binding systems. We hope that through this experience, we can all return to more than ourselves and then re-emerge as new and empowered versions ready to make lasting splashes of change in our own communities! Keep in mind, this event started from a single-person's ideas and has blossomed through ever-present systems of support.
We understand the financial weight of the provided supply list (featured below) and have started a GoFundMe to raise money towards purchasing enough backpacking and meals for several people to participate for zero or lesser cost.
Please consider sharing the link or donating any used/new materials or financial donations to us by filling out the form below!
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Amazon and Energy Northwest AI Modular Reactors
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281 Hydroelectric Dams
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Coming Soon!
The Story of the Columbia
4 months away!
4 months away!
One cannot sit in such a sacred, beautiful place without thinking of the sad, heavy days the indigenous ancestors were forced to stand atop sacred sites and sign treaties. With all these images and facts spinning through my head, there was a moment where clarity washed over me. It was as if someone had turned on the lights within my soul. On such a bright and beautiful blue day, I suddenly saw clearly. I saw how I am to move forward in the world in which I am forced to inhabit. In a way that respects past, present, and future generations of all species while also starting to fill in and mending that deep hole within my soul. It is time to use my body and voice in a way that honors the ancestors and the future generations. To be a vessel for those unable to speak up for themselves. I am to hike from Astoria, the mouth of the Columbia River all along the imaɬ to the Hanford Nuclear Site, B, where there is nuclear waste currently leaking into the soil (this is not the only spot where waste is leaking). This is a small stretch of the Columbia River, but as we all know, a small piece of something does, and will impact the greater.
This will be a time of personally and spiritually connecting with the land, documenting the various species that inhabit the land and river, bringing language, song and culture to the iliʔI along with bringing attention to the atrocities big corporation and the US government have and continue to do to our vital resources. The rivers are the veins of the earth. It is our responsibility to ensure the health and wellness of our first mother. This country is supposedly built upon democracy and freedom. That has not been a privilege for many to exercise and or use, however, it is within our power to demand that privilege promised and hold accountability to the entities that force their way and continue to do as they please. Being people of the land and dust of the starts, we have every right to connect with and live with the world around us in the ways that not only feed our current needs but ensure past and future generations are honored and given a voice.
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