Amy Cordalis at BIONEERS | Healing Women Heals Mother Earth
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Young and Indigenous at Bioneers. Bioneers Conference is an annual gathering that brings together diverse experts, speakers, and activists to explore solutions to humanity's pressing challenges and share their visions for a sustainable future. The Young and Indigenous podcast amplifies the voices, stories, and experiences of Indigenous people in all walks of life. By honoring the voices of our ancestors, we are reclaiming our narrative and preserving our way of life. Okay.

So I know you already know us, but we'll do our introduction for those listening in. So hello, I am from Lummi. My name is Santana and I come from Lummi through my mother and from my father. I come from Nooksack and First Nations Shwai Village.

Hello, my respected people. My name is Haley Rapata, and I come from the Lummi Nation, and I'm also First Nations Huayet from Vancouver Island. I am Cuy, Neknau, Amy Bowers-Cordalis, Nuwak-Requoy, Numatewa, Waklau, Waklau, Waklau.

Thank you. We just want to first off start off by saying thank you for spending this time with us. We're so happy to finally have you on the Young and Indigenous podcast.

Yes. Such a great podcast. Thank you. You guys are doing amazing work. It's been a pretty busy couple of days, but we're so honored to be partnered with Bioneers this year and be able to have so many amazing people. Yeah. We've had access to majority of their keynote speakers and people on the panel, and so that's been great.

Really rewarding in a lot of ways. Yeah, it's been it's been a good time. Good awesome so as you know, we started a women's initiative at children of the setting Sun productions and we've launched this first through a podcast series and The title that we came up with was healing woman heals mother earth and it really speaks to that interconnectedness we have as women healing and

return how we're able to help heal Mother Earth. Yes. And so that's what this episode will be about and yeah, we just wanted the opportunity to amplify your voice and in all of the important work that you're doing and just really center your health and well-being as a woman also and and talk about a little bit about how you take care of yourself while being involved in such high-level advocacy work, so

We know that you started a nonprofit called Ridges to Whirlpools Indigenous Conservation Group. Can you tell our audience who may have never heard of your nonprofit, what your work involves and what inspired you to create it?

Yeah, thank you. And thank you for having me. I'm so excited to have this very grounded, centered conversation with you ladies and share it with our audience too. So I co-founded with Molly Myers, who's Karuk just up the river, Ridges to Ripples Indigenous Conservation Group. We call ourselves R2R.

And the purpose of R2R is to provide tribes with the technical and legal services they need to preserve or restore cultural natural resources. So we have lawyers, we have biologists, we have communications people, we have grassroots organizers. And the idea is to be able to really just support tribes in protecting what they need in order to continue their life ways.

It's been an evolution and it initially started back in 2020 and I was the Yurok tribes, my own tribes general council and things on the Klamath River were really bad.

the river was sick, water was extremely polluted, the fish were sick, we had high rates of fish disease, and our baby salmon were dying at horrific rates. And when the babies don't make it, then that means they don't become adults and they don't come back and then spawn. And

That was happening year after year, and so we were really losing the genetic diversity of our salmon runs. In addition to that, we were uncertain at that point about what was going to happen with Klamath Dam removal. It wasn't a sure thing yet. And so the council had asked, the Yurok Council asked me to transition my work from general council to focus exclusively on Klamath River issues.

And also, you know, the tribe is not, we're not really, we have a small casino, but we're not a financial powerhouse. And so the idea was to create a nonprofit that could focus on specific work on the Klamath, but eventually expand to serve Indian country, but also fundraise so that those services could be provided pro bono. Because what we were observing is that

the cost of lawyers, the cost of biologists and experts, like trained professionals was prohibiting tribes from protecting their cultural natural resources. And so really the concept was to move money and power in different ways to better serve Indian country. And that was the impetus of Ridges to Riffles

Since then it has evolved and as we brought on more staff the work that we have done has grown and it's been a really beautiful process.

because now we are more focused on supporting the tribes throughout the Klamath Basin. And really that, now that I'm talking about it, that evolution came from the river itself. When we undammed the Klamath in September of 2024, the river was, it ran free again for the first time in 100 years.

And not only did that reconnect the ecosystem and the water and the fish, it also reconnected the people. And so what we're observing is, you know, more opportunities to collaborate about shared cultural natural resources like water, like salmon. And so at R2R, we're trying to help facilitate that, like, reconnecting and, you

And it's sort of two-pronged because it's a healing of from coming, you know, out of colonization and a culture of scarcity, which has put tribes against each other, right? And we're trying to get...

back to a culture of abundance, which is where we were in aboriginal times, right? When everything was healthy and living in a balance. And so we're trying to help facilitate that and have the people come back together. And then also it's a governance issue, right? Like the more tribes are active as either co-managers or able to govern their cultural natural resources, irregardless of whether they're on a reservation or not,

You know, that is how we're going to get better management outcomes because tribes use their traditional knowledge to then govern, right? And then it comes from a more pro-tribal sovereignty approach. So at R2R, we're trying to facilitate that. And it's been a really empowering place to come from. I mean, of course, it's hard, right? And...

You know, you lose sleep, but it's great. It's great work. And, you know, we get little rewards and big rewards to keep us going. So, yeah. The river connecting you guys again is so beautiful. Thank you. Such a reflection of just like our connection with our environment. Yeah, exactly. It's been so beautiful to like see your evolution of R2R since you started because we started...

knowing you in about 2021. Yeah. And then you start... When was the official launch of R2R? Well, we've had a few versions of that. We recently stepped away from our fiscal sponsor and are now...

our own 501c3 and standing on our own two feet. And that just happened last year. Yeah. Yeah. So yes, we've been on an evolution. It's beautiful to watch and it's beautiful to witness. And even before we knew you, we knew of your fight and then we got to witness the great news of all the dams being able to be taken down. And I think it's just been such an honor to

to watch that. - Well, and our, what do you even call it? 'Cause it feels,

more than just a partnership. But the work with the Salmon People Project, with Setting Suns Productions, it always just feels like home, like we're coming together with family. And one of the highlights of the work that I've done with Registrifuls is when we were able to host you all and folks from Nez Perce and the Snake River and bring you all to the dams. That was...

such an empowering moment to have representatives of the salmon nations

you know, on the river watching these dams be removed and to just have that like community and know like we're all still here and we're doing amazing things and it's actually a lot of fun. You know, that is, that's what it's all about from my perspective. Yeah, it's always a great time when we get together. Yes, it is. A hey, how we going? A hey, how we going?

We know you have a background in law. Yeah. So we were wondering, can you tell us a little bit about your journey of becoming a lawyer and what inspired that and the challenges that came with it? Yeah.

So I never wanted to be a lawyer and I didn't know any lawyers and I really didn't know what they did. But then I was a junior in college and I was home working for tribal fisheries for a summer internship and this was 2002. And on my reservation, we experienced the largest fish kill in American history.

where 70,000 adult salmon died within the boundaries of my reservation. And it was, from our perspective, an act of ecocide against our people. It was caused by the federal government diverting a lot of water from the top of the river to support agriculture.

And as a result, flows on my reservation at the bottom of the river, right when a very large fall Chinook salmon run came back to the river, the flows were the lowest they'd ever been on record, and it was hot. And so the water got warm and polluted, and a fish disease called ick spread through the entire salmon run and killed them. And I just remember thinking, like,

you know, we're, this is like another act of colonization. Like we're still under attack. And then I strongly felt my great grandma who had passed, you know, a couple of decades before just sort of moved through me and was like, you need to go to law school to prevent this from ever happening again. And so I did. And, um,

I think my biggest obstacle through law school was just believing that I belong there and that I could do it. You know, I...

I didn't have a strong academic background. I was the second person in my family to even go to college. And, you know, nobody had a graduate degree, a law degree, anything. And so it just wasn't a world that my family was in. And so there was a lot of like, well, how do you even apply to law school? Yeah.

You know, like, what do you, like, which one do I even want to go to? And I didn't have great grades. And at that point, you had to take an LSAT. And I got, and I've never been good at standardized tests. Like, never. And so I got a terrible score on my LSAT. And, I mean, it was just awful. And so I just didn't, like, I really didn't believe. I mean, I believed I could do it, and I was on a mission to do it. But I will say there was a lot of,

odds against me. But I went to a pre-law program for Native students out of the University of New Mexico and it was the most amazing, wonderful experience

And basically what that does is it simulates your first semester of law school. And so in that process, I was able to get experience of what law classes would be like.

and had a lot of help from our teachers and our teachers' aides. And so I got real experience of like, this is what it'll be like. And I did fine, right? I did fine. I wasn't like at the top of the class, but I wasn't at the bottom and I could pass the classes. And so that proved to me like, you can do this.

By the way, Deb Haaland was one of my teacher's aides in that. Yeah, and so that's when I first met her and she was such a powerhouse then and of course continues to be. But then also they have a part of that program is recruiting. So law schools come and recruit. And so I was recruited out of that program to go to the University of Denver College of Law.

So I went there for two years and then I actually came out to Berkeley to Bolt Hall for the last year. And by then I was like, okay, I've got this down. Like I can, I can do this. And so, you know, you just kind of, I think when you're in new spaces, you just put one foot in front of the other and say a lot of prayers, you know, and treat people well. And what I've found is that

You don't have to take massive steps, but when you just one foot in front of the other, say those prayers, ask for the help, the universe kind of opens and the creator provides. I love that. I'm sure that's totally relatable to a lot of people who are in all walks of life, is that as indigenous people, we're constantly battling against this

idea of us not belonging and us not being made for these spaces and it's so important to like really just I know it's hard but it's like we really need to push those thoughts like out of our mind because that's initially what they want is for us not to be in those spaces and it's so important that

we make these spaces accessible and to hear your journey of you witnessing the largest fish kill along your river and then being inspired to go to law school and pushing through all of those hard things is just so inspiring for women like us that are coming up and really like, yeah.

That's sweet of you. Well, you guys are way smarter than I ever was. And so you can do it. There is no doubt in my mind. Thank you. That means a lot. I believe that too. I know that. Um, yeah.

So you said kind of pushing those feelings out of your mind. I think as a wellness practice, we actually need to lean into them and be curious about them and understand them. Like, why do I feel like I don't belong? And a lot of that comes from this place of how we were marginalized as Native people and how a lot of these institutions were not made for us. But that doesn't mean we don't belong there.

And that does not believe that we are not worthy of being there because we are. And what I tried to do through law school was

really make connections with native people and lean into native professors, lean into Indian law. And in that way, you're creating your own community, right? And indigenizing that community. And we would do things, you know, and I being the A-type I am, I was always like the president of NALSA or, you know, but we would like have big meals, right?

And we would do fry bread sales on the campus. Wow. That's amazing. Yes, I love that. We would do fry bread sales to pay for us to go to the National NALSA, which is the Native American Law Students Association, moot court competition, stuff like that. So you just sort of...

I don't know, like if you have to throw elbows around to like make space, you just do it. Make your own way. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. Thanks. Thanks for sharing that.

relatable as well. I can still make a mean piece of fry bread if it's needed, alright? Yes, we need some of that fry bread. We will ask for the recipe. It's all in my head anyways. People are like, what's the recipe? And it's like, this could be like a family recipe that's been like

passed down for generations. Well, and so actually like out at Yurok Country, we make what's called pan bread. So it's not fried. It's actually just, it's like a very similar recipe to fry bread dough, but we bake it.

- Wow. - Yeah, anyways, yeah. And my great-grandma, which was interesting, is that, I mean, that's not a Yurok traditional food, right? So my great-grandma, who, she was born in 1906 and passed away in 1986, but she lived like a Yurok traditional life. Like when she was little, she lived in a redwood plank house. Like she was raised by her grandparents, spoke Yurok, but she called that bread wagon wheel bread.

because it came over with the wagons when they, yeah, yeah. So, but now it's like one of the things that our family makes. So, interesting history. Hopefully next time we go to Yurok, we'll be able to get some bread. Yes, that sounds good. So you, as a lawyer and an indigenous woman from Yurok, you helped, you know, lead alongside Yurok

- Many others. - Many others, yes. The largest dam removal in United States history. - In the world. - In the world. - Yeah. - So crazy. - Thank you. - Insert fox and snap, there we go. Yes. What did that journey look like and how did it make you feel to be able to come out of the other side of that? - It was just a fight. It was like a hardcore fight.

You know, and every generation of Yurok people, Karuk people, all the people on the Klamath River, and I mean, this is true for probably every indigenous group, you know, every generation fought since colonization, right? Like fought for our resources, our land, our water, our cultural, natural resources, our sovereignty. And so...

you know, when we were in the fight, it was almost like, well, this is just our duty and this is how we live. And honestly, I felt privileged because previous generations of my family had fought for salmon rights. And, you know, they would do things like they'd have to go down to a meeting, you know, with the state or the feds and they

were always running out of gas money and they wouldn't have money for food and they didn't have a hotel to stay in and they'd have to like you know basically buddy up with someone to like even get a meal paid for and then sleep in their car and those were the and then also you know you put on top the like extreme racism that they were dealing with in those times and also you know like I think about the the

early 1900s up until really like 1975, you know, the federal government was just trying to assimilate Indians.

And even, you know, 1975 marked a really big shift in federal Indian law policy from assimilation to self-determination. But even after 1975 when that act was passed, like the federal government still wasn't asserting or protecting Indian rights. And so, you know, our people, right, like that generation, they were really out there just trying to assert the rights of

Even though many of those rights were established in the treaties and had been good law, you know since the 1800s and as a treaty where the supreme law of the land Like, you know, our ancestors just had to fight to say that those are still good so so me and and my generation coming into that fight like I

We stood on the shoulders of the ancestors because they had won in a lot of ways, right? I think about the Bolt decision, US v. Washington, that confirmed that the treaties were still good and that the Washington tribes had these treaty-based fishing rights. We relied on that case in my own family's—actually, my family—let me take that back—

My family's case came before the Bolt decision, but they were basically the same thing that was like confirming the Indian rights. And so when I came in, those were already confirmed, you know, and not that we had a lot of money, but we had money for hotels. We had money for food, you know, so I could come into, you know, the boardroom or whatever it was, the courtroom and, you

you know, the rights had been established. And so really the argument was like, well, what do they require? And I could come into those places with, you know, most of the time a decent night's sleep and a full belly, which was a privilege, you know, the previous generation didn't have. So I always felt grateful, to be honest. I felt grateful that, um,

I had sort of those basic needs met and could step into that place. I felt empowered to have the knowledge you get when you go to law school about how the laws of this country worked. But I also really dived deep into Indian law and trying to understand

like how did the tribes actually understand those treaties? How do the tribes interpret these case laws, you know, and the different, you know, federal statutes that apply to Indians. And so I always kind of just took this perspective of like,

I don't really care what that senator or that judge said about whatever the issue was in this Indian law act or case. What do the tribes think? That's what I'm going to elevate. One of the things I really tried to do was listen carefully to Yurok leadership because that's who I was representing.

and hear them, right? Like hear what they were asking for, hear what they understood the law or the treaty or whatever it might be to mean.

And then also, I think I was really lucky because I was representing my own tribe. And so I had a baseline cultural knowledge about what it is to be a salmon person. And so I could use all that to then create these arguments about what the rights actually meant from the tribal perspective.

And, you know, one of my greatest sources of power was really just like the ancestors and listening to Yurok leadership, you know, and also listening to the river, too. The river tells you all kinds of things if you just listen. So it was hard. It was a struggle. And, you know, I will say we thought we were going to lose so many times and we did lose so many times. You know, there were a lot of

different approaches, different settlement agreements, different like tactics, strategies that failed. But we only needed one to work and we found that one, right? And that's how we got to Dam Removal.

So, so powerful, so important. Thank you. Well, we know that the dams coming down are really just the beginning of the overall restoration of that environment in that area. So what does the future look like for the people, for the animals, for the ecosystems that are...

I love that question and I love to just like close my eyes and envision it because I think what it looks like is, I mean, for me personally, I envision my boys and I and my family like fishing in our fishing holes and it's kind of sunny and, you know, we got a couple gill nets out and the boat is working properly. Right. Yeah.

And, you know, we got fish hit the net. And I get to say to my boys, like, hey, let's go get that out of the net, you know. And we go out and I can watch them and teach them how to get fish out of the gill net, how to clean them, how to store them. And we're all together, right? And maybe there's like a fire at fish camp and, you know, you're telling stories and,

The air feels clean. Maybe another day it's hot, so you jump in the river and swim a little bit. You know, that's what it's all about, right? Like, that's living your culture, and that's what the point is, right? Now, we're not... I want to believe that we're not far from that, but the next steps are, you know, we remove four dams, and so now...

we need to basically clean up around the dam site. There's about 20,000 acres of land that was impacted, of course, negatively by the hydroelectric project. And so there are multimillion-dollar restoration projects

in happening now to restore those lands. And we're working on trying to get a more natural hydrograph back into the river. The river's flows are highly regulated and a lot of the flow is diverted. And so to fully support fish, we need to return water to the river

and in more of its natural timing and amount so that the fish and all the creatures that evolved with certain rivers conditions, when they come back, they can find something similar. So yeah, a lot of work in the future, but I'm feeling confident and excited because the biggest thing was getting the dams out, right? Like that was a monumental task and they can't go back in.

Like, they cannot go back in. And so, you know, we... And it's... Of course, we're in a new political environment and things are changing, but we're in it for the long game. We're not going anywhere. And so you just keep working. You know, you know what the river needs, and so you just...

And it's kind of like the same I was talking about. You just put one foot in front of the next and do what you can do in that day and try to have your goals. And that's how you get to a more clean, healthy river. So, yeah.

I love how in your speech too, the note you ended on about your niece and your sons, I think that was such a beautiful way to end it, is talking about the next generations and being able to witness them live a more abundant life with your guys' rivers being, your river being free. I thought that was really powerful. Thank you. I hate you.

I'd love to hear more of your thoughts on the interconnectedness of our healing as women and Mother Earth. What have you seen change within yourself and within your community pre-dam removal and post-dam removal?

I love this question because it's been remarkable. So, you know, the river was really sick. Like, it was really, really sick. There were behind the dams toxic blue-green algae blooms every year that then would...

move through spillways around the dams downriver and almost well annually it would make it so

you know, by late summer you couldn't swim in the river because it was so polluted. And I have actually, there's like a little scar right here from this rash I got when I was just fishing in the Klamath and, you know, the water was so polluted that it would cause a rash.

Um, it would kill your dog if, you know, your dog got in and drank a lot. So it just was, you know, water quality was obviously terrible. Water temperatures were really hot. Um, and it, what was interesting was that water temperatures were higher in some times of the year when the salmon were home than what is like normal for a salmon to live in. And, um,

like they were, the water temperatures were actually higher than what salmon can normally survive in, right? So it was like almost so hot that they like, you know, from a scientific perspective thought they were going to die, but they lived. So that was kind of an interesting thing. And I don't know if that, I think that just speaks to salmon's resiliency.

But in any event, like I share that to just point out how sick the river was. And we all felt that too. You know, and on the river, a lot of people, you know, for all kinds of reasons, like,

the legacy effects of colonization, right? Like poverty, drug and alcohol abuse, domestic abuse, just like straight out violence. That's all on the reservation. And I think as we start to see the river heal, as the water gets cleaner, as more fish come back, as more traditional foods come back,

which we all expect to happen after dam removal, then the people will start just gradually evolving towards a more healthy state with the river, right? Because they can be in the water again. And when there's fish in the water, people come to fish, right? And so then when they do that, they end up eating fish. And then they're not at Chester's Chicken at the tribal gas station eating dinner. Yeah.

You know what I mean? Like, that's how that goes. Like, that's exactly how it goes. So, you know, it's... I'm really...

Another thing I'm really interested in doing is just very much observing the changing conditions within the community and how the river will lead us to this healthier space. Me personally, I already feel like a healthier person. And, you know, one of, there's been a lot of moments where

it sort of snuck up on me. One of them was watching the river reconnect, and I shared that story in the talk today, but

When they removed Iron Gate Dam, you know, they literally just took scoop and scoop and scoop and loaded up dump trucks and hauled them off. And so eventually they got to a place where the dam was, you know, at level with the water behind it and the water in front of it. And so we all went to watch as...

you know, they scooped out more dam. And so the dam dropped and the water from behind started floating down to meet the water, you know, down river. And just seeing the river reconnect again

It was magical. It was like this longing that they had always wanted to be together and finally they were, you know? And it was like this magnetic force that had just reconnected the water. And so I watched that, you know, I saw that and it was like feeling the lifeblood of your people flow again, you know?

And so first, there was just a lot of emotion and crying, and you kind of almost don't believe it. But then you start...

healing yourself because I felt like, wow, well, here's what happened is. So then later I jumped in the water and the water, it was cleaner from like a data perspective. Right. But it felt so much cleaner and crispier, you know, swimming in it. And I swear it told me I am different, you know? Um,

And it was like, yes, you are. And you could almost just feel it's like just swimming in it. You could feel its vibrancy. You could feel like its life force, its pulse.

And then, you know, swimming in that, I was able to be a part of that. And of course, we all know, like the powerful healing of water anyways. But then, you know, I'd swam in the Klamath my whole entire life. And so then to jump into this river that was so new, I think that's why it told me I'm different, you know, because I had known it my whole life. And then getting in there and it was like, no, I'm I'm I'm stronger now.

And so then I just thought, if this ancient relative can heal, like, I'm just this little teeny ant and I can heal. And I should, you know, like, I owe it to my creator to live in joy and happiness and empowerment and try to stay in that place, you know. And so I've been on a bit of a journey to try to stay in that place. Yeah.

I love that. I've been holding back tears this whole time. Slow, girls. Let it flow. I'm just going to start ugly crying. No such thing as ugly crying. That's true. No, that's just, yeah. I think it's because my spirit's happy for you and you being able to, because we're all on healing journeys, you know? And I just think that's really special. And I'm happy for you.

Well, and I feel honored to be able to talk about it because I want people to know it's possible. You know, like we weren't geniuses. Like we're not, you know, there's no reason. Well, there are a million reasons why people can't do it, but there are reasons you can overcome and you can find that for yourself too, you know? Yeah. Yeah.

Good. Thank you. Yeah. You carry so much strength in yourself. It's nice to be around. Now you're going to make me cry. It's just a beautiful thing to be surrounding yourself as we're up and coming and creating our own paths. I think it's just such a powerful thing that...

majority of the people that are in our Salmon People project are all women. And I think it's such an honor and I think it speaks a lot and I think that's why we wanted to do this podcast is because like

there is so many women that are leading these fights of environmental stewardship and culture preservation and it's just uplifting their voices and being able to surround ourselves with strong powerful women leaves us like feeling empowered and powerful ourselves and like we leave these conversations feeling like so inspired and so motivated and so passionate and

And we're reminded of our own strength that we carry as young indigenous women. And it's just, I'm just so happy that we got to meet you and be loved by you and be in your presence. And I'm just very thankful. Wow. Wonderful.

So it's been a long journey. Yeah. A long journey. A lot of, and there's been some heaviness and some darkness that's come with it. And I'm curious to what gives you strength to keep going like mentally, physically, spiritually? How do you push yourself? Yeah. Like in the, I guess the fight,

I got a lot of strength from my ancestors and I really tried to create my own relationship with them. And every time I had a big law exam or the bar exam or whatever it might be, I always prayed to my ancestors for the strength.

And I encourage any person to make that connection with their ancestors, which you can do by yourself. Like, it doesn't matter what kind of person you are, where you come from, if you're an urban Indian, if you're a res Indian, if you're, you know, a Native American person in India, like, or if you're non-Native, whatever it is, like, we all have ancestors that we can connect to in our own way. Right?

Right. And that you can find power in. And for me, that was through prayer. You know, it was through like a lot of praying. And, you know, I'm I I don't want to sound like what is like, you know, like I'm some kind of like.

holy person or you know like wannabe but I'm praying all the time like there's a lot of things that need to be prayed about right so you know I could be walking down the street or before I go into a big meeting okay creator help me you know it's that kind of thing that gave me a lot of strength

Also during the campaign, again, it was like the previous generations that had fought so hard and knowing that they had done so much and had been so successful with so little and just the strength of their spirit really carried them through. And so I thought, goodness, like with all the privilege that I have in my life, you know, we were talking about that earlier of like a decent place to sleep and food, like

I can do a lot with this, you know? And so I tried to really just stay in that. I also am pretty extroverted and so I get a lot of like energy from people and being around people and so you know strong friendships with other Native women, non-Native women and men too. My

My parents are amazing, amazing people. My siblings are amazing, supportive, wonderful. And so that all made a difference. But also things that are really important to me are like exercise. I try to exercise every single day.

Some of my and I actually that was hard to maintain Like when I was you know Lawyering a ton and doing all that like that that self-care piece is the first thing that goes and so honestly like I Did not do a great job of the self-care in the really hard years especially because those really hard years on the campaign also were right around the time when I was like having babies and so there was just a lot of like a

you know, energy going like to the work and to the, you know, making it or growing a baby. And so there was really none coming to me. And so, you know, that was exhausting. And honestly, like, you know, the, I told the story earlier about the river reconnecting and, and,

you know, like two days after that I slept for like, you know, 48 hours and like, and then promptly got really, really sick and was like in bed for a very long time. Um, I mean like the Nora virus kind of sick. So like five days of just like in bed. But I, I sort of just said,

I'm gonna rest I have to rest you know and and so deep deep deep rest and Now I feel like I'm coming into a place more where I'm like, okay, you know, we're still working hard But I need to make this sustainable like I in order for me to keep up the work I have to make it sustainable which for me means I

being able to like take care of my body and my you know happiness and

And so I've been trying to create more space for exercise, right? And so now my daily practice is like, even if I have 10 minutes, I'll do like a 10 minute YouTube video of a HIIT workout, you know, in my hotel room. But I feel so much better when I do that, right? And I started journaling a lot, like, yeah, which is, I didn't expect, oh, you do that too? Yeah.

Good. Yeah, I didn't expect that to help, but it really helps me get my mind or the thoughts out of my mind. And then I can sleep, for example. Right. Yeah. It, like, gives you that reprieve to just, like, turn it off, put it away, and focus on the moment. Yeah, yeah. And I started meditating, so I do that now. I also dramatically changed my diet and...

you know, just focusing on all the things they tell you to, you know, like good proteins and lots of vegetables and, you know, stop drinking and all that kind of stuff. And, and it's, um, it'll be, I mean, it's just, it's just a journey, right. To figure out like,

what works and what doesn't work. And I won't always eat that way. And I'll probably have a glass of champagne to celebrate because we should. You know what I mean? But I think too, one of the biggest things, and this is a wellness practice that I encourage folks to consider is like a gut check. Like what is bringing me joy?

You know, and also a gut check of like, what is not bringing me joy? And if it doesn't bring me joy, like, do I really need it in my life?

And probably not because there's a reason it doesn't feel good physically to you, you know, and no matter how I think one of the things is like we're in this society taught to get so in our head, right? And we're especially now in our own little world with our devices and, you know, the social media and all that stuff and that

takes away our presence within our like souls, you know? And so I've been trying to like get more back into my own body to understand like, what is it that I really like? Yeah. And then trying to, you know, put one foot in that direction. So, yeah. Thanks for sharing. I, I, I feel like, um,

Physical activity is the only thing that keeps me mentally sane. And so I've been running a lot. Oh, good. I've been waking up even here. They have a really nice fitness center if you want to check it out. Oh, nice. Yeah. And so I've been running every single morning. Wow. That's great. And that's been a journey in itself because...

where I started to where I'm at now like in the beginning was like so hard but I feel like physical activity is so good and then

canoe paddling for me is like really big and like being on the water and like yes yeah I think one one of the biggest teachings I had was like whatever you're feeling just give it to the water and so anytime I'm at the water I just I give it all away but then in in return I ask for strength from our from our ancestors so it's so important to to to take care of ourselves mentally physically and spiritually while being involved in like

all of the work that we're doing. That's so good. I need to get into journaling. I'm so happy that you both said that you both journal because it's something that I've always been interested in too. It's a good practice. Yeah, I'll have to start doing that. ♪

Thank you. Thank you. Don't believe the hype. So the first one is just all the craziness that is happening right now.

Some of it is political theater, right? Some of it is real. But I think, you know, the media is really over-dramatizing what is happening in the country right now. And we need to...

you know, get out of being so sucked into that and kind of bring it back into our own communities and our own bodies and focus on like, how do I, it's like you just said, like, how do I preserve my own wellbeing in this moment? How do I continue to do the work in my community that is important and knowing it's a long game, right? So like, um,

There's a need now to re-strategize. We have to think about, okay, where were we going under the last administration and now we're in this new one. So what adjustments to my strategy do I need to make in order to account for what's to come?

And I think, too, it's like leaning into our tribes, leaning into the state government, leaning into our allies and making sure that our partnerships are really strong and that we uplift those in this time when there's this whole other thing happening. Also, remembering...

Indian nations were here before the US government and will be here after, period. And so we're in it for the long game. So that's why you can't get too worked up. You just gotta keep on paddling, giving it to the water. Run it out when you get really mad. And just, I think it's like not allowing ourselves to have all those stress triggers

because that is so emotionally exhausting. And so, to the extent you can use those mindfulness, those wellness practices to help you kind of release those, I think that's a good thing. And also when something bad does happen, lean into your community. That's one of the things that I'm so happy to have connected with the salmon people in the Setting Suns Project because

I know if anything awful happens to any of us, we have each other's backs and we will call and we'll figure out how to support one another.

And that's how you get through life. So, yeah. And I guess the other thing too is like, and I'm working on this, is like really learning to be compassionate with yourself and loving yourself and being curious about who you are, right? Because then you can develop that joy about just your authentic experience, right? And I think that's when you can come to a place of really like sitting

sitting in your own power and then figuring out like what's the best use of my time.

Thank you for that. I feel like being here at Bioneers and then also our Salmon People gatherings that we put together, that's when I leave the most hopeful. When we're in community with one another. We created a family within the Salmon People project. I'm always so happy to see you. It's been a great time. Thank you so much for your time. I so appreciate

you sitting here with us and I know you're a busy woman so it's awesome we're happy to finally get you on the podcast I'm so thankful to be here thank you this series is made possible by Bioneers and the Rights of Nature organization special thanks to Britt Stephanie and Ray Ray this episode was produced by Roy Nicole Santana Rabang Haley Rapata and Ellie Smith Yay! Podcast is a part of the Children of the Setting Sun Productions original music by Keith Jefferson Adam Lawrence Nichols and Roy Nicole

Additional music by Amy Cordalis. Additional footage from Mike Kelly from NOAA Fisheries.