The Winnemem Wintu tribe’s connection to the winter-run chinook salmon (known as Nur by the tribe) runs deep. The Nur are a part of the creation stories told for generations. 

“When we first bubbled out of our sacred spring on Mt. Shasta at the time of creation, we were helpless and unable to speak. It was salmon, the Nur, who took pity on us humans and gave us their voice. In return, we promised to always speak for them.” – Winnemem Wintu Spiritual and Cultural Belief.

Unfortunately, this promise has been nearly impossible to keep as the Government agencies charged with restoring California’s at-risk salmon have historically failed to include tribes in the efforts to restore the population. Some 200,000 winter-run chinook once migrated up the Sacramento River to spawn in these waterways yearly. The Winnemem Wintu tended the salmon that swam up the McCloud, carrying them by impassable obstacles in baskets. 

Today, the winter-run chinook population has massively declined. They are restricted to spawning below Shasta Dam due to habitat loss caused by the dam's completion in 1945, which ultimately prevented them from reaching their best spawning grounds. 

The winter-run chinook continued to suffer due to record-breaking heat and severe drought in 2021, which killed three-quarters of the eggs below Shasta Dam. Rachel Johnson, a fish biologist at the Institute of the Environment’s Center for Watershed Sciences who leads the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Central Valley Team said, “There was a real urgency and concern that winter-run chinook would go extinct on our watch.” The extreme weather in 2022, brought about drought emergency action under endangered species laws that forced agencies to act quickly and to think of solutions outside their wheelhouse. “For the first time, “reintroducing winter-run chinook to ancestral waters became an option.” Johnson says.

 

Fish biologists say saving the salmon will require a return to their historical habitats above dams. For California agencies, this means consulting with the tribes that originally lived along these waterways. In the spring of 2022, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) contacted the Winnemem Wintu for their input on restoring the winter-run chinook salmon to the McCloud River. Winnemem Wintu Chief Caleen Sisk responded with requirements for bringing the salmon back, and the agency said they were open to meeting these conditions.

The result was a partnership between state and federal agencies and the tribe. Chief Sisk chose the location to reintroduce salmon in an area along the river with ideal temperatures for their eggs, which was also once the site of a Winnemem Wintu village. The plan is in stark contrast to agencies that artificially mass-produce baby salmon in hatcheries, transport them in tanker trucks, and funnel them through pipes into rivers.

Rachel Johnson suggested a low-tech streamside incubator, which circulates river water over fish eggs and allows the baby salmon to swim into the river on their own accord. The first few runs were met with difficulty from the McCloud River mudflows, but by the summer of 2022, 40,000 incubated eggs spawned into 35,000 baby winter-run chinook.

In 2023, the agencies and the Winnemem Wintu formalized their partnership, signing an agreement giving the tribe equal say in decision-making for the winter-run chinook above Shasta Dam.

That summer, still battling mudflows by using hatchery trays against the wishes of Chief Sisk, the partners compromised by placing half of the 40,000 eggs into hatchery trays while the other half went into Chief Sisk's Nature-based Nur Incubation System. The incubator itself is a microcosm of the McCloud River and allows the salmon to swim out into side channels created by the Winnemem Wintu.

“The nature-based incubator is more like a river, and the fish are acting more like fish.” Johnson says. The salmon reared in the incubator are strong swimmers. They act like fish in the wild, forming schools, and hiding in grass when birds fly overhead. In contrast, the salmon raised in hatchery trays are maladapted to their natural environment. They are weaker than their counterparts (who have had a trial run swimming in the nature-based incubator) and less prepared for the long migration to the ocean.

Ultimately, the Winnemem Wintu hope to reintroduce wild salmon to the McCloud River. Remarkably, this is possible due to the winter-run chinook salmon eggs being sent all over the world in the early 1900s. Today, they are still found in the wild in New Zealand. The agencies agreed to support the reintroduction of the wild salmon that were moved to New Zealand.

This partnership has much to offer future efforts. Chief Sisk’s questioning of other conventional practices (hatchery trays and fish measuring) led to a non-disruptive way of measuring the fish. The new method allows the fish to stay undisturbed in the water while their length and width are determined by photographs.

As Rachel Johnson says, “It’s a win-win. The data are more accurate and it’s less impactful to fish.” This partnership has challenged scientists to step outside their comfort zone and to ask themselves if there are less obtrusive ways to study wild fish.