Module 3: Direct Action & Allyship with Indigenous Movements
August 2020

The final installment of our three-part Advocacy & Water Protection in Native California training and certificate program will examine Indigenous resistance via strategies and tactics employed by water protectors. Beginning with an examination of historic resistance along the Klamath River, this installment will focus on campaign creation, media outreach, and youth advocacy.


August 28
12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Youth Water Advocacy & Education
Moderator: Regina Chichizola - Save California Salmon
Kylee Sorrel, Hoopa High School Water Defenders Club
Sammy Gensaw, Ancestral Guard
Ashia Wilson, Klamath Tribes Youth Council, Rogue Climate

As statutes fall and people start to question our focus on policing rather than education, people are asking how we can create a more equitable society for our communities and our children. Youth, however, are questioning if they even have a future and what that might look like without clean water and a liveable environment. The truth is that whether it is Black Lives Matter or the environmental movement, youth are leading the charge to create change in the United States. The questions they ask are: “should we have to fight for a livable environment and fair future?” and “why are we not included in the conversation about how we want to be engaged and educated?”

This panel will be led by Native youth and will discuss how we can better support youth-led movements for clean water and protected fisheries in California. We will focus on how youth have led the movements to take down dams, to fight new dams, diversions and pipelines, and to restore Tribal rights and fisheries in Northern California. We will also discuss how the youth-led movements on the Klamath and Trinity Rivers can be a model for other communities and how Indian education programs can provide models to change school curriculum across California.