The Water Remembers Book Club
On March 5, the Native FEWS Alliance held its first of three book club discussions of “The Water Remembers: My Indigenous Family’s Fight to Save a River and a Way of Life” by Amy Bowers Cordalis. The author, who is a member of the Yurok tribal nation of California, wrote the book as part-memoir and auto-ethnohistory following Yurok storytelling and reflects the inherent sovereignty of the Yurok people.
In the first book discussion, members of the Native FEWS Alliance shared their thoughts on the first part and chapters 1-4 of the book and Yurok story of Indigenous resistance and fight to protect the Klamath River who is “a main character in this book as it is an ancient relative.”
The Klamath River has been home to five Indigenous nations—the Yurok, Karuk, Hoopa Valley, Shasta, and the Klamath Tribes who have lived in relationship and care for the river since time immemorial. The Klamath River Basin, stretching from Southern Oregon to Northern California, is a region of Indigenous cultural significance and includes numerous other ancestral areas.
The Yurok who have practiced a subsistence lifestyle of fishing, hunting, gathering, and living on the lower Klamath River fought for their right to not only fish on the river but to protect the salmon for what they have believed is also their ancestral responsibility. Yet within half a century, between 1905-1962, the federal government interrupted their cultural lifeways and built four dams on the Klamath River in traditional Yurok homelands.
The ancient river ecosystem was destroyed when the four dams obstructed access to traditional fishing sites and Yurok responsibility to protect the salmon. Within this short time the four dams not only blocked salmon and other anadromous species access to spawning habitats and natural cold-water springs, the dams prevented sedimentary flows which also increased water temperatures that created toxic algae. For the Yurok and Amy’s family, the fight to protect the salmon and river was an ancestral calling and remembrance of the sacrifices made by generations before of Yurok people. The four dams led to the extinction of natural salmon habitats and devastated their traditional fishing practices.
After the first discussion, on April 9th, the Native FEWS Alliance was honored to host the author online where she shared personal experiences of how long the fight had been happening since before she was born. Her family’s legacy to protect their right to fish, hunt, and gather in usual accustomed places was a grounding factor in her decision to pursue a law degree.
As she shared about working for her tribe and meeting former Secretary of the Department of Interior Deb Haaland before she was appointed Secretary, Amy shared the breachment of the four dams brought a story full circle for her as she recalled the immense feeling and pride of standing with another Native woman in the fight to protect Indigenous fishing rights.
The Native FEWs Alliance book club will be hosting its third discussion on April 30, 2026 and discussing the third part of the book on how this victory of the Yurok nation created hope for their future generations and resulted in Indigenous youth from throughout the Pacific Northwest floated a free flowing Klamath River in the summer of 2025.