{"id":37858,"date":"2025-11-25T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/community.nrs.com\/duct-tape\/?p=37858"},"modified":"2025-12-11T12:19:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T20:19:07","slug":"paddling-as-medicine-the-first-descent-of-the-undammed-klamath-with-paddle-tribal-waters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/community.nrs.com\/duct-tape\/2025\/11\/25\/paddling-as-medicine-the-first-descent-of-the-undammed-klamath-with-paddle-tribal-waters\/","title":{"rendered":"Paddling as Medicine: The First Descent of the Undammed Klamath with Paddle Tribal Waters"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two circles, one within the other, of hands holding, waves crashing behind us. An ocean joyous for the arrival of the native teens of the Klamath River basin. Sweaty palms, squeezing tighter at the words of a Requa elder defining their journey as one of medicine. For 310 miles, the youth of Paddle Tribal Waters<\/a> had spread healing with each paddle stroke down the Klamath River. A feat these remarkable and talented youth have been preparing and training for since 2022.<\/p>\n

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It was the passion the youth exuded about their culture that first drew me in. I come from a small desert town in Northern Arizona, a young Din\u00e9 woman from the Western region of the Navajo Nation. Growing up near the Colorado River and Glen Canyon Dam has led my personal and professional work to focus on the rupturing impacts the dam has manifested in my communities and the land it has devastatingly flooded.<\/p>\n

Being a little desert southwest native, I was eager to spend river time (the most potent time for connection, in my opinion) with my new community of coastal natives, joining the PTW crew for the last two weeks of their source-to-sea odyssey. Here was the chance to see the opposite. A land and people given the chance to heal.<\/p>\n

Upon my arrival, the sense of welcoming, a feeling synonymous with Indigenous communities, was abundant. I work with Native youth across the Colorado Plateau, and was inspired to see the passion for culture continue I got to know these youth from the Klamath River basin. My heart grew while sharing my first meal under the trees with the group. I listened to each youth, in their native language, tell the story of who they are and where they come from, the tradition of introduction we carry on from our ancestors. That night, I went to bed dreaming of the acorn stories embedded in this land and its people.<\/p>\n