One year after California state and Lake County leaders declared an emergency for the endangered Clear Lake Hitch (known as “chi” to local Pomo Tribes), more than a dozen agencies are collaborating in an all-hands-on-deck approach to save this culturally important fish, one intertwined with our destiny as Tribal peoples. For millennia, abundant spring spawning runs of chi filled 14 tributaries feeding North America’s most ancient lake. Thousands of Tribal members gathered at Clear Lake to communally hand-harvest and process chi into fish jerky that provided year-long sustenance. Following successive genocides of Tribal communities, countless generations of sustainable fish harvests were erased by five generations of environmental damage: water diversions, invasive species introductions, and habitat destruction.
-Written by Ron Montez Sr., a descendent of the Eastern Pomo Xabenapo village and the Colusa Wintun and an enrolled member of the Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians; and Jeanine Pfeiffer is an ethnoecologist focusing on biocultural diversity: the intrinsic connections between nature and culture.