Howdy Friends and Family,
Chuitna River, Alaska is Saved!
Chuitna Coal Mine Defeated
“Our Salmon, our way of life,
and our land are safe.”
Arthur Standifer
Tribal President of the Native Village of Tyonek
It is with great joy I can share the news that after a multi-decade fight, PacRim Coal has suspended their permits on the Chuitna River Coal Project in the tiny Athabascan village of Tyonek, Alaska.
Elder Chad Chickalusion and Dana
PacRim Coal had sought to dig up 13 miles of prime spawning habitat in the salmon-rich Chuitna River, located about 60 miles west of Anchorage on the Cook Inlet. They wanted to dig 300 feet down in the riverbed, rip out the coal, and then dump the rock back in. Needless to say, this would have destroyed the salmon and about everything else in this spectacular pristine river.
It is a huge victory for the Athabascan people of Tyonek, Alaska, for the commercial fishers of the Cook Inlet, and for us all.
At Tyonek Airport
Six years ago I was invited to work as a camp counselor in Tyonek, as an opportunity to see the land and river and to meet and listen to elders in the community who were working to stop the proposed coal mine. My first day in Tyonek I met elder Chad Chickalusion, who spent three hours with me on the beach sharing some of the history of his people. I compiled some of that history into the song Salmon Come Home, which was subsequently made into two music videos, one raising awareness about the proposed Chuitna River mine and the other about the proposed Pebble Mine in Bristol Bay, Alaska.
This year will be my sixth year working with youth in Tyonek as a camp counselor, singing Mosquito Party and Salmon Come Home, and eating S’mores around the campfire. But this year will be a celebration, a new moment of history in the long line of Athabascan resistance to colonialism and the destruction of their homeland.
Summer Camp outside Tyonek, Alaska
Earth Week in the Carolinas!
I’m happy to be heading to North and South Carolina for Earth Week this year. I’ll perform at the Earth Day Festival in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on April 22 and then head to Charleston, South Carolina, for a show on April 27. Show details
here.
East Coast Tour in May and June
I’ll be performing shows from Boston to Gainesville and points in between in May and June. See the left sidebar of this emailing for dates or click
here for more show details.
Hope to see you at one of the shows,
Dana
