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"The Water Remembers": Amy Bowers Cordalis on Healing the Klamath River
Manage episode 522820298 series 3629425
In this episode, co-hosts Dr. Farina King and Dr. Davina Two Bears welcome Amy Bowers Cordalis, a member of the Yurok Tribe and author of The Water Remembers: My Indigenous Family’s Fight to Save a River and a Way of Life (October 2025). Amy discusses her family’s generations-long fight to protect the Klamath River, a vital ecosystem and life line of the Yurok people. She shares insights from her book, which chronicles this history and the landmark legal battle that led to the removal of four dams, one of the world’s largest river restoration efforts. The dam removal reopened the river’s flow and revived long-endangered salmon populations.
Amy Bowers Cordalis is a fisherwoman, attorney, and mother from the village of Rek-Woi at the mouth of the Klamath River. As Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Ridges to Riffles Indigenous Conservation Group, she leads work that uplifts tribal sovereignty and advances environmental restoration across Indigenous homelands. A former general counsel for the Yurok Tribe and attorney with the Native American Rights Fund, Amy is widely recognized for her leadership and vision, honored as both a UN Champion of the Earth and a Time 100 climate leader.
Together, we talk about restoration, responsibility, Indigenous knowledge, and how the river “remembers” the care of all its relatives- human and more than human.
Resources:
Order The Water Remembers at Barnes & Noble and other major booksellers
https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/amy-bowers-cordalis/the-water-remembers/9780316568951/
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