Upstream: Trust Lands and Power on the Feather River

by Beth Rose Middleton Manning

From Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara lands in South Dakota; to Cherokee lands in Tennessee; to Sin-Aikst, Lakes, and Colville lands in Washington; to Chemehuevi lands in Arizona; to Maidu, Pit River, and Wintu lands in northern California, Native lands and communities have been treated as sacrifice zones for national priorities of irrigation, flood control, and hydroelectric development.

Upstream documents the significance of the Allotment Era to a long and ongoing history of cultural and community disruption. It also details Indigenous resistance to both hydropower and disruptive conservation efforts. With a focus on northeastern California, this book highlights points of intervention to increase justice for Indigenous peoples in contemporary natural resource policy making.

Author Beth Rose Middleton Manning relates the history behind the nation’s largest state-built water and power conveyance system, California’s State Water Project, with a focus on Indigenous resistance and activism. She illustrates how Indigenous history should inform contemporary conservation measures and reveals institutionalized injustices in natural resource planning and the persistent need for advocacy for Indigenous restitution and recognition.

Upstream uses a multidisciplinary and multitemporal approach, weaving together compelling stories with a study of placemaking and land development. It offers a vision of policy reform that will lead to improved Indigenous futures at sites of Indigenous land and water divestiture around the nation.

 

Genres: Nonfiction

256 pages, Paperback

Published October 2, 2018

Reviews

[Natasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

An impressively thorough, detailed, compelling historical documentation of the systematic, consistent, and culturally violent dispossession of Indigenous lands, particularly those of the Mountain Maidu, through the fundamentally paternalistic allotment system (purportedly aimed at returning some stolen lands, but still under government control) and the profiteering development of the Feather River region in northern CA for hydropower, irrigation, and timber. I particularly appreciated Middleton Manning’s attention to ethics in her methods - she discusses how she developed a collection of resources (including maps and online databases) that were shared with affected tribes, but not the general (settler) public. An excellent example of activist scholarship and a powerful anti-erasure project connecting historical injustices to continuing structures of violent settler colonialism.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really interesting book that provided me with a lot of history that I did not know about how PG&E and other power/water entities got their land in the northern Sierras. Actually I didn't even know the names of the tribes in that region. The whole concept of allotments and the disenfranchisement of the community is really breathtaking, especially the fact that the allottees were not allowed to control their own money or make decisions about the land. I am really interested to learn more about the role specifically of conservation and not including indigenous voices or perspectives, and how the existing land trusts operate. It also inspired me to learn more about the Tennessee Valley Authority and water throughout the country. It also really brought home the message of, indigenous disenfranchisement isn't something that was done by our ancestors, it happens every day, right now.