Why We Blew Up Four Dams — and Saved a River | Amy Bowers Cordalis | TED

In the beginning, there were shapeless spirits roaming the universe. And they went to the creator and said, "We are lonely. Please help us." And the creator said, "I will make you a place to be together, on one condition. You must take care of it." The spirits agreed. And the creator made the Earth and sent the spirits down to the Earth to become land and water, plants, animals and humans, making everything on Earth alive. The creator told my ancestors, "You will never want for anything, so long as you live in a balance with the natural world. Never take more than what you need. Give thanks. And protect what gives you life.” That is a version of my nation, the Yurok tribe's, creation story.

It's not spiritual parable. It's a set of instructions. Simple, practical rules about how humans are meant to live on Earth. I want to tell you a story of loss, resilience and victory, and what it means to remember. Since time immemorial, my nation has lived by these instructions. The lower Klamath River, in what is now known as Northern California, is our home and our lifeblood. Under our stewardship, the Klamath salmon runs grew to be the third largest in all the continental US. We had an abundant fishing way of life, caring for all that gave us life. Then in the 1800s, everything changed. Newcomers arrived, and they viewed our world through the lens of extraction: gold, timber, water, land and people.

The balance was disrupted, and suffering ensued in this place. By 1910, over 90 percent of California's Indigenous population had been slaughtered. It was genocide. By the 2000s, the Klamath River, our ancient relative, had been transformed by dams, habitat loss, water diversions and warming polluted waters. The dams, built without fish passage, blocked the salmon from accessing over 400 miles of historical spawning grounds. Our salmon runs fell to five percent of their historical abundance. The hydropower from the dams wasn't green either. The reservoirs behind the dams emitted methane, the equivalent to 64,000 cars a year on the road. In 2002, the legacy of colonization produced a horrific outcome.

Over 70,000 adult salmon died on the Klamath River within the Yurok Reservation, the largest salmon kill in US history. I was working for tribal fisheries that summer, and the salmon died for two weeks. By the end of it, their bodies lined the banks of the river, and the river looked and smelled like a war zone. Standing in a Yurok tribal fisheries boat, I recalled a Yurok myth. If the Klamath salmon die, so too will the Yurok people. Because our purpose, our way of life depends on those salmon. Was I witnessing the end? In that moment, I felt my great grandmother move through me like electricity. I feel it now. And she told me, "It's your turn to fight." And my response? I'll go to law school to prevent this kind of ecocide from ever happening again.

Now I did not know a lawyer, and I thought they were all rich and famous. But that's what I did. And I became my nation's general counsel, the first tribal member and woman to do so. Thank you. (Cheers and applause) And then I cofounded, with Molly Myers, a real tough Karuk activist, the Ridges to Riffles Indigenous Conservation Group. And we moved money and power to better serve the river. And that was important. The fish kill triggered our duties as Indigenous people to share the original instructions and work to renew the balance. Indigenous peoples on the Klamath were the first to call for dam removal. People thought it was impossible. A dam removal of this scale had never been done before. Powerful corporations, some of the richest corporations and industries were against us.

They said removing the dams would release toxic sediment and destroy the river for good. The odds were against us. But we had something they did not. The original instructions, thousands of years of traditional knowledge, ancient legal rights, vested in the US Constitution as the supreme law and our duties and responsibilities to the river, its creatures and our people, making the Un-Dam the Klamath Movement an unstoppable Indigenous force. Yeah. We protested. (Applause) There we go, guys, come on. (Cheers and applause) We protested. We built coalitions between Indigenous nations, the Karuk, the Hoopa, the Klamath tribes, commercial fishermen, NGOs and states and farmers. We litigated. We asserted the tribes’ reserved rights and combined them with modern environmental power and energy law.

We won on almost every count. Yeah. (Cheers and applause) And the power company was required to install fish ladders to continue to operate the dams. Empathy overcame fear. And perhaps for the first time, we shared the original instructions with the newcomers, and they accepted their shared responsibilities to work to renew the balance. With our allies and our former enemies, we found a common interest. It was cheaper to remove the dams than it was to install the fish ladders. Yeah, right? Yeah, there's that common interest. So we worked together to find a path forward, to restore the river and the balance. And the outcome was historic. A 500 million-dollar settlement agreement for dam removal that equally valued the rights of nature, business and Indigenous peoples.

And it produced the world's largest salmon restoration project in world history. Yeah. Feel that, like, oh my God. And also the largest US dam removal project in history. In 2023 and 2024, we removed four dams on the Klamath River, and restoration across thousands of acres has already begun and will continue through 2028. I stood among tribal leaders when the first dam was breached through a series of explosions. The explosion released a freedom wave, a surge of water into a stretch of river that had been dewatered for more than a century. (Applause) The water moved with such force and confidence, knowing exactly where to flow and how to go, and it seemed to declare, "Do not call this a comeback, I have been here for years."

(Cheers and applause) Later, at Iron Gate, the lowest dam, an excavator scooped some final dirt from the dam and the water began to go over the structure, first as a sparkle, then as a ribbon, and then the river reconnected with itself for the first time in 100 years, in a brilliant stream of prosperity. Three days later, the salmon came home and went past historical spawning grounds not accessed in 100 years. The salmon remembered. (Applause) They remembered. Many did not think that the river could heal, but its recovery has been remarkably rapid. A year after dam removal, the river is cleaner and colder and fiercer and smells sweeter than I have ever known it to be.

And the salmon, they are literally jumping for joy. And if I wasn't wearing heels, I would jump for joy too. The first year, about 7,000 salmon passed the former dam site. In 2025, 13,000 salmon passed the former dam site and went further into their historical spawning grounds they'd been denied. The many Indigenous peoples of the Klamath, whose relationship with salmon had been severed by the dams, are welcoming the salmon home and returning to their homelands in historic, trend-setting land-back efforts. The Yurok tribe and many other tribes are employing tribal members and non-members, providing living-wage jobs, restoring land in the river. These crews have planted -- get this -- 20 billion native seeds, bringing back -- yeah, yes, -- 20 billion native seeds.

And look at these poppies, aren't they gorgeous? These new ecosystems are bringing back plants and animals, foods and medicines that anchor Indigenous cultures into the future. And these ecosystems have the potential to prevent 800,000 metric tons of CO2 a year over time. Yeah. (Applause) So I know many feel that there is no hope for a future on planet Earth because the Earth is too out of balance, too sick. And in that sense of urgency is real. But on the Klamath, the river and all life it supports are remembering how to be in balance. And this project has helped us remember an important truth. We can heal nature, and when we work with it, it works with us.

And it starts with believing in yourself. So I want you all to remember that what you do matters. What you do with your life force makes a difference. Treat Indigenous rights not as obstacles to progress but as critical to it. Build mutually beneficial solutions to complex problems. Value ecosystem restoration as a strategic priority to the most pressing problems of our time. When we do that, balance is restored, life returns and so does hope. (Speaking in Yurok) Thank you. (Cheers and applause)