Sierra Club Maine in partnership with the Nez Perce tribe of Idaho, Wabanaki Alliance and the Penobscot Indian Nation will host a screening of the documentary “Covenant of the Salmon People” at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 17, at Brunswick High School’s Crooker Theater in Brunswick. There will be a second screening in Bangor on April 18.
The evening will include post-screening panel discussion focusing on restoration efforts of wild salmon populations, particularly the recovery of Atlantic salmon in Maine. Chairperson Shannon Wheeler of the Nez Perce tribe will be in attendance for both screenings. In addition to the Nez Perce, Wabanaki Alliance and Penobscot Indian Nation, panelists will include the Atlantic Salmon Federation, Downeast Salmon Federation and the Natural Resources Council of Maine.
“Covenant of the Salmon People” is a 60-minute documentary portrait of the Nez Perce tribe as they continue to carry out their ancient promise to protect Chinook salmon, cornerstone species and first food their people have subsisted on for tens of thousands of years. The covenant with salmon is woven into their culture, history and now their modern-day species restoration efforts. The Nez Perce people are the oldest documented civilization in North America, with archaeological sites along Idaho’s Salmon River dating back 16,500 years, according to a prepared release.
The Atlantic salmon, dubbed the “king of fish,” once numbered in the hundreds of thousands in the United States and ranged up and down most of New England’s coastal rivers and ocean waters. But dams, pollution and overfishing have extirpated them from all of the region’s rivers except in Maine. Today, only around 1,000 wild salmon, known as the Gulf of Maine distinct population segment, return each year from their swim to Greenland.
The film screenings are sponsored by the partner organizations and the Maine Community Foundation and Bangor Savings Bank. For tickets and information, visit sierraclub.org/maine/events.
Sierra Club Maine is also hosting Earth Day events on April 20. Visit the organization’s website for more information.
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