Native American tribe jets to NZ on salmon mission

Cartoon / Peter Bromhead

Two dozen Native Americans have flown to New Zealand on a spiritual mission to ask their fish to return home to California.

The tribal leaders plan to apologise to the chinook salmon - known in New Zealand as quinnat - on the banks of the Rakaia River through a ceremonial dance, the New York Times reports.

Chinook salmon are native to the Pacific but are now scarce in the rivers of northern California, home to the Winnemem Wintu - a tiny, poor tribe.

As the Winnemem see it, their troubles began in the early 1940s when the Shasta Dam blocked the Sacramento River and cut off the lower McCloud River, obstructing seasonal salmon runs and, say the tribe, breaking a covenant with the fish.

The salmon were introduced into New Zealand between 1901 and 1907 and now flourish in the Rangitata, Opihi, Ashburton, Rakaia, Waimakariri, Hurunui and Waiau Rivers.

The Winnemem say the New Zealand fish are descended from eggs taken from the Sacramento and McCloud Rivers, and they want their fish back.

"The spirits came," chief Caleen Sisk-Franco told the New York Times, "and they said, 'You've got to get it done'."

Ms Sisk-Franco said the tribe and the salmon were intrinsically linked.

"What happened to the salmon happened to us. The fish have been diminishing in numbers, and so have we."

The group scraped to raise the US$60,000 ($84,600) for the trip by selling trinkets, soliciting help from richer tribes and fundraising through a Facebook page, said Mark Franco, the tribe's headman.

He had made it clear to the delegation the trip was not a holiday but a mission. "We have a job to do."

The US Fish and Wildlife Service denied the tribe permission to take much of its ceremonial regalia - including hawk, woodpecker and vulture feathers - although its eagle headgear was approved.

Now in New Zealand, the Winnemem plan to meet Ngai Tahu leaders and stage a four-day ceremony starting on Sunday that will culminate with the rare "nur chonas winyupus", or middle water salmon dance.

The Francos say they intend to ask New Zealand authorities if they can take some of Canterbury's salmon eggs - once of California stock - back to the McCloud.

- NZPA