The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs has been a leader in conservation and environmental advocacy, both before and after our organization came into existence. Recent victories to stop the building of coal and oil terminals along the Columbia River was in large part due to the efforts of Warm Springs and other Tribes around the Pacific Northwest. Now we have an opportunity to support the Tribes in addressing an important public health issue.
We champion the existing innovative work by Tribal leaders, the Warm Springs Community Action Team, and the MRG Foundation in the creation of The Chúush Fund—an inventive financing tool allowing both the public and institutional funders alike to directly assist the people of Warm Springs in confronting this crisis. And this campaign aims to build upon that work.
Our goals are simple and two-fold: strengthen available financial resources to meet immediate, emergency health needs and advocate for policy solutions needed to help the people of Warm Springs restore their access to and infrastructure for clean water. It is our hope that by collectively raising our voices, we can bring attention to an issue currently getting lost in the blizzard of political discourse.
Water is not only the basis of life, but together it is one of the most powerful forces on our planet, carving the canyons and valleys that make the Pacific Northwest one of the most beautiful places in the United States to live. It’s a basic human right that all who live in the Pacific Northwest should equally enjoy.
Ensuring safe, drinkable water is not a quick fix, as we are seeing in Flint, Michigan. But just as the people across the country took action when they learned of the unsafe water of Flint, we must engage and remedy the water crisis of the Warm Springs Reservation.
I hope you will join us to support the efforts to bring this injustice to light and to an end.
Kevin Gorman
Executive Director
Friends of the Columbia Gorge
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