Tillikum River

In the coastal mountains of the Pacific Northwest, what begins as the proposed removal of an obsolete river dam turns into a five-way culture war.

Fueled by casino money and riven with politics from 150 years of exile, the Native people struggling to reclaim their ancestral river are forced to deal with everyone else who also calls the river, its canyon, and the surrounding mountains "home." Loggers, ranchers, river rats, and even pot farmers all square off with the Tillikum as they work to restore their homeland, foodways, language, and traditional religion.

Our hosts on the reservation: Eve, a Native environmental activist hired by the tribe to manage the messy process; and Jack, her white husband, who works in the casino and volunteers with local Search & Rescue. The mysteries pile up from the first page: who tried to blow up the dam in the middle of the night? These latest newcomers?

Tillikum River is rich with details about the ancient Native civilization that arose amid the mountain ranges, old-growth forests, and waterways crisscrossing present-day Oregon and northern California. With a narrative situated on the 4,000-year scale that is the history of the Tillikum, all other claimants are newcomers; and every natural feature in their world - many of them icons we know as something else - carries an original name and story.

The result is a riveting drama about the present-day collision of cultures, and about collective redemption - of a river, a landscape, and a once-disposed people taking back what was always their own.