Original air date: November 14, 2016
Host Taylor Weech interviews Tom Keefe (in the first half) and Destini Vaile (in the second) about indigenous rights to water, the treaties between tribes and the U.S. government, and strategies for environmental protection and restoration moving forward.
Tom Keefe is a lawyer who represented David Sohappy in his 1981 fight against a federal sting operation which culminated after decades of attempts, denied in the courts, to restrict indigenous fishing rights on the Columbia River. He will speak on this experience and on the life of David Sohappy at the EWU Riverpoint Campus on Thursday, November 17th at 5:30 PM in the Auditorium.
Destini Vaile is a Blackfeet tribal member, writer, activist, and filmmaker who has witnessed and documented oil spills and other environmental devastation resulting from fracking on her reservation, which is tied in the interview to the resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline at Standing Rock.
More information on Tom Keefe’s work with David Sohappy is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvvnC3fZDDY and here: https://oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/sohappy_david_1925_1991_/#.WCwA5T-3X3U
Destini Vaile’s work can be found on Vimeo here: https://vimeo.com/destinivaile