News Release
Save California Salmon
On July 7, Vogue Magazine featured Hoopa Valley tribal youth and Save California Salmon Youth Organizer, Danielle Frank, in a fashion spread and story about youth climate activists. Danielle was joined in the photo shoot and spread by Hoopa Valley and Yurok elders and cultural leaders, which took place on the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation.
The story is part of the Future Coalition’s Youth Direct Action Fund Tokala project, spearheaded by creative director/stylist Marcus Correa and photographer Carlos Jaramillo, along with filmmaker Jazmin Garcia.
“Frank is one of many inspiring young people who are the subject of a new series spotlighting a generation of BIPOC climate activists. The climate activism space is a very white-led space,” says Correa. “But POC communities are being disproportionately affected by climate change. There’s so much strength in these communities, and these activists should be getting this celebrity treatment. We wanted to tell their story in a visual way that’s optimistic and uplifting.”
The article highlights Frank’s activism, and focuses heavily on the people of the Hoopa Valley and their connection to the Trinity River, along with the serious threats to their culture and fisheries, impacted by poor water quality from dams, diversions, and climate change. The story also speaks to the hope that Klamath River dam removal brings for the youth of the Klamath and Trinity Rivers, and the need for education reform in California.
Frank told Vogue: “The Trinity River runs through the heart of the Hoopa Indian Reservation, and our home is beautiful — it’s built around the river. We perform our boat dances on top of the river in canoes dressed in regalia. It’s a world-renewing ceremony. It’s meant to balance the good and the bad in the world.”
Vogue wrote, “For the past four or five years, the river has been very unhealthy … She sees protecting Hoopa’s main water source as crucial to her people’s survival — and key for the next generations to flourish, too: ‘We are a piece of the land, and it’s a piece of us; When it’s hurting, we’re hurting.”
Danielle explained to Vogue that her work is not only for the river, but for educational reform. Frank has been part of creating “Advocacy and Water Protection in Native California High School Curriculum” in collaboration with Save California Salmon, Humboldt State University, and local tribes. She has taught the curriculum in Humboldt County and Sacramento area schools, and helps to create and support water protector clubs in high schools. “My long term goals are to see the public education system change, to include the Indigenous perspective. It’s going to take time to change the public education system — it’s rooted in colonization, and full of lies.”
Yesterday, Frank organized the Trinity River clean up with Save California Salmon and the Hoopa Valley Tribe on the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation. Along with cleaning up the river, the clean up featured a raft trip and stops at cultural sites where tribal speakers discussed dam removal and the history of fighting for tribal rights on the Klamath and Trinity Rivers. The clean up check-in was at Pookie’s park on Loop Road between 8:30-11:30 with a raft trip and lunch following.
Story at: https://www.vogue.com/article/a-new-series-tokala-spotlights-bipoc-youth-climate-activists
