Salmon Festival 2012

On August 18th, NAHC staff visited up North (Klamath, CA) for the Yurok Tribe's Annual Salmon Festival. The drive up was long, windy, and toward the end, full of fog, but it was a beautiful drive (on the 101 where the Redwoods and the Ocean meet), and well worth it. The day started out with a salmon run, and ended with an adorable breakdancing competition (it was mostly children under 10 dancing), and in between, as you can guess, there was lots of Salmon to eat.
    
    NAHC had a table out for Healing Circle (our CA technical assistance grant) outreach, and for the Native Youth Wellness Initiative, which is a Native Youth Suicide Prevention grant. One of the requirements for this grant is to have (at least) 500 Native California Youth watch a Suicide Prevention Video that was created and produced by our Youth Fellows (they are part of the Youth Wellness Initiative Team). By the end of the day, 51 Native Youth were able to watch the video, and one of the youth won an iPod touch (The iPod was the raffle prize, which was the incentive to watch the video, but which is also a form of prevention, as many youth feel music is one of their most important protective factors).

    The Yurok Tribe's presence was strong, full of pride, tradition, and an openness to our staff, and to all who attended the Salmon Festival. All day the youth played stick games, and vendors filled the field just outside of the Yurok Community Center. The sun came out around 1pm after burning off the fog of the morning, and everyone went home happy, and full.

Check out this slide show to see some of the beautiful people and land up North...

(Click Below to See)