In northeastern California, the Upper Pit River undulates through evergreen forests, wet meadows and rugged mountains. It’s part of the snow-fed headwaters of the Sacramento River, the largest river in the state. The Sacramento flows some 611 kilometers (380 miles) to the San Francisco Bay, supporting diverse and unique ecosystems and carrying water to cities and agricultural communities along the way. According to Brandy McDaniels, citizen of the Ajumawi–Atsugewi Nation (Pit River Nation) and an elected cultural representative of the Madesi Band, the river’s headwaters are so clean that people drink them untreated, an important aspect of the Indigenous nation’s cultural practices for millennia. “It’s a pure water source where we drink the water without filtration. We do this in a ceremonial way. We do it in a subsistence way,” McDaniels said. The region is the center of her nation’s creation story. “It’s a really special, unique, interesting, beautiful area that we’ve been using and utilizing since the beginning time, since time immemorial,” she said. “We are the land, and one cannot exist without the other.” Medicine Lake, cradled by the still-active Medicine Lake Volcano in Sáttítla Highlands National Monument, is culturally significant to many Indigenous nations. Image courtesy of Protect Sáttítla. In January, after decades of activism, the Pit River Nation finally saw part of the watershed protected from extractive uses as the newly designated Sáttítla Highlands National Monument. It’s one of the few, but growing, examples of protected areas created in the U.S. in collaboration with Indigenous nations.…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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