‘The Icicle Calls Us Back’ centers p’squosa perspectives on Icicle Creek’s future

LEAVENWORTH — A new documentary screening May 30 at Icicle Creek Center for the Arts centers p’squosa voices as they envision the future of Icicle Creek, a river challenged by resource demands, climate change, and more.

In an era of uncertainty for the waterway, “The Icicle Calls Us Back” highlights the knowledge of the creek’s original stewards and their role in shaping its future. The documentary film project asks eleven p’squosa/Wenatchi descendants what they wish to see for the future of nsíq̓əlt, or Icicle Creek, in their ancestral homelands, where Leavenworth stands today. The Icicle Fishery, once a bountiful, major salmon fishery, carries spiritual and traditional significance to the p’squosa.

The documentary is set in the context of the negotiations of the 1855 Walla Walla Treaty, in which p’squosa leaders requested and were granted the Icicle Fishery and six square miles of land surrounding the confluence of the Icicle and Wenatchee River as a reservation. However, the U.S. government delayed surveying the reservation, and ultimately prioritized the wishes of white settlers and the railroad. The p’squosa were forcibly removed from their homelands. Today, many descendants live on the Colville Reservation, where the Wenatchi are one of twelve confederated tribes.

The film was created in collaboration with the Wenatchi Advisory Group, under a research permit from the Colville Confederated Tribes, as part of Claire Seaman’s master’s thesis under the Department of Geography at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver B.C.

“The Icicle Calls Us Back” will screen at ICCA’s Snowy Owl Theater at 7 p.m. on May 30. Tickets are free, but registration is required. Tickets can be reserved online at icicle.org.

The filmmaker recommends watching “False Promises: The Lost Land of the Wenatchi” prior to the showing. This documentary, which can be found on the Colville Council’s YouTube channel, details the history of the Wenatshapam Fishery Reservation that was promised to the p’squosa people in Article X of the 1855 Walla Walla Treaty. 

Taylor Caldwell: 509-433-7276 or taylor@ward.media