The Icicle Calls Us Back is a documentary film project that asks p’squosa/Wenatchi descendants what they wish to see for the future of nsíq̓əlt, or Icicle Creek, in their ancestral homelands, what is today the town of Leavenworth, Washington. The Icicle Fishery was once one of the most bountiful salmon fisheries in the world, and carries special spiritual and traditional significance to the p’squosa. During negotiations of the 1855 Walla Walla Treaty, p’squosa leaders requested and were granted the preservation of the Icicle Fishery and six square miles of land surrounding the confluence of the Icicle and Wenatchee Rivers as a reservation for their people. Despite this promise, the U.S. government put off surveying the reservation for decades, ultimately prioritizing the wishes of white settlers and the development of the Great Northern Railroad. The p’squosa were forcibly removed from their homelands, and today many descendants live on the Colville Reservation, where the Wenatchi are one of twelve confederated tribes.

This film asks three generations of p’squosa descendants what nsíq̓əlt means to them, and to imagine the future they wish to see for their homelands. In an era of climate change and uncertainty, one thing that is certain is that the Icicle’s original stewards know how best to care for this land, and that, together, we can achieve a better future for nsíq̓əlt.

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