INDIGENOUS RESISTANCE w/ Amy Bowers Cordalis and Sterlin Harjo

Name: INDIGENOUS RESISTANCE w/ Amy Bowers Cordalis and Sterlin Harjo
Start: 2025-12-07T19:00:00-06:00
Location: Magic City Books

Schedule

Sun, 07 Dec, 2025 at 07:00 pm

UTC-06:00

Location

Magic City Books | Tulsa, OK

Magic City Books is excited to welcome Amy Bowers Cordalis for a free event on Sunday, December 7 to celebrate her new book, The Water Remembers: My Indigenous Family's Fight to Save a River and a Way of Life. This event will take place at Magic City Books, 221 E. Archer Street in the Tulsa Arts District.
The Water Remembers was published on October 28, 2025, and you can purchase a copy through Magic City Books.

About The Water Remembers
A moving multigenerational memoir of Indigenous resistance, environmental justice, and a Yurok family's fight to protect their legacy and the Klamath River.
For the members of a Northern California tribe, salmon are the lifeblood of the people—a vital source of food, income, and cultural identity. When a catastrophic fish K*ll devastates the river, Amy Bowers Cordalis is propelled into action, reigniting her family's 170-year battle against the U.S. government.
In a moving and engrossing blend of memoir and history, Cordalis propels readers through generations of her family’s struggle, where she learns that the fight for survival is not only about fishing—it’s about protecting a way of life and the right of a species and river to exist. Her great-uncle's landmark Supreme Court case reaffirming her Nation’s rights to land, water, fish, and sovereignty, her great-grandmother’s defiant resistance during the Salmon Wars, and her family's ongoing battles against government overreach shape the deep commitment to justice that drives Cordalis forward.
When the source of the fish K*ll is revealed, Cordalis steps up as General Counsel for the Yurok Tribe to hold powerful corporate interests accountable, and to spearhead the largest river restoration project in history. The Water Remembers is a testament to the enduring power of Indigenous knowledge, family legacy, and the determination to ensure that future generations remember what it means to live in balance with the earth.
About the Author
Amy Bowers Cordalis is a mother, fisherwoman, attorney, and a member and former General Counsel of the Yurok Tribe—the largest tribe in California. Formerly a staff attorney at the Native American Rights Fund, she is the currently the Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Ridges to Riffles Conservation Indigenous Group, a nonprofit representing Native American tribes in natural and cultural resource matters where she works on advancing tribal sovereignty, water rights, fisheries, and the undamming of the Klamath River. She is also the recipient of the UN's highest environmental honor, Champion of the World Laureate and has been named to the second annual TIME100 Climate list (2024), featuring the 100 most influential leaders driving business to real climate action.
About the Moderator
Sterlin Harjo (Seminole/Muscogee) is an award-winning filmmaker from Holdenville, Oklahoma. Now based in Tulsa, Harjo is the creator and showrunner for FX's The Lowdown, a Tulsa noir drama led by Ethan Hawke — a journalist who knows too much. Also known for FX's Reservation Dogs, co-created with Taika Waititi — Harjo was the showrunner for the three-season comedy series following four Indigenous teenage friends living on a reservation in Oklahoma.