Honorable Caleen Sisk

Caleen Sisk is the Spiritual Leader and Tribal Chief of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, who practice their traditional culture and ceremonies in their territory along the Winnemem Waywaket watershed in Northern California. 

For more than 30 years, Chief Sisk was mentored and taught in traditional healing and Winnemem Wintu culture by her late great-aunt Florence Jones, who was the Winnemem Wintu Tribe’s Spiritual Leader for 68 years. Chief Sisk's traditional teachings and training come from an unbroken line of leadership of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe. 

Since assuming leadership responsibilities in 2000, Chief Sisk has focused on maintaining the cultural and religious traditions of the Tribe, as well as advocating for California salmon restoration, the human right to water, and the protection of Indigenous sacred sites. She is also currently leading her Tribe's efforts to work with Māori in New Zealand and federal and state fish biologists to return Nur (Chinook Salmon) to the Winnemem Waywaket. 

Chief Sisk is an internationally known speaker on traditional tribal and spiritual issues. She has spoken on diverse topics such as spiritual medicine ways, the spirit of water, climate change, sacred sites protection, and the responsibility of tribal people to honor their tribal lifeway. Chief Sisk is also a leading voice in raising awareness of the poor human rights conditions suffered by federally unrecognized tribes and unrepresented indigenous peoples around the world. She is a regular speaker at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York, where she has campaigned for the United Nations to study the plight of federally unrecognized Tribes in the United States. 

Additionally, Chief Sisk is the Spiritual and Environmental Commissioner for Enlace Continental de Mujeres Indigenas de Las Americas (ECMIA), an international network of indigenous women. She has spoken in defense of sacred natural sites at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature World Conservation Congresses in 2012, 2016, and 2021. 

Strongly rooted in her spirituality and family, Chief Sisk cares deeply for her Winnemem Wintu people and for oppressed people around the world.