More than 100 audience members waited in anticipation.

“Let me see how much snow is out there,” she said, laughing. Cahoon studied the frosty Oval. “I think there’s enough. I think it’s OK. What do you think?”

Audience members turned their heads to face Arleen Adams, an elder of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. Adams nodded, and Cahoon read.

In many Indigenous traditions, there are certain stories — particularly animal stories — that can only be told when snow is on the ground. Winter is considered a safe time because the animals will either be sleeping or, with snow on the ground, their tracks will be visible. The concept emphasizes one of the many ways in which Indigenous cultures and stories are inextricably tied to land and to animal relatives.

Wednesday evening kicked off the Stolen Waters Summit at UM. The first event of its kind, the summit brings together Indigenous water protectors, writers, activists, farmers and artists to celebrate environmentalism and stress the importance of protecting Earth’s natural resources.

While Tara Houska, a prominent Indigenous rights activist, had a last-minute conflict and could not attend Wednesday’s event, Cahoon and Chris La Tray, Montana’s Poet Laureate, shared poems and engaged in a meaningful discussion with audience members about storytelling, water, colonization and art.

La Tray, a citizen of the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians of Montana, invited audience members to think of a typical Western painting — the kind that shows Native Americans living out in the plains surrounded by nothing but tipis and fields of grass.

“Most of those are bullsh*t,” La Tray said. “People have needed to live next to water sources as long as people have been people. … Water is the thing that connects all of us together in a way that nothing else does.”

La Tray and Cahoon shared their own poems about dreams, land and violence and then read work by other artists, including Joy Harjo, the first Indigenous U.S. Poet Laureate, and James Welch, Blackfeet and Aaniiih author.

Cahoon told the audience that she does not use Salish stories in her work unless they have already been written down. If stories are only shared orally, she will not write them. La Tray said that colonization efforts were aimed at erasing those stories in an attempt to erase Indigenous cultures and traditions.

“We reached the point about 500 years ago, where there was pretty much a concerted effort to kill everybody who passed that wisdom down,” La Tray said, referring to colonization and assimilation policies. “It’s important to think about (this) when we consider, what is the source of our wisdom? … Where do we find wisdom? The wisdom is still in the river. The wisdom is still in this land.”

La Tray encouraged audience members to be intentional about forming relationships with the land.

“If you’re there, you fall in love with it, right?” he said. “And anything you love, you’ll want to protect. … Water is life. We cannot live without water. Nothing can live without water. It’s so simple, yet, it is so hard to protect.”

The conference — which was planned by UM Environmental Studies students and Indigenous graduate students — focuses on the Missouri, Columbia, Colorado and Rio Grande rivers, and speakers will discuss traditional ecological knowledge, the legacy of dams on reservations and food sovereignty movements.

More information on the Stolen Waters Summit:

Thursday, Nov. 2

• 10 a.m. Field trip to the “Place of Bull Trout” with Shirley Trahan and Lucy Vanderburg
• 1 p.m. Native students and alumnus discuss experiences at Standing Rock
• 2:30 p.m. Rosalyn LaPier on food sovereignty
• 5 p.m. Screening of “Covenant of the Salmon People”
• 7:30 p.m. Nick Estes lectures on Native resistance and climate change

Friday, Nov. 3

• 10 a.m. Panel discussion on dams on Indigenous waters
• 2 p.m. Panel on food sovereignty
• 4 p.m. Feast, round dance and drumming
• 8 p.m. Celebration with DJ Foreshadow, SABA and Joseph and Dylan Running Crane

For more information, visit stolenwaters.org.