Traveling Waters Water Bottle

Five migratory fish swim across a woven sea—can you name them all? Chinook salmon, smelt, white sturgeon, herring, lamprey: these five fish have special significance. "Obviously all fish are important," shares Shirod Younker (Coquille/Miluk Coos/Umpqua), designer of our Traveling Waters Water Bottle, "but the five shown on the Traveling Waters Water Bottle are a few that are important to the survival of my people." Most of us are familiar with salmon and herring, and perhaps even smelt and sturgeon, but the surprise addition to Shirod's design is the lamprey. This ancient fish (scientists estimate lampreys are over 400 million years old!) is endangered here in the Pacific Northwest, and is an important food source to many area tribes. Lampreys are of particular importance to Shirod. "I am enrolled with the Coquille Indian Tribe," says Shirod, "and although the current spelling is French, our name has a much older origin. The Coquille River was known for its mass migration of lamprey, w