Con[ffljffl....... ----------------- SPRING 2007 No. 59 Dear Reader nevicably, people will ask: why try SPECIAL ISSUE: IN DEFENSE OF SALMON to save the salmon? It's a question BETRAYALS OF TRUST: DECEPTIVE GOVERNMENT AGENCIES ROB RETURNING THE COLUMBIA'S SALMON TO CANADA .......•.• 14 I that implies that it's not possible. TRIBES OF THEIR SALMON. CULTURE AND ECONOMY . • . • . 3 The answer is complex. The law, Do THE LEGENDARY "JUNE Hoos" STILL EXIST? .•.•....•.• 15 federal treaties and or own moral com• 0vERFISHING. DAMS LED TO TRIBAL POVERTY 4 pass require salmon restoration. Too HANFORD REACH0S DEATH TRAPS: WILD CHINOOK DIE BY THE MIL• many communities rely on the salmon 13 MOST ENDANGEREDSALMON RUNS IN THE CoLUMBIA BASIN .. 5 LIONS IN THE DESERT SUN? .•.............•••.......• 15 to simply forget about them and walk away. The salmon is a big part of who FISHING AND CONSERVATIONCOA LITION SEEKS DAM FEDERAL DAM Two ELDERS RECALL LIVE. FISHING AND THE LOSS OF CELILO: we are in the Northwest. To continue BREACHING STUDY ............•....•.........•...... 6 BRUCE JIM ......•.•........•••.....•......•..•• 16 to destroy them destroys a part of us. CHIEF TOMMY THOMPSON ....•..•.•.....•....•.•.•.• 17 Some say that the forces of global BONNEVILLE'S ATIACKS ON FISH PASSAGE CENTER BEGAN IN THE warming and changing ocean condi• 1980s 8 tions work against finding a soluton. In 8USH0S SHELL GAME THREATEN WORLD'S LARGEST SOCKEYE RUNS: .............................................. 18 fact, global warming requires us to do BONNEVILLE'S LONG HISTORY OF STIFFING THE SALMON 9 worker harder for the salmon. PACIFICORP BACKS AWAY FROM DAM REMOVAL ON THE KLAMATH The powerful political and econom• THE BENEFITS OF RESTORING SNAKE RIVER SALMON 10 RIVER .................•........•...•.••••••.•.• 19 ic forces that control the Columbia River would like the salmon to solve GAGGING THE SALMON-COUNTERS · • · · · · · · · · • · · · · · · · • · · · 11 EDITORIAL: CELILO 50 YEARS LATER ...........•..•.•.• 20 the problems themselves. One large industry group, the Northwest River THE CoLUMBIA0S DEADLIEST DAMS 12-13 RESOURCE DIRECTORY .....•....•.•••.•.....•.•.••.. 21 Partners, falsely claims the salmon are doing fine. Members include Portland General Electric, Pacificorp, Puget Sound Energy and Tacoma City Light. The full list of entities who belong to this group is at www.nwrivcrpartners.org. We urge all of our readers to ask these companies to gee behind restora• tion of the salmon, even if it means removing some small dams. Readers should also contact mem• bers of Congress and request a full investigation of the continuing obstruction of salmon recovery by the Bonneville Power Administration, Cover Photo: Tribalfis hing at Celilo Falls, 1955. Above: Fish ·ladder at Ice Harbor Dam on the Snake. NOAA Fisheries and President Bush. Photos courtesy Army Corps of Engineers We are deeply grateful for the sup• port provided by the Seven Generation Fund and the Ford Foundation, Samantha Campbell and the Keith Campbell Foundation, and hundreds of our readers whose dona• tions helped make this report possible. Some of those readers arc Holly 2004 John B. Oakes Award for the Nation's Best Environmental Journalism D'Annunzio, Charles Simenstad, Editor/Publisher Paul Koberstein Debbie Lukas, Robert Stoll, John Sherman, Charles Ray, Robert Davies, [email protected] BOARD OF Marshall Goldberg, Steven Herman, Operations Manager/Publisher Robin Klein ADVISORS Robert Amundson, Daryl Parker, John [email protected] · Hilary Abraham, Portland, Ore. Reynolds, Nelle Tobias, William Design Cascadia Times Susan Alexander, San Francisco, Calif. Wessinger, Linda Park, Jeanne Peter Chilton, Pullman, Wash. Norton, O.W. Wiegand, William Booth Cascadia Times is published by Cascadia Times Publishing Co., Ellen Chu, Seattle, Wash. and Vivian Webber. Wethank you all! 25-6 Northwest 23rd Place, No. 406, Portland OR 97210- David James Duncan, Lolo, Mont. 3534. Subscriptions are $30 per 5 issues, $56 for IO issues. Pat Ford, Boise, Idaho The entire contents of Cascad10 Times are copynght © 2003 Michael Frome, Bellingham, Wash. 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Times makes connections 01 c0.0 across the West. with a broad. ·c Founded 1995 by Paul Koberstein, Robin Klein, and Kathie Durbin. Original designs by Bryan Potier. Q_ V) How to Reach Us bio-regional outlook. 25-6 NW 23rd Place, No. 406, Portland OR 97210 , (503) 223-9036 . www.times.org , [email protected] 0 REMEMBERING 4:ELILO • " n 1855 the Columbia settlers, Celilo produced . River Indian tribes OF more fish than any ocher I began leaving their aboriginal fishing site in traditional fishing the world, at a time grounds, moving upland when the Columbia pro• from Chee-wan-a, or Big TRUST duced more salmon than Water, one of the names any ocher river in the given for the Columbia. world. Today the world's In treaties they had Deceptive government agencies largest hydropower sys• ceded much of their land tem entombs the falls to the federal govern- rob tribes of their salmon, and countless other ment, but had reserved ancient fishing sites the right to fish for along the river. salmon at all their cus- culture and economy Some tribal members tomary places. look forward to the day Decades of misman- By Paul Koberstein when their descendants agement by federal agencies near• can return to Celilo Falls. Others ly destroyed the salmon. At times say the ghosts of the ancient fish• tribes fought each other over the ing grounds should remain undis- · diminishing resource. But today turbed. , these tribes are united in an epic Tribal and non-tribal Coastal defense of their salmon, culture fishing comm uni ties from and economy that are being California co Alaska that rely on crushed by the Bonneville Power ocean catches of Columbia River Administration, the Bush admin• salmon have joined the Celilo istration, the power industry, and commemorations, at least in spir• the Columbia's massive hydro• it, to demonstrate their own aspi• electric system. rations for a day when the river's Their prime tribal fishing place salmon will return for them as was Celilo Falls, 10 miles east of well. The decline of Columbia The Dalles. But SO years ago on River salmon has already devas• March 10, 1957, rising waters tated many of these communi• behind brand-new The Dalles ties. Dam submerged the falls, an "Today, the tribes struggle for a event that is being remembered very small fraction of their this year in solemn ceremonies reserved fishing" rights," says Rob along the river's banks by the res• Lothrop, an attorney working at idents of Celi lo Village and the the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Yakama, Nez Perce, Umatilla and Fish Commission for 'the tribes. Warm Springs tribes who had "The. treaties - the supreme law reserved treaty rights to fish of the land under the U.S. there. Tribal dipnetters catch a salmon at Celilo Falls. Photo courtesy Army Constitution - promised more." Before the arrival of European Corps of Engineers. (Continued on Page 4) ~ ..n a, =;: Celilo once producedmore fish than any other aboriginal fishing site in the .... ii ffl 00 world, at a time when the Columbia producedmore salmon than any other (/) \J-, 5 ()'Q river in the world. Today the world's largest hydropowersystem entombs the tv 0 0 falls and countless other ancient fishing sites along the river. '-J REMEMBERING (EtU.0 BETRAYALS OF TRUST Overfishing, dams led (Continued from Page 3) Indians traded their off-reservation remains law, but it was used by the to tribal poverty fishing rights for $3,500. The treaty Army Corps of Engineers in the early The Huntington Fraud was a fraud; the tribe did not, would 1950s prior to the construction of The ver the decades, tribal access . not, sign such a document. The money Dalles Dam. The Army, seeking sup• to their usual fishingplace s he words "remember Celilo" disappeared, and with it Huntington. port for the dam, told members of the O was often unenforced, usually have become an inspiration to The Huntington fraud not only Warm Springs Nation that the 1867 disputed, and, since the completion of T tribal leaders and their allies treaty disqualified them for compensa• the hydro system, almost fully who see the destruction of the Celilo tion payments for the loss of Celilo blocked, according to a thoroughly Falls fishery as emblematic of a contin• Falls. Ultimately the Army decided co researched book published last year, uing series of betrayals in which the pay a modest sum, but not without The Si'lailo Way: Indians, Salmon and U.S. government has failed to honor its reopening some old wounds. legal trust obligations to the fish, the Law on the Columbia River, by Joseph Huntington clearly wasn't the lase tribes and their rights to catch fish. federal agent to deceive the tribes. Far C. Dupris, Kathleen S. Hall and In the words of the 1855 treaties, the from it. William H. Rodgers Jr. tribes reserved the right to fish at all A Cascadia Times investigation has Destructive fishing practices their "usual and accustomed fishing found evidence that Bonneville and destroyed much of the Columbia's grounds and stations" forever, while the Bush administration are using such salmon runs in the early 1900s.