Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission Fall 2010 NWIFCnwifc.org News Inside: ■ Surprising Sockeye Fishery ■ Seeking Native Olympias ■ Junior Scientists Shine ■ Tribes Restore Estuaries ■ Prepping For Elwha Dam Removal ■ Clam Bed Enhancement 1 Being Frank NWIFC News Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission Strength in Sharing 6730 Martin Way E. By Billy Frank Jr. Olympia, WA 98516 NWIFC Chairman (360) 438-1180 From bear grass to huckleberries to cedar and more, it’s get- ting harder and harder for the treaty Indian tribes in western NWIFC News is published quarterly. Free Washington to find and access natural resources that are cen- subscriptions are available. This edition is tral to our culture. also online at nwifc.org. Articles in NWIFC We need the traditional foods, News may be reprinted. medicines and materials that make us who we are. Like salmon, shell- NWIFC Chairman fish and wildlife, these things are part Billy Frank Jr. of us as Indian people. They were so important to us that we reserved our Executive Director right to gather them when we signed Mike Grayum treaties with the U.S. government. Traditional foods are especially Information and Education Services important to Indian people today. Al- Division Manager most every one of us knows a person Tony Meyer or a family who suffers from diabe- tes or some other illness – a lot of the Regional Information Officers time caused by a lack of traditional Debbie Preston, Coast foods in our diet. Emmett O’Connell, South Sound Our weavers, carvers and other artists work to help keep our Tiffany Royal, Hood Canal/Strait of Juan de Fuca Kari Neumeyer, North Sound culture alive, but they are having a difficult time finding the materials they need. Cedar trees are disappearing to develop- Editorial Assistant ment while other important plants are being damaged or killed Sheila McCloud by pollution. We are encouraged by recent meetings with National Parks NWIFC Member Tribes: Hoh, Service officials to discuss how we can access park lands to Jamestown S’Klallam, Lower Elwha Klallam, exercise our treaty gathering rights. Tribal access today is lim- Lummi Nation, Makah, Muckleshoot, ited and varies from park to park. We are committed to work- Nisqually, Nooksack, Port Gamble ing with the National Parks Service to ensure proper manage- S’Klallam, Puyallup, Quileute, Quinault ment of these lands so that we can return to places where we Indian Nation, Sauk-Suiattle, Skokomish, have always harvested. Squaxin Island, Stillaguamish, Suquamish, Out on the coast, the Makah Tribe recently celebrated a 600- Swinomish, Tulalip and Upper Skagit year-old cedar tree they received from the state Department of Natural Resources through the non-profit Potlatch Fund. The Tribal contact information is available tree was growing on state land outside the tribe’s reservation under Member Tribes at nwifc.org. but within the Makah traditional gathering area. That big cedar tree is us. All of us. And it’s teaching us about Follow us on Facebook: facebook.com/nwifc sharing. Sharing makes us all stronger. and on Twitter: @NWIFC In July, the Makah shared gifts created from the giant tree at the Tribal Canoe Journey in Neah Bay. This annual celebra- tion of our culture is hosted by a different tribe every year, and many of those who make the trip travel in cedar canoes. It is the nature of Indian people to share. We have shared our land, water and other resources since the first non-Indians ar- rived in this region. Today we need that same kind of sharing On the cover: Major Smith, foreground, wel- so that we can continue to harvest the natural resources that comes the Tulalip canoe, Salish Spirit, to Neah Bay as Roy Pablo, in red, sings an arrival song keep ourselves and our culture alive and strong. during the Tribal Canoe Journey. D. Preston 2 FRASER RIVER SOCKEYE LargestBut one huge Return run doesn’t make in up Nearly for decades ofa poor Century fishing A massive run of Fraser lion sockeye, but fell short River sockeye salmon this of their total allocation of the year provided a dream fish- enormous run. ery for tribal fishermen, but “It was a once-in-a-lifetime can’t begin to make up for fishery for many of our fish- decades of poor returns that ermen, but we couldn’t catch have devastated the tribal all of the fish in our alloca- fishing economy. tion,” Loomis said. “After More than three times as nearly two decades of little many sockeye returned to the to no fishing on Fraser River Fraser as were expected, but sockeye, we have lost quite a tribes were unable to reach few of our tribal purse sein- their harvest goals because of ers.” a diminished fishing fleet, de- The larger purse seine ves- layed realization of the run’s sels are the most effective magnitude, the diversion of means of catching sockeye, the run through Canadian but they are more expensive waters and overloaded pro- to operate than smaller gillnet cessors. boats. The run of 34 million sock- “The best season I’ve had eye was the largest since before this was a third of what 1913, but is not a sign of a I caught this year,” said Lum- resurgence. mi fisherman Carl Lane. Lane “Based on the informa- has relied on crab and chum tion we have, we expect poor fishing during slow sockeye sockeye returns for the next years to keep his purse seiner three years,” said Lorraine Marathon in operation. Loomis, Swinomish fisheries “I’ve never seen this kind manager and tribal represen- of fish in my life,” he added. tative to the Pacific Salmon “I don’t expect we’ll ever see Commission, which manages anything like this again.” the Fraser sockeye run for the A cautious conservation United States and Canada. management approach to K. Neumeyer Last year, fisheries in the the fishery also contributed Suquamish tribal fishermen use a purse seine to catch Fraser River United States and Canada to the tribes’ not harvesting sockeye salmon in the San Juan Islands in August. were canceled after only 1 their full share. The returning million of the forecast 10 mil- sockeye were running about a land are harvested primarily overloaded,” Loomis said. “It lion Fraser sockeye returned. week later than expected, and by Canadian fishermen. took a lot of time to unload Nine treaty tribes in west- it took several days to gauge Early in the season, most the sockeye, which meant ern Washington have trea- the enormity of the run. By of the sockeye returned to less time for fishing.” ty-reserved rights to catch that time, the window of har- the Fraser River via the Treaty tribal fishermen Fraser River sockeye in vest opportunity for the tribes west coast of Vancouver Is- haven’t caught more than 1 U.S. waters before they mi- was reduced. land, but by the time fisher- million sockeye since 1993. grate upstream. They are The late timing was com- ies managers were certain of In 2007, the catch was fewer the Jamestown S’Klallam, pounded by the run’s diver- the run’s magnitude, most of than 6,000 fish. In 2008, there Lower Elwha Klallam, Lum- sion rate. Sockeye that mi- the fish had diverted through was a federal declaration of a mi, Nooksack, Makah, Port grate along the west coast of Johnstone Strait on the east fisheries disaster, and Fraser Gamble S’Klallam, Suqua- Vancouver Island are harvest- coast. sockeye tribes and state com- mish, Swinomish and Tulalip ed by treaty tribal and non- Another hindrance was the mercial fishermen were allo- tribes. Indian fishermen in western time it took to offload boats cated $2 million to compen- This year, treaty tribal fish- Washington. Fish returning at fish processing plants. sate for the loss of income. ermen caught about 1.2 mil- along the east coast of the is- “The fish processors were – K. Neumeyer 3 TRIBAL CANOE JOURNEY Makah Proudly Displays Whaling Culture Tribal members share with others their pride and history D. Preston (3) Left: A woman dressed in regalia takes pictures of the canoes coming to the beach in Neah Bay dur- ing the Tribal Canoe Journey. Above: Makah tribal member Evan Bowechop, one of four dancers who emerged from the Makah whale puppet, dances for the hundreds of spectators during the final day of the Tribal Journey. ith thunderous applause ringing in his ears, Makah tribal councilman Micah McCarty meditated inside the Wstifling heat of a 30-foot-long whale puppet. He and three other Makah dancers inside the whale had to keep their focus on what was about to come. The event was the culmination of have our treaty right honored.” crowd roared its approval, the whale’s a week-long celebration of the 2010 Once the massive wood and fabric mouth opened and one by one, dancers Tribal Canoe Journey in July. Eighty- whale was wheeled into the perfor- emerged in wolf masks and regalia. six canoes from tribes in the United mance space, tribal members called for Eleven years ago, the tribe harvested States, Canada and a few other coun- the dancers to come out. The whale’s its first gray whale in nearly a century, tries traveled to the Makah reservation tail and pectoral fins moved, the eyes resurrecting a cultural cornerstone and at Neah Bay. rolled, and from the blow hole, a white celebrating a treaty-protected right. The Makah Tribe has always been mist jetted toward the ceiling. As the Since that time, the tribe has fought to a whaling people, and overcome a federal rul- on this night, the tribe ing preventing them from reminded those in atten- ‘We are continuing that course to have our whaling, by pursuing a dance that they still are.