Yakama Treaty Rights and Our Salmon
As you have no doubt heard, our Pacific Northwest salmon forecasts are mixed this year – it will not be one of those years of plentiful salmon from spring through fall. Chinook numbers will be fairly good in certain places and during certain run times through the Columbia System, but Coho (silvers) will be largely kaput for 2016. There is a chance that some Puget Sound fisheries will be shut down this year, as a result of a breakdown in negotiations between our Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Treaty Tribes with co-management rights. Given the likely “here and there; now and maybe later” nature of this year’s runs, I have already heard from a few fishers about the impacts of those greedy @#?!$ Indians.
I’ve been thinking that it might be time to get things back into perspective regarding the role of Indian treaty rights in the restoration of our anadromous fisheries.
A bit over three decades ago, Chinook salmon in the Yakima were, for all intents and purposes, gone. Even before that, in 1964, in response to ever-diminishing returns, the four tribes which carried out subsistence fishing in the Columbia System – led by the Yakamas – had voluntarily quit fishing for summer (fall) Chinook. In 1977, they quit fishing for springers. At the insistence of the tribes, commercial Columbia River fishing for summer kings ended in the late 60s, and for spring Chinook in the late 70s. At the time, biologists generally agreed that heavy commercial fishing, poor irrigation water management in spawning areas, and the last of the Columbia Basin dams coming on line had pretty much wiped out the salmon stocks.
Around 1980, many prominent fisheries biologists spoke out for shutting down all salmon fisheries until stocks could be rebuilt. Still, large-scale ocean fishing and non-Indian fishing continued into the 1990s (year-round salmon seasons for anadromous species on the Columbia carried on into the 80s). Ultimately, the growing weight of the increasingly-threatened runs overrode the political PR value of the keeping open seasons, and a lot of fishing came to a halt.
In 1980, the Yakamas were sued by the state to stop any subsistence fishing which they had not already voluntarily stopped – a move seen by many as retaliation for their role in shutting down commercial fishing on the river. The state used an argument revolving around “conservation concerns” to support its case, and all remaining Yakima River tribal ceremonial and subsistence fishing was shut down for two years.
Immediately on the heels of that, the Klickitat Irrigation District announced plans to essentially drain the Klickitat River for its needs, thus wiping out another “usual and accustomed” Yakama fishery. This time, the “conservation concern” argument was used by the Yakamas as they sued to stop the complete removal of the river’s water.
During this same time period, Cle Elum Dam was shut down to preserve irrigation water. The loss of that water virtually destroyed the redds (salmon spawning “nests”) in the Cle Elum and Yakima Rivers, and killed any smolts (salmon young) which were supposed to be moving down river to the Pacific. Bob Tuck, a fisheries biologist for the Yakama Nation, suggested that the Cle Elum could be kept open to protect the salmon redds and smolts, while other dams which did not hover over critical salmon habitat were closed off. In addition to refusing to release the water, the state and feds withheld salmon eggs – future salmon – from the Indians. The tribes sued, putting their tribal treaty rights on the line all the way to the U.S Supreme Court.
Treaty rights of the Yakamas were supported by the courts. Appropriate flows were kept in the streams for the salmon, and salmon eggs were shared. The Indians committed to what is called “gravel to gravel” management, protecting salmon through their complete life cycle. More careful management of impounded irrigation water has proven more than sufficient. After 15 years, the Yakamas’ Cle Elum hatchery facility began bringing back spring Chinook.
Coho were generally gone from the Yakima River and were extinct in the Snake River system. Since the tribes hadn’t insisted on protecting the Coho at the same level as the Chinook, the feds were able to relax the commercial ocean Coho fishery. In exchange, the Yakama, Umatilla and Nez Perce were supported in reestablishing specially-reared Coho smolts in the upper Yakima basin, and in the Clearwater of Idaho. Populations which biologists thought impossible are now returning in most years.
The Yakamas’ fall Chinook release programs in the Yakima continues to be successful, too.
Together, irrigators, power districts, sport fishers and Indians have restored much of the missing piece of the life web to our rivers. And, yeah, many don’t like the fifty-fifty split of surplus salmon between Indians and sport fishers. The bottom line, however, is that without the Yakamas putting their treaty rights on the line, and fighting for them, there would be no future for anadromous fish in the Columbia Basin – and no fish for us to fight over.
Now that I have completed this 900th Friday column for the Daily Record, I feel the need for some field research.
