There was a time you could catch tons of salmon in a single day at Kettle Falls, a series of pools cascading into each other on the Columbia River in northern Washington. That was before the U.S. government built Grand Coulee Dam in 1942. After 82 years, in June of this year, the Department of Interior published Historic and Ongoing Impacts of Federal Dams on the Columbia River Basin Tribes, an analysis that explores how 11 hydropower dams on the mainstem Columbia, Snake and North Fork Clearwater rivers have hurt Indigenous economies, cultures, spiritual practices, environments and health. Those historic and ongoing harms include the destruction of important cultural sites like Kettle, as well as Celilo Falls, another ancient fishery that was also a magnificent international marketplace. Dams are also famously driving the basin’s salmon stocks toward extinction. “Of sixteen once existing salmonid stocks, four have been extirpated — Mid-Columbia River Coho, Mid-Columbia River Sockeye, Upper Columbia River Coho, and Snake River Coho,” the report reads. All but five of the remaining stocks are now endangered or threatened.
Indigenous people have long known about the damage dams cause, but to hear the federal government admit it is another thing. HCN spoke to Shannon Wheeler, chair of the Nez Perce Tribe; Phil Rigdon, superintendent of the Natural Resources Department at the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation; and Corinne Sams, who’s on the board of trustees for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and is also chair of the Umatilla Fish and Wildlife Commission and the tribal nation’s representative at the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. Here’s what they have to say about Interior’s report.
These conversations have been edited for brevity and clarity.
High Country News: What was tribal involvement in creating the Interior Department’s report?
Shannon Wheeler: We are the ones that submitted (it) to them. We had already completed this in the 1990s. We revamped it and gave them the newest version over the past eight months, and that’s what they have been working (from).
Corinne Sams: We’ve always been heavily engaged with the Department of Interior, along with the recent Columbia Basin Restoration Initiative, which is now being called the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement, with the United States government. That was solidified in January of this year. Over the last three years, Umatilla Tribe and our staff have worked vigorously to ensure that the United States government understands the impacts and the losses that have occurred to salmon and other anadromous fish within the Columbia and Snake Basin. So we’ve played an enormous role.
“Our lives have changed forever, ever since those (dams) were in.”
Phil Rigdon: The Department of Interior came, and we did a consultation with the federal government on (the report). Our leadership expressed concerns (about) the impacts that the dams have had on our salmon, lamprey, sturgeon and fish species, but also the knowledge of our connection to the Columbia River. Our lives have changed forever, ever since those (dams) were in. But we continue to advocate and go fish and continue to practice our culture and our way of life. This report comes out in a manner that highlights a lot of broken promises to our people, but we continue to push and advocate on behalf of resources that we hope will be returned back to the levels they should be
HCN: Is there anything you think the report gets wrong or leaves out?
SW: No.
CS: No. This is the first time the federal government has ever recognized the true impacts to our people and to our ecosystem in regard to hydro systems, so we’re very optimistic and encourage individuals to read the report, to become informed. Because our ultimate goal is to decarbonize and replace the energy sector, which will eventually, hopefully, replace those hydro systems. We recognize that this isn’t only about fish. We have several other interests in the basin: transportation, recreation, irrigation. All of those components are important, and we don’t want to leave one out. We’re really pushing for everybody within the basin to remain whole.
PR: These reports are important. But sometimes (it’s) tough to understand the heart of it. Our people are still down (there) fishing right now. Our people continue to carry our way. But the report is an important step into highlighting those things that we consider problematic over the history of the dams.
HCN: What kinds of federal actions do you want to see based on this report?
SW: Consideration for breaching of the four Lower Snake River dams.
CS: There’s a billion-dollar backlog on infrastructure and hatchery maintenance, and we utilize those hatcheries as mitigation fish, for the loss of the abundant natural runs. But our ultimate goal is to get our natural runs back to healthy and harvestable levels. We’ve done a significant amount of work and have been co-managing these resources (with government agencies) for decades, but the tribes have been managing these resources for millennia. This isn’t just a tribal effort. This is for all Americans that live within the basin.
PR: There’s Bateman Island Causeway down at the mouth of the Yakima (River) that causes the thermal block that causes enormous problems for juvenile and adult fish migration up to the Yakima Basin. The small things really need to be invested in and done now. Some of these things that have been a problem for a long time are critical. And then to look at the big things, like the Lower Snake River dams, and really come up with solutions. But we also believe it can’t be like it was for us. We can’t leave people behind in the manner that we were left behind, putting the dams in for the energy development. There is a balance here that needs to be achieved through what these reports do, but also what we’re trying to do as a people.
HCN: Do you think any federal action hinges on Democrats winning the upcoming presidential election?
SW: Tribal nations across the country have all had impacts one way or another regardless of what type of administration is in. But I also believe that this administration understands that there’s impacts that the United States has had on its people.
CS: Absolutely. If we see a shift in administration, all of these agreements, all of these reports, become uncertain.
PR: I think it’s not important. Republicans fish, and Democrats fish, too. We need to come together to find solutions. I don’t think we should make it all dependent on who wins an election, but we should be thinking about how we solve long-term problems. The polarization that you see is sad, in a lot of ways, because I don’t think we’re getting to the right conversations. I don’t think we want to go political. I have red-state Republicans advocating for our work in the Yakima. That’s unique because of our partnerships, but also how we’re trying to build trust within our local communities. We’re from rural communities, rural America, tribal people. Sometimes we’re less concerned about the politics. We’re thankful for the Biden administration and the leadership they’re showing in doing these studies. I don’t want to discount that at all. But we want to make sure it’s not dependent upon who gets elected, but that we continue moving forward as a people.
“This is the first time the federal government has ever recognized the true impacts to our people and to our ecosystem in regard to hydro systems, so we’re very optimistic and encourage individuals to read the report, to become informed.”
HCN: Do you think there’s a path here to bringing back Celilo Falls?
CS: When they inundated Celilo Falls, several years after that they did sonograms. And they say the falls are still under there. I think deep in our hearts we always hope to see the return of that fishery, that place. Our ancestors and our old people talk about just the sound alone, the sound of those falls. They miss that sound.
PR: I would love to see that. I don’t want to get our hopes up, either.
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This article appeared in the September 2024 print edition of the magazine with the headline “What tribal leaders think about Interior’s dams report.”
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