Wednesday, November 8, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
31
Tribes hit by White House decision
By Andrew Selsky
Associated Press
SALEM (AP) — The
Trump administration is
neglecting the U.S. govern-
ment’s obligation to build
new homes for Indians whose
original abodes were sub-
merged by dams along the
Columbia River, members
of Congressional delegations
from Oregon and Washington
state said.
The hundreds of tribal
members are living in dilapi-
dated trailers and other sub-
standard housing along the
Columbia River. The prom-
ised new homes haven’t been
built yet even though decades
have passed since the dams
were built. Now a funding
decision by the White House’s
Office of Management and
Budget has put even the prep-
aration work on hold.
In a letter, the politicians
told Mick Mulvaney, director
Office of Management and
Budget, that “the federal gov-
ernment has a legal and moral
responsibility” to maintain
the funding. They urged him
to reconsider his decision.
The letter, dated Friday
and released to the media
on Monday, was signed by
Sens. Patty Murray and Maria
Cantwell of Washington,
Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron
Wyden of Oregon, and Rep.
Earl Blumenauer of Oregon.
All of the lawmakers are
Democrats.
When the dams were built,
starting with the Bonneville
Dam in 1938 and then hydro-
electric dams in the 1970s,
the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers agreed to relocate,
replace or otherwise mitigate
for losses of home and vil-
lages that became buried by
water, said Charles Hudson,
who works with an agency
of the four Columbia River
Treaty tribes.
The Indians and their
ancestors had pulled salmon
and other fish from the
river for thousands of years,
Hudson said. Not only did
the dams submerge their
homes and villages, they
eliminated the waterfalls and
rapids that were trusted fish-
ing spots where the salmon
congregated before leaping
upstream.
Even after the dams
appeared, backing up the
river and creating large pools,
many families stayed along
the banks because fishing was
their traditional custom and
livelihood. They moved into
trailers and other makeshift
housing on plots of federal
land, where they were told
to wait for the promised new
housing, Hudson said.
“No shovels have turned
yet,” Hudson said. “Here we
are 50, almost 60 years later,
and they are still waiting.”
The U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers, which operates
and maintains 700 dams in
America, had recommended
roughly $3 million be spent
on planning for the new vil-
lages, like conducting archae-
ological assessments and site
evaluations, and had received
about half the funds in the
2017 budget cycle, Hudson
said.
But an Oct. 24 letter
from the Corps cited by the
five politicians said most
of an estimated $1.5 mil-
lion has been spent, and
that future work “will cease
until the remaining funds are
received.”
The members of Congress
said they understood that
Mulvaney had denied a
request by the Corps to
shift funding to provide that
remaining $1.5 million.
“We have seen first-hand
the cramped, outdated, make-
shift housing with limited
access to reliable utilities and
restrooms that tribal mem-
bers are living in today. This
is a matter of public health
and safety, upholding treaty
rights, and requires immedi-
ate attention,” the members
of Congress said in their letter
to Mulvaney.
The Office of Management
and Budget and the White
House did not immedi-
ately respond to requests for
comment.
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