Street roots., June 24, 2016, Page 9, Image 9

Commentary
representing other big game, and then the roots
and the berries,” he says.
According to Paul Lumley, Executive Director
of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish
Commission, the oral tradition is that the first
foods made a promise to care for the people
forever as long as the people cared for them in
return. For Quaempts, this teaching is more
relevant than ever.
“There’s ecological and spatial information in
that serving order that we can use to inform our
management,’ says Quaempts. “And we use all
of that to communicate our goals to people so
that they better understand the tribe’s culture,
and why we want to restore these foods the way
that we do.”
Quaempts says
that restoring first
foods can help
la 2 007, the Confederated
provide additional
Tribes e l the U m atilla In d ia n
food security in light
Reservation In Eastern Oregon of climate change.
went a step farther, sh ifting its His office is
entire land management strat­ currently working to
secure a water rights
egy towards the preservation
settlement in the
and restoration of firs t foods — Umatilla Basin that
a transform ation in itia te d and will provide
significant in-stream
.implemented by th e ir Depart­
flows for fisheries,
ment of Naturai Resources.
while also working
to restore river
connections to their
floodplains to create cooler water temperatures
for the fish. Last July, high temperatures in the
Columbia killed over 250,000 sockeye - the
largest fish kill ever recorded in the American
West Quaempts says spilling more water from
the dams can help address these high ; i •
-
t e m p e r a t u r e s ' i n th e future; but th at w e w ill also
need more extensive river restoration work that
re-establishes the rivers’ connections with their
floodplains.
In urban areas, Quaempts says work can also
be done to protect fish habitat and facilitate
their safe passage. And in Portland there are
other groups, like NAYA and Wisdom of Elders,
who are working on native gardens to connect
young people to traditional plants and medicines
under the guidance of elders.
Chief Slockish shares that “in our way, when
the animals were here, before the people were
created, they all said what they would do. Every
Over 6 million people worldwide vote for dignity over poverty
w hen they huv street press, Itv duing so they help vendors
in 40 countries, selling over toy different t hies, to change
their lives. In t eturn, reudet s ejqnv quality, independent
journalism n t d i e hnowlodgc that tl«*j t c made a difference
1
living thing, whether it was a rock, whether it
medicinal plants, the berries, chokecherries,
was a tree, they said what they would do for us.
are located along highways, and the highway
The water was the first one, the most important department comes along and sprays them with
one, ‘cause he was the one that took care of the weed control, so we can’t eat them.”
land, kept it moist to grow our crops, and fed
This loss of traditional foods has also taken a
the people.”
serious toll on people’s health. A 2010 report
The loss of first foods
published by the Coalition of Communities of
The destruction of the region’s traditional
Color and Portland State University reported
foods followed the cultural and dietary pride of
that more than 20 percent of Multnomah
“land hungry” settlers. In 1912 the ethno-
County’s Native community experiences hunger
botanist Melvin Gilmore summarized, “The
on a regular basis. A full 69 percent of Native
people of the European race in coming into the
American elders said they don’t have enough of
New Worlds have not really sought to make
the foods they actually want to eat, and 11.5
friends with the native population, or to make
percent said they often do not have enough to
adequate use of the plants or the animals
eat at all.
indigenous to this continent, but rather to
The report also notes that diabetes is more
exterminate everything found here and to
prevalent among Native Americans than any
supplant it with the plants and animals to which
other racial ,or ethnic group in the U.S., and its
they were accustomed at home. It is quite
rates have been increasing.
natural that aliens should have a longing for the
This disproportionate burden of hunger
familiar things at home, but the surest road to
traces back directly to the colonial policies that
contentment would be by way of granting
separated people from their traditional foods,
friendly acquaintance with the new
which was also an attempt to replace the gift of
environment”
food with commodities. This was accomplished
Instead of adapting to the local culture,
both by attacking the food sources directly and
settlers were angry-nostalgic - planting the
by denigrating the cultural practices that bound
aggressively invasive scotch broom, an
people to them in mutual responsibility.
ornamental plant from Western Europe, and
Paul Lumley of CRITFC emphasized that the
filling the landscape with cows while forcing
right to all first foods, and the continued access
native peoples to give up their culture and
to them, was reserved in the treaties “most
become European farmers on the wrong
explicitly. And it’s pretty clear in the
landscape (documented extensively in Vine
negotiations that the tribes would never sign
Deloria’s “Indians of the Pacific Northwest”).
the treaties without reserving those rights. It’s
Camas beds in the Willamette Valley were tilled
a reminder that the tribes were not granted
for western-style farms, with people moving
those rights - these were rights that the tribes
directly into the flood-plain and attacking the
already had.”
river in the name of “flood control.” Eventually
This month the City of Portland is hiring a
cows would compete with salmon as the
. tribal liaison0t0-work.with urban Indian
region’s major source of protein. One food
anchored th e region and m ad e th e fo rests grow;
the other farted methane, but reminded settlers
of home. In 1957 the federal government
flooded Celilo Falls behind the Dalles Dam.
Celilo was the oldest continuously inhabited
village site in North America.
Due to hostility and neglect of the salmon - a
keystone species for the Columbia River tribes
- wild salmon currently return at less than 3
percent of their historical abundance.
“The roads go through a lot of our food
gathering areas down in the lower part of the
elevation,” Chief Slockish says. “Nowadays it’s
very hard, where all of our bitterroots and other
communities and fulfill consultation duties with
local tribal governments. This marks the first
time the city’s unique tribal consultation
program will be continuously staffed. One
critical issue that can be addressed through this
program is the advancement of local food
sovereignty - a critical issue to the health of
both our native communities and of the general
public. Committing to the restoration of First
Foods would demonstrate collaboration and
friendship with our local neighbors, and
demonstrate that we are finally willing to adapt
- not only to the local landscape, but to our
rapidly changing and heating planet