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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, MAY 21, 2018
editor@dailyastorian.com
KARI BORGEN
Publisher
JIM VAN NOSTRAND
Editor
Founded in 1873
JEREMY FELDMAN
Circulation Manager
DEBRA BLOOM
Business Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN
Production Manager
CARL EARL
Systems Manager
OUR VIEW
A renewed passion for tribal justice
Long path lies ahead,
but there are promising
signs of broader support
T
he Chinook Tribe’s tenacious
efforts to survive as distinctive
original residents of this place
— and to convince bureaucrats of their
legal existence — could form the basis
of an intricate legal tome, a multi-part
television documentary or a tragic opera.
The drama entered a new chapter last
week in the form of a federal court hear-
ing in Tacoma. The legal arguments, as
they often are, were dry and based on
fairly subtle points. But the setting lead-
ing up to the hearing could hardly have
been more interesting.
Newspaper, radio and television
reporters were on hand to record the
scene as Chinook members and doz-
ens of supporters from other Northwest
tribes drummed, sang and spoke in the
courthouse plaza. Once Tacoma’s mag-
nificent train station, it was possible to
imagine the location now serving as a
departure platform for a more just future
for the Columbia River estuary’s iconic
tribe.
Yes, they are a tribe
It has been soundly argued that the
Chinook Indian Nation exists no mat-
ter what the Bureau of Indian Affairs
asserts to the contrary. Having never
surrendered its status as a fully inde-
pendent nation — a 20th-century treaty
having been lost in a maze of red tape
that defies easy description — today’s
Chinook can make an argument that
U.S. and international laws provide
a path toward reparations of historic
proportions.
The Chinook — always good neigh-
bors here at the mouth of the Columbia
— have chosen not to pursue this course
Matt Winters/Chinook Observer
Chinook tribal members used drums to greet the arrival of the First Salmon last year, a
Fort Columbia State Park event of signature importance to the Pacific-Clatsop-Wahkia-
kum county tribe and others throughout the Pacific Northwest.
and instead continue pushing for resto-
ration of legal status recognized by the
Clinton administration. As with other
decisions hurried through in its clos-
ing days, by waiting too late Clinton
officials left Chinook status vulner-
able to attack when George W. Bush
took office. The recognition effort was
left essentially orphaned. It was only a
short time before the Bush administra-
tion’s Bureau of Indian Affairs yanked
the otter pelt from under the feet of the
Chinooks, leaving them back in cold,
unrecognized limbo.
In the abstract, it might seem straight-
forward to get a federal agency to admit
there still is a recognizable and cohesive
group of descendants of the Columbia
estuary empire that greeted Lewis and
Clark. The national publicity accompa-
nying such a step toward righting a his-
torical wrong would be enormously
positive.
But justice and fairness are ane-
mic toddlers when stacked up against
entrenched political and economic inter-
ests. Some other tribes don’t want finite
tribal aid sliced a little smaller to pro-
vide benefits to the Chinook. Non-
tribal crabbers and others fear additional
declines in catches already much dimin-
ished by tribal rights on the Olympic
Peninsula. These are genuine and ratio-
nal concerns, but ones that can be
addressed without perpetuating decades
of injustice against the Chinook, Clatsop
and related tribes.
Not only would formal federal sta-
tus begin healing a longstanding wound
in Columbia River race relations, but
it would also bring substantial federal
resources into local communities in the
form of health care and other services.
It’s important that tribal members will
be helped, as they are our friends and
neighbors, but the help they receive will
raise living standards and economic
prospects for all of us.
It defies belief that this profoundly
significant Indian nation has long been
consigned to the status of non-being by
the manipulations and incompetence of
Washington, D.C.’s oblivious corps of
professional Indian managers. The glo-
rious past of the Chinook people has
brought nothing but ignoble treatment
by the American bureaucracy.
Many steps ahead
Last week’s hearing is only a way
station in terms of the tribe’s lengthy
legal journey. Whatever the judge
decides about allowing the tribe’s litiga-
tion to move ahead, the other side will
appeal. Appellate judges could go either
way. If a legal path opens up to really
obtain a judicial ruling on the under-
lying merits of the tribe’s case, all that
will be subject to additional appeals.
In the complex world of tribal law, in
which considerable money eventually
can be made, patience and deep finan-
cial backing are required.
In much of the nation, the end game
might be a casino — though there is
no present indication that is what moti-
vates Chinook efforts. Many in this area
believe there is much more to be gained
by the Chinook — and all the rest of
us — by pursuing other forms of eco-
nomic development. This could include
everything from sustainable certi-
fied lumber, to forms of licensing and
branding.
Any result ultimately must put
the tribe in charge of its own destiny.
Stewards of this region for thousands
of years before European Americans
came along, it would be interesting to
see them restored to a formal position of
power on the Lower Columbia.
LIFE AT THE BEACH
How to dine in style after a disaster
I
f the Big One hits, make friends with the
chefs.
Perhaps this wasn’t the lesson I was sup-
posed to derive as a judge for the Blue Barrel
Challenge on Saturday, but after tasting what
could be made from just freeze-dried and for-
aged food by the right people, the competition
showed me a post-tsunami Cannon Beach could
be downright delicious.
The cookoff was part of a larger Coastal
Community Festival in Cannon Beach, a first-
time event which centered around promoting
public safety and emergency preparedness. The
actual message was to promote
the importance of the blue
barrel program, which encour-
ages residents to store extra
supplies — like food — out of
the tsunami inundation zone.
The competition included
three chefs: Will Leroux, the
head brewmaster at Public
BRENNA
Coast Brewing Co., John
VISSER
Sowa, reigning Iron Chef
Goes Coastal champion and owner of Sweet
Basil’s Café, and Mayor Sam Steidel, who,
while not a professional chef, is known for his
ability to cook with a cast-iron skillet during
Civil War reenactments.
Each chef was given a pantry full of items
that you would find in an average blue barrel —
such as canned foods, MREs and boil-in-a-bag
rice — as well as items that could be foraged
for in the area, which in this case was rainbow
trout and a variety of edible leaves.
For utensils? A cast-iron skillet, a wooden
spoon and a Swiss Army knife.
Oh, and just in case that wasn’t difficult
enough, it all had to be cooked over an open
flame.
This was my first time ever judging a cook-
ing competition — so please take all of my food
critiques with a grain of salt. But as I tasted
incredibly intricate dishes like quinoa-crusted
trout and a corn salsa with MRE peanut butter,
I couldn’t help but think about how well we
could fare given enough tools and resources —
and how many modern amenities (like regular
knives and dishware) we take for granted.
Bob Neroni, owner of EVOO Cannon Beach
Cooking School, organized the competition to
try and drive home this point in a light-hearted
way.
“The seriousness of (a tsunami) scares us.
When you can bring a little levity to a serious
Will Leroux, brewmaster at Public Coast
Brewing Co., plates a filet of trout for the
dish he created.
Photos by Brenna Visser/The Daily Astorian
Cannon Beach Mayor Sam Steidel talks about components of his dish.
Josh Archibald, executive chef for the Wayfarer Restaurant & Lounge, carries in a secret
ingredient.
subject, it’s easier to digest,” Neroni said.
A slow boil
In 2012, Cannon Beach became the first
city in the county to institute the blue barrel
program. They were promoted as a way to
store and protect valuables out of the tsunami
inundation zone. The program came out of
some safety forums held after the 2011 Japan
tsunami, when a passion for emergency
preparedness was reignited. The barrels went
in tandem with the town’s effort to establish
general cache sites filled with critical medical
and survival supplies.
While Saturday’s competition focused on
food storage, it also suggested people store
items like extra clothing, copies of important
documents, personal medicines and more.
There are about 60 different barrels stored
across three cache sites — a solid number, but
one that has stayed relatively stagnant since
the program’s inception. Mayor Sam Steidel
saw the competition as a way of bringing the
program back into the public eye.
“I looked at it as a good way to get the mes-
sage out and have some fun at the same time,”
Steidel said.
While Cannon Beach is far from the only
community that has done work to relocate sup-
plies and services out of the inundation zones,
blue barrel programs are something specific to
the Pacific Northwest.
“A go-bag is just a backup — what you
would need if were truly left on your own. The
barrel, on the other hand, should have blankets
in there, personal mementos, so if your house
is in the Pacific Ocean you still have those
things,” Emergency Management Consultant
Stacy Burr said. “It’s especially important here,
with no-notice events like Cascadia.”
At the end of the day, the dishes made by
Leroux and Sowa ended up tying for first place,
with each getting a portion of the $350 raised
during the event sent to the charities of their
choice as awards.
Maybe not everyone can cook like profes-
sional chefs in a post-disaster world. But if this
competition taught me anything, putting in a
little more thought into emergency food storage
can go a long way.
Brenna Visser is a reporter for the Cannon
Beach Gazette and The Daily Astorian.