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THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, MARCH 22, 2022
Salmon release a step forward for tribe
By COURTNEY FLATT
Northwest News Network
At one of the only remain-
ing undeveloped slices of
land in Spokane, the Coeur
d’Alene Tribe has started to
heal from nearly a century
without salmon in nearby
waters.
With a gentle splash,
tribal members poured
around 530 fi nger-sized
summer Chinook salmon, a
few at a time, into Hangman
Creek. This release could be
one of the fi rst steps in heal-
ing the Coeur d’Alene Tribe,
said Hemene James, a coun-
cil member with the tribe.
“We weren’t farmers.
We relied on the salmon to
sustain us, our bodies, our
minds and our spirits, for
tens of thousands of years,”
James said. “It’s only been
100 years or so since we
were those people.”
In 1910, the construction
of Little Falls Dam blocked
fi sh from reaching habitat
on the Spokane River. What
James called giant walls
continued with the construc-
tion of Grand Coulee Dam in
1942. The dam cut the upper
Columbia River tribes off
from the salmon.
However, the upper
Columbia tribes have started
a decadeslong plan they
hope will one day reestablish
salmon above Chief Joseph
and Grand Coulee dams.
“We are starting one
of the largest opportuni-
ties to recover salmon in
the Columbia River basin.
We’re talking about thou-
sands of miles of stream and
river habitats that can sup-
port salmon production,”
said Tom Biladeau, a biolo-
gist with the Coeur d’Alene
Tribe.
Reestablishing salmon
on the upper Columbia
These salmon released at
Hangman Creek will provide
some of the initial informa-
tion biologists need to fi gure
out how salmon will one day
Courtney Flatt/Northwest News Network
Coeur d’ Alene tribal members Bobbie White, left, and Vince Peone get ready to release young summer Chinook salmon into
Hangman Creek.
survive in the blocked areas.
Of the fi sh that were
released,
researchers
implanted 80 fi sh with
acoustic tags that are slightly
larger than a grain of rice.
The tags will ping at each
dam the salmon pass, help-
ing researchers track the
downstream journey of the
fi sh.
It took the tribe around 18
months to rear these salmon,
which were spawned from
adults at Entiat National
Fish Hatchery and grown at
the reservation in Plummer,
Idaho, Biladeau said.
Eventually, the tribe
would like to establish a
hatchery at this release site in
Spokane, part of the tribe’s
aboriginal land, said Caj
Matheson, natural resource
director with the tribe. The
tribe acquired the 48-acre
Pilcher property in 2021 so
that it wouldn’t be devel-
oped into a housing project.
The fi rst fi ve dams the
salmon will encounter don’t
have any type of fi sh passage
system in place.
That means the salmon
released into Hangman
Creek will swim over the
tops of three dams or through
the dams turbines on their
journey down the Spokane
River.
In the fi rst 24 hours, the
salmon should make it past
Nine Mile Dam, the fi rst
dam on the Spokane River
roughly 25 miles from the
release site, Biladeau said.
Then, they’ll eventu-
ally have to make it through
Grand Coulee Dam, where
more than 95% of the salmon
will most likely head down-
stream through turbines, he
said.
Swimming through the
turbines won’t lead to a high
survival rate, Biladeau said.
Turbine blades can strike
fi sh. Fish also can face swift
pressure changes, which lead
to something like the bends
human divers can get when
they surface too quickly. In
addition, water shear can
injure fi sh when waterways
of two diff erent speeds come
together.
“I’m sure fi sh survival
will tell us that that’s what’s
happening,” Biladeau said of
the likely number of deaths
salmon will face heading
downstream.
Planning for safety in
numbers, the tribe scheduled
multiple salmon releases
downstream of each dam
to increase the chances that
more of the tagged fi sh reach
the mainstem of the Colum-
bia, Biladeau said.
“Rather than putting
all our eggs in one bas-
ket and releasing them all
here, we want to make sure
that there’s fi sh available to
get us data as we progres-
sively move downstream,”
Biladeau said.
Researchers will con-
tinue to study the data from
tagged fi sh, which they hope
will show them how to even-
tually restore salmon in the
upper Columbia. In Phase 1,
researchers identifi ed poten-
tial habitats for salmon.
In Phase 2, researchers
will begin to test the success
of each habitat, Biladeau
said. This release marked
the fi rst step in Phase 2 of the
decadeslong process.
‘It’s a heart thing’
At the release, a dozen
people lined up along a
steep, rocky embankment.
They passed buckets holding
just a few young salmon to
people waiting in the reeds
near the rushing water.
At the edge of the creek,
Vince Peone, a cultural pres-
ervation technician with the
tribe, helped people pour
salmon into the water.
While Peone may not see
salmon in great numbers
in this creek, he’s hopeful
future generations will ben-
efi t from this release. Right
now, Peone said he has to
travel two to three hours to
fi sh for salmon, relying on
salmon tags he has to buy to
help stock his freezer for the
winter.
He said he hoped that
wouldn’t always be the case.
Then, an eagle soared
overhead. Peone whistled
and looked up at the raptor,
saying the Creator gave him
a sign.
“I’m still shedding a few
tears. The sun’s out, warm-
ing me. It’s all part of Cre-
ator’s plan, I believe. The
eagle fl ies over us — that’s
huge. He’s our messenger.
He’s fl ying over us letting
us know that what we’re
doing is a great thing,” said
Peone, whose grandfather
was a salmon chief at Spo-
kane Falls.
For the Coeur d’Alene
Tribe, this release was
greater than the scientifi c
information they will gather,
Matheson said.
“For us it’s a heart thing.
It’s not a science thing. It’s
not an economic thing,”
Matheson said. “As we all
know, there’s a long history
of an imperfect past when
it comes to Indian tribes in
the United States. I think
that doing things like this
can reverse that,” Matheson
said.
And, James said, it’s not
just for the tribe. Everyone
needs to understand work
like this is for future gener-
ations, he said.
“This is not our domain
to do with what we please.
We need to play our part. We
need to accept our responsi-
bility,” James said.
For now, the tribe contin-
ues to heal from rough times
and atrocities their ancestors
experienced, James said.
This is a step in the right
direction, he said.
“When we do stuff like
this, I know that those old
ones are sitting in camp
across the river, war hoop-
ing, having a big dinner,”
James said. “Because they
know all that they sacrifi ced
was for something. That we
didn’t forget.”
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