Wallowa.com
OPINION
Wednesday, March 17, 2021
A5
The ‘Roaming Nez Perce’ on a level playing field
MAIN STREET
Rich Wandschneider
O
ur national founding documents talk
about all men being created “equal,”
and many see the history of the coun-
try as a gradual expansion of “all men” to
include black men — 14th Amendment,
1868; women — 19th Amendment, 1920;
and, in 1924, when they were finally given
citizenship in the country that had swallowed
up their native lands, Indians.
But maybe we should look at the play-
ing fields rather than the players. Granting
citizenship to former slaves didn’t stop the
immediate advent of Jim Crow and a cen-
tury of Southern white control of the play-
ing field — the buses, educational and polit-
ical systems, the rich lands and rich parts of
the economy. It took civil rights and voting
legislation in the 1960s to get African-Amer-
icans tenuous seats at the political and eco-
nomic tables. And it took Title IX — in
1972 — to get women voters into medical
and law schools, and, in gradually increas-
ing numbers, into public office. (Although
famous for its impact on sports, Title IX said
that any educational programs that used fed-
eral money had to be equally available to
women.)
The Indian issue is even more compli-
cated, because they were here first, and the
immigrant white Europeans wanted/needed
their land. According to a new book, “Nation
to Nation: Treaties Between the United States
and American Indian Nations,” in the earli-
est days, before nationhood, when Indians
had land and power, and the English, French
and Dutch had goods, guns and diseases,
treaties were negotiated among peers. And
through the War of 1812, when the English
and the new Americans vied for Indian sup-
port, there were two serious efforts to con-
struct Indian states. But the English and
French retreated from America, and the Indi-
ans were left on their own — tribe to tribe
to tribe — to deal with an advancing white,
mostly Anglo-American, population gob-
bling up their lands. Treaties became one-
sided, and quickly abandoned by American
power brokers when more land was “needed”
— or gold discovered. The playing field grew
slippery — but tilted always white.
Anglo-American “Manifest Destiny” was
the intellectual cover for filling the conti-
nent, and once America had filled up, coast to
coast, and had attached Alaska and Hawaii,
the great consolidation and sorting out of its
residents began: The Civil War; Reconstruc-
tion and Jim Crow; and the “Indian Wars”
in the West. Anglo-Americans were joined
by German, Scandinavian, Italian, Pol-
ish, and eventually Asian immigrants. Chi-
nese were imported to help build railroads
— and “excluded” when their labor was no
longer needed. Slaves were freed — and left
in economic bondage as sharecroppers until
they too joined the Great Migration north
and west. Indians were shunted to the side,
on reservations — remnants of their for-
mer lands, or forcibly placed on lands totally
removed from their original lands, but lands
that seemed worthless or of less value to
expanding Euro-Americans.
Our Wallowa lands came late to this
American saga; the Nez Perce here lived as
they had for millennia through the early days
of the nation, gladly found and adapted the
horse to their cultural practices of seasonal
migration, their roamings over great portions
of the lands between the Rockies and the
Cascades. But fur traders found them, and
before them the diseases that passed from
them, tribe to tribe, until in the 1780s great
numbers of Indians vulnerable to white dis-
eases died of them before they saw the white
carriers.
The fur traders did come, and then the
missionaries, the settlers and the gold seek-
ers. The 1855 Treaty, which left room for a
northern railway route, but left the Nez Perce
plenty of land, including the Wallowa, had
to be rewritten when gold was discovered in
Idaho. The 1863 Treaty reduced Nez Perce
lands by 90%, but as there was no gold in the
Wallowa, Chief Old Joseph just refused to
sign the treaty and came home.
Not miners, but white stockmen, having
had a bad year in the Grande Ronde Valley,
spotted grass and brought their stock. Chief
Young Joseph was welcoming, and thought
there was plenty of land for whites and Indi-
ans; but, of course, more whites came, and
the level playing field tilted white. President
U.S. Grant, in a last-ditch effort at fairness
to a people who had always treated whites
fairly, thought the Wallowa could be evenly
divided, and in 1873 proposed leaving half of
the it to the “Roaming Nez Perce of the Wal-
lowa Valley.” The growing white population
weighed in, responded with a petition signed
by over 200 men — and Grant rescinded
his treaty revision. Then there was war, and
Indian exile from this homeland.
In an alternative history on more level
ground, we might be living in a United States
which included the Indian states of “Lenape”
— of the Delaware; and of “Tecumseh,” of
Shawnee and related tribes in the upper Ohio.
And the Nez Perce would still have a
home in the Wallowa.
———
Rich Wandschneider is the director of
the Josephy Library of Western History and
Culture.
An Idaho congressman aims to dump dams
WRITERS ON
THE RANGE
Rocky Barker
R
ep. Mike Simpson is a conservative
Republican from Idaho whose concept
of wildness in the 1990s was going into
the rough at a golf course.
He fought higher taxes and remains a strong
advocate for gun and states rights. But he
changed as he waged a 13-year campaign to
protect the Boulder-White Cloud Mountains in
Central Idaho. He began hiking the area, find-
ing it a place of God. “The streams, the lakes,
the forests are His cathedral, and you don’t des-
ecrate a cathedral, you preserve it,” he said in
2014.
The next year, Congress unanimously
passed his bill to protect three areas of the
White Clouds totaling 256,000 acres, enough
to put him among the likes of wilderness icons
Sen. Frank Church and former Interior Secre-
tary Cecil Andrus. But he wasn’t through.
In 2018, Simpson walked into the meadows
of a stream in Idaho’s Sawtooth National Rec-
reation Area. In the water he saw a 3-foot-long
female salmon that had survived an 870-mile
trip to the Pacific Ocean and back.
He came back to the meadow in 2019,
where he watched a female salmon dig a redd,
or nest, out of the gravel for her eggs. Her tail
was beaten down to the flesh as hook-jawed red
males darted in and out, competing to spread
their milt to impregnate the eggs. It’s the way
it’s been done for thousands of generations.
“These are the most incredible creatures I
think that God has created,” Simpson said. “We
shouldn’t mess with it.”
Yet we have, and $17 billion in fixes later,
salmon are still going extinct because of dams
that block them from spawning.
Simpson recounted the story at a 2019 con-
ference in Boise. Listening were farmers who
ship their grain on barges from Lewiston,
Idaho; Nez Perce tribal leaders; and power pro-
ducers who depend on the four Snake River
dams that block salmon. But how to move the
ball?
Biologists for 20 years or more have said
removing the four dams — half of the eight
between Idaho and the Pacific — was key.
Simpson began the tedious process of meet-
ings — 300 of them — with everyone involved
in the salmon-dam conundrum. He asked:
Could the four dams be destroyed, pulling
salmon back from extinction? Could people
depending on the dams be made whole?
Simpson answered “yes” to both questions
this February by unveiling his $33.5 billion bill:
Power produced by the downed dams would be
replaced, the electric grid throughout the North-
west upgraded, alternatives found for farmers
shipping grain and billions of dollars would go
toward economic development.
Simpson made sure there was something for
everyone in the four states of Oregon, Washing-
ton, Idaho and Montana. There were billions for
improving water quality, and a shift in control
over the dollars that pay for salmon conserva-
tion, from a federal agency to a panel convened
by the states and Indian tribes. The bill would
create the Lower Snake River National Recre-
ation Area, replacing reservoirs with the rapids
of a free-flowing 100-mile stretch of river.
The price for salmon advocates would be a
35-year moratorium on litigation and a license
extension of 35 years for other dams in the
region. This is a high price, as conservation
advances for salmon since the ‘90s have come
about mostly through lawsuits.
But the price is worth the risk. I watched
the Elwha River’s dams come down in West-
ern Washington in 2011, and saw how quickly
the steelhead returned to their former abun-
dance, along with salmon and even birds and
other species.
Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer has
said he plans to carry President Joe Biden’s
“Build Back Better” infrastructure bill through
the budget reconciliation process, to avoid a fil-
ibuster and require only Democratic votes to
pass. Simpson wants his proposal to move with
that bill.
For now, it’s in the hands of the region’s
Democratic Senators: Ron Wyden and Jeff
Merkley of Oregon, Jon Tester of Montana, and
especially Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray of
Washington. One veto could kill the bill.
But Simpson has convinced a powerful
group he’s serious, and President Biden, if he’s
serious about environmental justice, should get
on board, too.
Shannon Wheeler, chairman of the Nez
Perce Tribe Executive Council, told me the
absence of salmon for the past 65 years has left
a void in the landscape and in the lives of the
Nez Perce. Now, he said, “There is potential for
a lot of healing with this legislation.”
———
Rocky Barker is a contributor to Writers on
the Range, writersontherange.org, a nonprofit
dedicated to spurring lively conversation about
the West. He is a longtime reporter for the Idaho
Statesman.
Gardening is an activity with multiple benefits
IT’S ABOUT
HEALTH AND
WELLNESS
Ann Bloom
A
lthough the snow, frozen ground
and ice tell a different story, spring
and warmer weather are just around
the corner, and with the change in weather
comes thoughts of gardens, warm soil and
fresh vegetables. Seed catalogs are already
flooding mailboxes and gardeners of all types
— from beginning to the very experienced
— are beginning to plan their 2021 gardens.
Gardening has many benefits, health and
otherwise. Gardening is a way to get some
of the recommended 60 minutes of physical
activity per day for adults and youth. Raking,
weeding and hauling hoses gets the heart rate
up. Working outside is relaxing and can help
with depression and aids with sleep.
A garden is also a source of fresh produce
during the summer months and beyond. Pro-
duce can be preserved through freezing, dry-
ing or canning. Some vegetables that lend
themselves well to freezing include green
beans, broccoli and corn. Many vegetables
also can be dried for use in soups in the fall
and winter. Herbs also dry well (and quickly)
using a food dehydrator or just left on the
counter. Fruits dry well and can be made
into fruit leathers for healthy snacks. Toma-
toes and other vegetables are also able to
be preserved through canning using either a
water-bath canning method or a pressure can-
ner. For more information on food preserva-
tion methods, contact your county Extension
Service office or visit the Extension Ser-
vice website at www.oregonstate.edu/fch/
food-preservation.
Gardening can be educational in teaching
children about the life cycle of plants and the
importance of composting in adding nutrients
back into the soil. Children can plant seeds,
water and pull weeds from garden beds.
They can be taught the whys and how-tos of
thinning and, when the vegetables are ripe,
how to harvest. Children also can learn sim-
ple preparation methods in the kitchen, from
washing and drying the lettuce for a salad to
shelling peas and snapping the ends from the
bush beans.
Will this be the year you plant pole beans
or try Zebra tomatoes? How about that new
variety of zucchini, or will it be three types
of basil for a new twist on your favorite pesto
recipe? Is this the year you experiment with
parsnips? Whichever way you go, maybe
Oregon State University can help.
For the second year, OSU is running
the Grow This! challenge to encourage and
help Oregonians to grow their own gardens.
OSU is making seed kits available to indi-
viduals, groups, schools and other organiza-
tions around the state as a way of encourag-
ing those who have never tried gardening and
helping experienced gardeners try new vari-
eties of seeds. The seed kits are free and con-
tain packets of vegetable seeds (packets for
cool and warm growing seasons), herbs and/
or edible flowers and flower seeds which
encourage pollination by bees and other pol-
linating insects.
Master Gardeners in Oregon are also par-
ticipating in the Grow This! program and
providing feedback on which seeds are suc-
cessful growing in different parts of the state
in different growing conditions.
The seeds are free through a generous
donation from Bi-Mart. There are only 8,000
seed kits available statewide. The seeds are
available on a first-come, first-served basis.
Anyone interested in a seed kit can now
sign up using the link www.foodhero.org/
growthis. Seed kits will be available until
they are gone, but anyone can participate
with their own seeds. Seed kits will be deliv-
ered to county Extension Service offices and
those who have ordered seed kits will be
notified when they may pick up their kits.
Educational gardening videos, how-tos
and hand-outs, live question-and-answer ses-
sions on Facebook and email support will be
offered during the growing season April 1
through September.
For more information or to order a seed
kit go to www.foodhero.org/growthis.
———
Ann Bloom lives in Enterprise and has
worked for the OSU Extension Service for
15 years as a nutrition educator. She stud-
ied journalism and education at Washington
State University.
The importance of teaching United States history
OTHER VIEWS
Scott Smith
O
ver the last several months we have
witnessed history happening in our
country that has not happened since
the Civil War. It is United States history in
the making. Do you remember your U.S. his-
tory classes? How well do you know the
Constitution and amendments and what they
stand for? Yes, there are those who do under-
stand really well and those who think they
know them, and those who really don’t know.
What does the First Amendment really mean?
In many schools dealing with remote
learning, especially at the elementary ages,
the teaching of social studies has sadly taken
a back seat. Understanding the schools are
doing their best in these unprecedented times,
now is a great time for all of us to review
what our founders felt would make us a lead-
ing country. The United States is a network
of people and cultures working together for
the betterment of the world and was designed
246 years ago knowing the country would
grow and change. Have we taken it for
granted?
We as adults should use this opportu-
nity to refresh ourselves and bring our chil-
dren into the discussion of what it means to
be a United States citizen. Below are some
general questions along with resources you
might consider when locating and fact-check-
ing yourself. There are many ways of using
the internet to search and locate information.
Engaging with your children on this quest
will give them a stronger understanding of
just how to locate and discuss information
about questions that develop during their life.
Our government is built on three areas:
the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the
amendments. Understanding them and dis-
cussing why they were written might provide
for a better understanding of just why our
government operates the way it does along
with what our responsibilities are as United
States citizens.
The Constitution: When and where was it
written? Who were the authors? How many
parts are there in the Constitution?
• kids.britannica.com/kids/article/
constitution/352996
The Bill of Rights: What is the “Bill of
Rights”? Who were the authors and why? Do
they still apply today? How?
• www.ducksters.com/history/us_bill_of_
rights.php
Amendments: What are constitutional
amendments? Who and how can you make
an amendment? How many amendments are
there? You hear people say, “It’s my First
Amendment right.” What does that mean?
• www.ducksters.com/history/us_constitu-
tion_amendments.php
How do the Constitution, the Bill of
Rights, and the amendments impact our daily
lives? Do they really mean what you assumed
they did? What are some ways you might
be able to support our government? We are
a diverse country made of multiple cultures
each having its own perspective and under-
standing. Over the last couple of months has
our government been in jeopardy? These are
all questions we should reflect on as Amer-
icans, United States citizens, and how these
issues could be peacefully addressed.
———
Scott Smith is a Umatilla County educator
with 40-plus years of experience. He taught
at McNary Heights Elementary School and
then for Eastern Oregon University in its
teacher education program at Blue Moun-
tain Community College. He serves on the
Decoding Dyslexia Oregon board as its par-
ent/teacher liaison.