Page 9
May 1 0 ,2 0 0 7
Spilyay Tyruöo, W^rrn Springs, Oregon
Court decisions are a victory for treaty fishing harvests
B y R o n Suppah
T ribal C ouncil Chairman
[¿Association v. N ational Marine
Fisheries Service. Here, the federal
j ! The Ninth Circuit Court of
Appeals has been busy over the
last month dishing out guidance
onthe long-standing’and conten­
tious Columbia River Salmon
disputes. j
• The Njnth. Circuit Court
hears appeals to the rulings of
the District Court of Oregon,
which is where-Judge James;
Redden is presiding over ,the
fnost recent round of legal chal­
lenges to how the federal gov­
ernment meets its obligation
under the Endangered Species
Act to protect salmon and steel*
head as it operates federally-
owned dams on the Columbia
and Snake Rivers.
In addition, the Ninth.Circuit
Court is the .court that reviews
challenges to the way that the
Bonneville Power Administra­
tion meets its legal duties under
another federal law, the North­
west Power Afct, to market the
hydropower produced at^ the
federal dams while also protect­
ing and mitigating for the im­
pacts to fish and wildlife.
On April 6 the Ninth Cir^qjt
Court issued an opinion in the
Columbia Snake¡River Irrigators
government decided that it
should plan for tribal treaty har­
vest to continue into the future
as it develops its plans for the
federal dams.
The Confederated Tribes of
Warm Springs encouraged and
supported the decision to plan
for future treaty harvests, Judge
Redden agreed with the federal
government and Tribes that are
planning on fotute treaty har­
vest was appropriate—that it
should be counted as pârt of
the existing base of actions to
evaluate its operations plan for
the dams against.
This special 4 protection for
treaty harvest was attacked by
other interests that often argue
that the way to save salmon and
steelhead is to curtail or elimi­
nate all harvests on the river.
They asked the Ninth Circuit
Court to overturn Judge
Reddenlf d^cisjbn that it is ap­
propriate to give unique protec­
tion to tribal treaty harvests.
' The Ninth.Circuit agreed
with Judge Redder^ and -the4
tribes, Tribal treaty harvest
should be planned for the’fu­
ture—it is appropriate that it be
given special protection in ESA
planning. The Ninth Circuit has
confirmed what the tribes has
argued op this issue for many
iyeairs—tieaty harvest is, not on
the chopping block whefi devel­
oping fimjangered Species Act
plans for the federal dams.
The federal government
must meet both its treaty obli­
gations and the Endangered (
Species Act requirements, not
trade one for the other.
On the same day last month,
the Nipth Circuit agreed with
Judge Redden’s decision to
sweep away the Endangered
Species Act plans that the fed­
eral government had developed
fot the dams on the‘Columbia
and Snake Rivers, NationalWild-
life Federation v. National Marine
Fisheries Service. In 2004 the fed­
eral gpvernm^nt offered up a
new plan that treated the dams
and their impacts to salmon as
steelhead as just another piece
of the environment that could
not be changed. The
'government’s plan really treated
these,.dams simply as- if they
were big rocks in the river that
thef cduid do very little about.
Warm Springs, along with
other tribes, the State of ¡Or­
egon, and environmental groups
challenged this novel nPw theory,
The dams are p a rt of
the system that must be
accounted fo r when
developing plans to
protect salmon and
steelhead.
arguing that it let the dams off
the hook for protecting and re­
storing depleted salmon and
steelhead runs.
Just about two years ago,
Judge Redden sided with the
tribes and other challengers,
tossed out the plan that ignored
the dams, and sent the federal
agencies back to work on a new
plan. .
Now the Ninth Circuit has
ruled that he was right to do just
that—die dams are part of the
system lhat must be accounted
for when developing plans' to
protect salmon and steelhead,
The federal government’s new
plan is due to be provided to
the public and Judge Redden
later this month.
Finally, on
in Golden.
Northwest Aluminum % B&4> the
Ninth Circuit issued a key new
ruling relating to' how the
Bonneville Power Administra­
Veteran says plaque should be relocated
^
A
JL
B y Leslie M itts
Spijyay Tymoo
■ When it comes to,remember­
ing and honoring, one local vet­
eran is speaking out for his fel­
low servicemen.
In particular^ Cheslew Q.
Yahtin Sr.' feels. that.,a plaque
dedicated to veterans „of the
Korean War is> being
underappreciated. ,
i Currently the plaque sits ifi a
field outside the Museum at
Warm Springs.'
In Yahtin’s opinion, the
plaque and other memorials
dedicated to veterans /of war
need to be relocated to a place
of1 honor—especially in order
for them to be viewed more
often. J
Yahtin said, “It’s something
to cherish, so to speak.” '
According to'Yahtin, “It kind
6i- bothers me to.have this
plaque sitting out there in the
brush.59 '
To find a solution, Yahtin
said, “Put it out there where
During the war, Yahtin said*
he was injured twice—tonce shot/
with a small firearm and late/
hit by shrapnel during a mortar
attack
The Lions Clufi ofi Madra^.
originally presented the pl/que
to the veterans of the Kirean
'Waitin’ 20'03V’'''''|jj ***
“I have to appreciable fact
that these Madras pe^p® te c -
ognteed the KoreanJStalb veter­
ans,” Yahtin said. Swipe added,
“To this day I’ve m i yet seen
anybody looking ijfimat flag sit­
ting back there «¡me it was put
back ther
•Atfifst, Yaijftm said, he con­
sidered,not spewing up. How-
ever, he explained, “I’m going
to anyway in rftphetto the ones
that were beade me that didn’t
come home/thdse that were in
front of nw that didn’t come
home.” . JL
T do mese things in respect
to them,’jnahtin added. ‘Those
that gotfhit and wounded and
died—-pcrificed their whole
lives.” /
tion (BPA) provides funding for
fish and wildlife protection and
restoration.
Under the Northwest Power
Act, BPA is to provide funding
to make up for impacts to fish
and wildlife caused by the dams
in the Columbia Basin. Warm
Springs receives some of this
funding to do fish and wildlife
work both on the reservation
and across its historical and tra­
ditional use areas off reserva­
tion.
In years past, BPA has set a ,
budget for what it was willing to'
spend and Warm Springs, along
with other tribes and states, has
squeezed the fishery restoration
work down to fit within the bud­
get. This prompted a legal chal­
lenge—the argument was that
Bonneville needed to develop a
plan for whatfit must dbto meet
its fish and wildlife duties first,
and then develop a budget and
collect funds in it^power sales
to implement its fish and wild­
life plan.
The Ninth-''Circuit Court
settled the dispute and agreed
that; you; first need a plan and
then Bonneville must collect
revenue to put the plan in mo­
tion. This, seems like common
sensje, hut it is a new way of
M useum seeking sum
m er m tern
f m m tfrtiB *crkhnl o fh io 'liP t
/ kthi The
SSSEM A Museum
in eA iim
at Warm
Springs is seeking a summer in­
tern. The intern will work with'
the museum for five weeks, with
pay at $10 per hour. The fol­
lowing are application require­
ments:
Letter of application express­
ing your jntgjtqstm^ltow vqu fan
cdtttribçeœw dîe mpseum.“' “
Proof of enrollment or fu­
ture enrollment in a higher edu­
cation institution.
Proof of Native American
heritage via enrollment docu­
ment. Three letters of recom­
mendation, one specifically
' f a
Leslie Mitts photo
The memorial is some distance away from the museum
building.
people can see that we served.”
Though he decided to voice
his concerns, Yahtin said,
; “People might feel differently
about it.”
Yahtin served in the Korean
War from 1949-1-953.
During that time, Yahtin said,
“live -seen a lot of bad stuff
going down.” f
* Tfe began serving as part of
the front lines, and later worked
as a medic.
After the war, Yahtin said, he
suffered from the effect of see­
ing so much devastation.
“It’s not something to brag
about but you have to doit when,
it comes in front of you,” he'
said.
Design
Center
*
doing business that will improve
our ability to do the on-the-
ground work that will speed the
recovery o f depleted fish and
wildlife in the Columbia basin.
We should be grateful for
and proud of these new state­
ments from the federal court.
They vindicate the positions we
have presented in the difficult
litigation forum for years.
Our goal will be to take this
new guidance into the discus­
sions that we have with the fed­
eral government and strongly
encourage full compliance with
these directives.
As always, we will work to-
find common objectives, and
reach agreement on how to re­
build the fish and wildlife re­
sources so critical to all Warm
Springs citizens, and the Court
has given us new tools for our
discussions. I remain optimistic
that we can resolve our issues
without litigation. However,
should our goals and plans be
met with resistance from our
federal counterparts, and we
naust resort to legal options, I
believe that the courts are
speaking clearly that the views
of the tribes ring true and are
pointing the way to the restora­
tion of our fish and wildlife.
from your school of higher edu­
cation. The intern is required to
take a UA test.
The intern is responsible for
his or her housing during the
internship.
Contact the museum’s Edu­
cation Program at 541-553-
3331, ext. 407. Or fax to 553-
3338. E-mail to the following:
temnsh@redmond.net.com. ;
Letter of application and re­
quired documents are due by
June 5. Mailing address: The
Museum at Warm Springs, PO
Box 909, Warm Springs, OR
97761.
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