More News from Indian Country
Page 13 Spilyay Tymoo
October 5, 2011
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Colville Tribe teaching traditional fishing method
BRIDGEPORT, Wash. (AP)
— Colville Tribal elder LeRoy
Williams has fished all his life
using the traditional methods of
fishing with hoop nets and dip
nets. Now, the Confederated
Tribes of the Colville Reserva
tion has hired him to test his
handmade traditional nets and
to teach others how to use them.
The tribe hopes newly taught
members can help catch some
o f the tens o f thousands of
salmon expected to return to the
upper Columbia River once the
C hief Joseph Hatchery is up
and running.
The tribe is also testing meth
ods so that individual tribal
members can catch fish without
leaving the reservation.
“I think it’s important to have
a toolbox full of methods,” Joe
Peone, director of the tribe’s
Fish and Wildlife Department,
told The Wenatchee World.
The tribe plans to build more
scaffolds below Chief Joseph
Dam next year and offer their
use to tribal members who want
to fish in traditional ways, Peone
said.
The tribe is also building a
weir that will span the Okanogan
River, roughly fashioned after
those used by Okanogan Indi
ans a century ago. Next year,
they’ll test floating nets in deep
waters of the Columbia River.
“You’re going to see the tribes
doing some things you may not
have ever seen in your life, but
they’re things we have done tra
ditionally,” Peone said.
LGL Ltd., an environmental
research company in Ellensburg,
is building a temporary weir on
the Okanogan River to trap fish
as they head upstream. It plans
to test the weir this month and
next summer to look at how the
weir changes water flows, ero-
sion, and fish behavior. If the
tests are successful, the tribe will
apply for permits to install a
permanent weir that can be used
at certain times to catch salmon,
including those raised at Chief
Joseph Hatchery.
Meanwhile, W illiams, who
lives in in Nespelem, plans to
travel to each of the four dis
tricts on the Colville Indian Res
ervation to teach traditional fish
ing methods. Many tribal mem
bers abandoned those traditional
fishing skills when Columbia
River dams limited their access
to fishing, the newspaper re
ported.
In recent weeks, Williams has
been testing his handmade gear
from two new 26-foot-long scaf
folds that the Colville tribes built
this summer. Usually he's with
his son, M ylan, and they're
teaching anyone who wants to
join them.
Several people came to learn,
and many brought their children.
The hoop net measures up
to 8 feet in diameter and is at
tached to a long piece of net
ting. The net is then roped to a
pole that’s tied to the scaffold
and lowered vertically into the
water. The current pulls the net
downstream, and pushes it out
like a balloon. The pole jiggles
when a fish swims in and hits
the net.
A dip net has a much smaller
net attached to a 33-foot pole
to reach into the deep water. A
string running the length of the
pole tells the fisherman — who’s
fishing in the dark — which side
the net is on. When a salmon
swims in, a buckskin tie that's
holding the net open comes un
done and the net slides around
the loop and closes shut.
Using it is no easy task, Will
iams said. “It’s a balancing act.”
The hatchery and an agree
ment with the state that brings
more fish to the upper Colum
bia will mean plenty of fish for
everyone, including nontribal
sports fishermen, Peone said.
The hatchery is scheduled to be
completed December of next
year.
Peone said he hopes that
when sports fishermen see the
new scaffolds on the Columbia
River or any of the new meth
ods the Colvilles are using, they'll
understand that the tribe is ex
ercising its fishing right, and are
fishing within the boundary of
the Colville Indian Reservation.
“I think scaffolds are a good
icon for tribal fisheries, but people
in the upper Columbia haven’t
seen scaffolds for so long — it’s
been generations,” he said.
“The tribe is rekindling the
old traditions, and old traditions
make tribal culture,” he said.
New Mexico monument
reopens archaeological sites
FRIJOLES CANYON, New
Mexico (AP) — The prehistoric
Native American archaeological
sites that fill the heart of north
ern New M exico’s Bandelier
National Monument have re
opened to visitors, three months
after the largest wildfire in the
state’s recorded history sent
employees scrambling to save
rare artifacts and irreplaceable
artwork.
The monument’s visitor cen
ter and biggest concentration of
prehistoric cultural sites sur
vived the fire and a second
threat — post-fire flooding that
sent ash, sediment and charred
debris into the heart o f the
monument.
But the hazardous conditions
kept the sites off-lim its for
weeks, until employees began
welcoming shuttle buses of visi
tors back to the canyon Mon
day.
“It’s great to have people
back in the park,” said Rod
Torrez, Bandelier’s chief of in
terpretation, who was among
the park officials there when the
first bus pulled up. “I was ex
pecting it to be quiet this first
week, but people have been
waiting a long time to get here.”
The first bus arrived with 18
passengers, including Dan and
M ary Lee o f T raverse City,
Michigan.
The couple was in N ew
Mexico celebrating their 50th
anniversary. They decided to
extend their trip by a day to see
the sights at Frijoles Canyon,
including the kivas dug into the
canyon floor for ceremonies,
the stone pueblo walls that sur
round them, the wildflowers
that have overtaken the area and
the dwellings carved by the an
cestors o f m odern N ative
Americans into the canyon walls.
“W e’re really lucky,” said
Mary Lee, who was ready for
the short hike through the can
yon with her backpack, hat and
hiking poles. “This is the pur
pose of our trip, to visit prehis
toric Indian sites.”
Every bus after the first was
filled to capacity with dozens of
visitors waiting their turn for the
next hike. The visitors came
from California, Oregon, Penn
sylvania, Florida and even Ger
many.
This marks one of the busi
est times of year for Bandelier,
which sees about 238,000 visi
tors annually. Parks officials said
they wanted to open the canyon
given the upcoming annual bal
loon fiesta in Albuquerque is
expected to draw thousands of
tourists to the state.
Park Superintendent Jason
Lott said he won’t mind being
busy.
“T hat’s the business w e’re
supposed to be in,” he said. “It’s
resource management, and it’s
v isito r experience. It’s been
closed for three months, and it’s
not healthy for the resource, it’s
not healthy for the staff, and it’s
not healthy for the visitors for
us not to be doing this.”
The buses will run seven days
a week through October.
By N ovem ber, L o tt said
tourist season should be waning
and the park plans to open the
canyon so visitors can once
again make the drive down the
scenic canyon on their own.
More trails are also expected to
reopen later this fall.
Park officials said they have
eagerly awaited the day visitors
could again enjoy what is un
doubtedly the most popular area
of the sprawling park.
Tucked into northern New
M exico ’s an cien t canyons,
Bandelier has a long human his
tory that stretches back more
than 10,000 years. Aside from
Native Americans, Spanish set
tlers and the Civilian Conserva
tion Corp centuries later also left
their mark on the area.
N early tw o-th irds o f the
monument was scorched during
the Las Conchas fire, which
started June 26 after a tree fell
on a power line miles (kilome
ters) away. The flames raced
across mesa tops and down can
yons dotted with hundreds of
archaeological sites.
The monument’s employees
were left scrambling that after
noon to save pieces of prehis
toric pottery, rare artifacts and
m ore m o dern-day N ative
American artwork. They used
blankets, old uniforms and even
the American flag to wrap the
pieces to be transported out of
the canyon to safety.
The fire stopped a mile (1.6
kilo m eter)
from
the
monument’s largest concentra
tion of prehistoric cultural sites.
Also spared were a collection of
historic buildings constructed by
workers during the New Deal
and the newly renovated $3.2
million visitor center.
The blaze destroyed more
than five dozen homes in the
surro un ding m ountains and
threatened one of the nation's
premier nuclear weapons labo
ratories in Los Alamos. Since
then, the whole region has been
struggling to recover.
Duran Bobb/Spilyay
The Tribal Member Art Exhibit at the Museum at Warm Springs opens on Oct. 13. (Mask
by Lillian Pitt.)
C hoctaw s’
first fem ale
ch ief
P H IL A D E L P H IA ,
Miss. (AP) - The Missis
sippi Band of Choctaws
inaugurated their first fe
male chief this week, with
“Our Moment in History”
as the theme.
The Tribal Council held
a closed swearing-in for
Phyliss Anderson at 9 a.m.,
on Tuesday, with her offi
cial inauguration at 11:30
a.m . in The A rena at
Golden Moon Hotel and
Casino.
Her inaugural parade
started at 10 a.m., tempo
rarily closing Highway 16,
said E rica C lem m ons,
spokeswoman for the Pearl
River Resort.
The parade route be
gan near the C h octaw
C en tral b a se b all field ,
traveling east to the ca
sino.
Anderson got 56 per
cent o f the vote last
m onth, receivin g 2,139
votes to 1,602 for current
chief Beasley Denson and
76 for Shirley Berg.
She also won an earlier
ru n o ff against D enson,
but it was thrown out be
cause of alleged voting ir
regularities in the 10-can
didate primary.
Denson, who cast the
deciding vote to throw out
the first election after the
Tribal Council deadlocked,
conceded in a memo dated
Sept. 13, calling on mem
bers to give Anderson their
full cooperation and sup
port.
“A majority of Choctaw
voters have voted for
change in leadership and
we must honor and respect
the majority’s decision,” he
wrote. “We are grateful to
enjoy a peaceful, represen
tative dem ocracy in the
United States and on the
Choctaw Indian Reserva-
tion.
Alaska voters weighing in: salmon vs. gold
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - The
battle over a copper and gold
mine near one of the world’s
prem ier salm on fisheries is
headed to the ballot in a vote
this week that has turned a nor
mally sleepy local election into
a national environmental debate.
Voters in southwest Alaska’s
Lake and Peninsula Borough are
deciding whether to ban large-
scale resource extraction activ
ity, including mining, that would
destroy or degrade salmon habi
tat. The m easure is aim ed
squarely at Pebble Mine, the
massive gold-and-copper pros
pect near the headwaters o f
Bristol Bay.
The debate surro un ding
Pebble has attracted the atten
tion of chefs, Robert Redford
and big-name jewelers who have
vowed not to sell any gold com
ing from the project
But the vote will almost cer
tainly not be the last word on
how — or whether — the mine is
built.
“Among other things, the
question in front of the Lake
and Peninsula voters is about
changes to land use that the
Alaska attorney general says is
unenforceable as a matter of
law,” said Mike H eatwole, a
spokesman for Pebble Limited
Partnership, the group promot-
ing the mine project.
Pebble Partnership sued to
keep the “Save the Salmon” ini
tiative off the ballot, arguing in
part that the measure would
improperly bypass the role of
the local planning commission.
State court Judge John Suddock
denied that request, noting
A laska’s Suprem e Court has
given deference to initiatives
absent proof they would do
something unlawful. He put the
case on hold until Nov. 7, to al
low for the vote and challenges.
The vote is the latest skirmish
in the fight over a project that
supporters say could create up
to 1,000 long-term jobs in eco
n o m ically-d ep ressed rural
Alaska but that opponents fear
could fundamentally change the
landscape and disrupt, if not
destroy, a way of life.
The mine is a joint venture
of Canada-based Northern Dy
nasty Minerals Ltd. and Anglo
A m erican pic o f the United
Kingdom.
The companies have spent
hundreds of millions of dollars
scoping out the deposit, which
Northern Dynasty has described
as the largest undeveloped de
posit of its type in the world,
with the potential of producing
53 billion pounds of copper, 50
million ounces of gold and 2.8
billion pounds of molybdenum
over nearly 80 years.
The mine would be directly
above Iliamna Lake, the largest
producer of sockeye salmon in
the world.
This year, the comm ercial
harvest of salmon was valued
at nearly $138 million, which
doesn’t include fish caught by
Alaska Natives for subsistence.
The Bristol Bay Native Corp.,
w hich has m ore than 8,000
shareholders with ties to the re
gion, is opposed to the mine.
Jason Metro kin, Bristol Bay
Native corp.’s chief executive,
recently said in a statement that
Pebble presents an “unaccept
able risk to Bristol Bay salmon,
which have supported our com
m unities for thousands o f
years” while providing an im
portant commercial, food and
cultural resource.
Pebble Mine would be lo
cated 200 miles southwest of
Anchorage and has been de
scribed as the potentially the
world’s largest man-made exca
vation. Though Heatwole said
Pebble hasn’t completed a pre
feasibility study or formally sub
mitted a mine plan, critics say
the potential footprint of the
project could cover 15 square
miles, with an open pit and net
work of roads and power lines.
“It’s not a NIMBY thing so
much as a survival thing,” said
Scott Kendall, an Anchorage
atto rn ey for the Save Our
Salmon ballot group. He likened
it to putting a nuclear plant next
to an elementary school. “To
these people, it’s completely in
appropriate and incompatible
with the life they want to live.”
The region around Bristol
Bay is sparsely populated, dot
ted by small communities mostly
cut off from the road system
and generally accessible only by
plane. About 1,600 people live
in Lake and Peninsula Borough,
which is roughly the size of West
Virginia, covering about 23,780
square miles.
The landscape is pristine,
stark, rugged, boasting wildlife
like walrus, moose, bears and
caribou. For a short period each
summer, the area bustles with
fishing activity, a leading sector
of the local economy.
Over the last several years,
there's been lobbying surround
ing the project both sides. Ads,
alternately touting the mine's
economic potential or casting it
as dangerous and w rong for
Alaska, frequently appear on
statewide TV.
For Greg Anelon, the vote is
less about Pebble Mine than it
is about land-use rights.