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Spilyay Tymoo, Warm Springs, Oregon
November 23, 2016
CRITFC notes success with Future of Our Salmon conference
realize it or not, every single per-
son in the Northwest is a Wy-Kan-
Ush-Pum. We are all Salmon
People.
by Jeremy FiveCrows, Columbia
River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission
T he Columbia Basin is home to
numerous tribal nations on both
sides of the US-Canada border.
They all have long known that
the actions and decisions of one
group can impact and influence
those who live both upstream and
downstream.
The understanding of this
shared impact and responsibility to
the natural resources of the region
is one of the reasons that 15 U.S.
tribes and 17 Canadian First Na-
tions came together for the sec-
ond time to host the 2016 Future
of Our Salmon Conference.
These tribal nations are from
and have ancestral use and man-
agement authorities throughout the
entire basin, from the upper
reaches of the Columbia River in
British Columbia, to the Snake
River headwaters in Yellowstone
National Park, to the mouth of the
Great River as it empties into the
Pacific Ocean.
The health and fate of these
rivers are linked—along with that
of the entire region—to the health
and fate of the waters of N’Chi
Wana—the Big River.
One tribal creation story re-
counts how right after Salmon
promised his body to feed the hu-
mans, Water spoke up and offered
himself to be the home for
Salmon.
Healthy Floodplains, Living
Rivers
Courtesy CRITFC
Pauline Terbasket, executive director of the Okanagan Nation
Alliance, in front of the graphic poster of the conference. In the
final panel was the theme that tied the whole conference together:
Water Is Life, and our rivers are sacred and must be defended.
Not only is water a central part
of Columbia Basin tribal religions
and cultures, it is fundamental for
life on earth.
Protecting and restoring water
is perhaps the most important as-
pect of protecting and restoring
the Columbia River salmon.
No one group can completely
restore salmon alone, but the
power of wy-kan-ush (sacred
salmon) is reason for hope.
The world over, salmon affect
the cultures of the people in which
they come in contact. The widely
different traditional cultures of
Japanese Ainu, Pacific Northwest
tribes, the Norwegian coastal ar-
eas, and the Russian Far East each
have salmon returning to their
lands and each share a reverence
and gratitude for the bounty that
salmon provide.
The modern Pacific Northwest
is no different. Salmon have
shaped the culture of the newcom-
ers to this region just as they shaped
tribal cultures before them.
Salmon are the icon of this
place. They are valued as food, as
a resource, and as a representation
of the wildness and wilderness for
which the Pacific Northwest is
known.
They shape our land use poli-
cies and power grid. Whether they
The theme for the 2016 Con-
ference was Healthy Floodplains,
Living Rivers. It focused on the
vital role that floods and flood-
plains play in healthy rivers.
The conference gave attend-
ees a broader knoweldge of
floodplain function and manage-
ment and explored how the im-
pacts from climate change alter
these processes.
Out of the conference, a call
to action was developed to help
guide tribal, state, federal, and aca-
demic efforts and study on how
best to repair rivers that have been
modified for convenience or flood
control:
Recommendations
A collaborative and unified
whole-basin vision and action
framework must be developed
and implemented.
Such a framework would tar-
get and focus actions to connect
all agencies, tribes and communi-
ties through support of common
objectives for improved natural
floodplain health and ecological
function in the Colombia Basin.
An action framework would
immediately call for no net loss of
floodplain habit and then prescribe
widespread floodplain enhance-
ment actions. To initiate develop-
ment of this approach, form a
post-conference transboundary
planning committee to:
· Identify entities that have
management authorities related to
Columbia Basin floodplain land or
water management.
· Send inquiries to entities re-
questing that they delineate how
their respective authorities can be
implemented (as per “Workshop
Call to Action Points”) to increase
efforts to address natural flood-
plain function in order to achieve
net ecological/social/economic
benefits.
· Compile responses into a
draft master list of improved Co-
lumbia Basin floodplain and water
management actions.
· Utilize GIS designation of his-
toric, current and planned flood-
plain areas to locate restoration ac-
tions and track floodplain area re-
covery.
· Develop education and out-
reach approach that identifies nec-
essary stakeholders and promotes
understanding and benefits of ac-
tions.
· Disseminate draft framework
to agencies, tribes, and stakehold-
ers for comment.
Thank you Gary James and your
team for your work in developing this
Call to Action.
Veterans and other
honored guests at the
Honor Korean War
Veterans ceremony at
Kah-Nee-Ta, hosted by
the Eugene ‘Cougar’
Greene Sr. American
Legion and Ladies
Auxiliary Post 4217.
Moon Duk-ho, Consul
General of the Republic
of Korea, and Brigadier
General Steven R.
Beech were among the
special guests.
At Recreation
The Warm Springs
Recreation Depart-
ment is host Snack At-
tack at the Community
Center.
Snack Attack is ev-
e r y Tu e s d a y a n d
Thursday from 3:30-5
p.m. in the Social Hall.
For more information
call Carol at 541-553-
3243.
Photo courtesy Mae Huston
Next Gen scholars grant
Next Gen is a doctoral training
grant for the next generation of
Native American special educators.
Next Gen will provide doctoral
training in special education to schol-
ars who will be prepared to respond
to the needs of American Indians
and Alaska Native students with
disabilities.
An emphasis will be placed on
recruiting, retaining and graduating
Native scholars for an integrated
training experience that will lead to
a PhD in special education.
Project Next Gen will produce
university faculty members in spe-
cial education who will be fully pre-
pared to conduct the next genera-
tion of research and training, fo-
cusing on the needs of Native chil-
dren and youth with disabilities.
Next Gen scholars will partici-
pate in rigorous coursework in re-
search methods, specialized
coursework in Indigenous studies
and special education, among other
disciplines.
Benefits of Next Gen: tuition
paid, monthly stipend ($1,500/
month), health insurance, academic
and mentorship support, and a co-
hort model as an extended commu-
nity.
The application deadline is Janu-
ary 5, 2017. For more information
contact Chris Murray, PhD, at
541-346-1445. Or email:
cjmurray@uoregon.edu