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Spilyay Tymoo, Warm Springs, Oregon
June 16, 2021
Fisheries stress due to drought
‘Large enough to
serve you... Small
enough to care’
866-299-0644
2020
Buick
Encore -
14,484
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2019
Chevrolet
Cruze -
47,699
miles -
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$17,995
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2018
Chevrolet
Malibu -
30,768
miles -
2018
Chevrolet
Cruze -
33,720
miles -
$21,995
$18,995
#10838A
#16413A
There are signs this sum-
mer could be a bad one for
the native salmon of the
Northwest.
Already, drought has
gripped the region, causing
low river flows that could be
hard for fish to navigate or
spawn in. That’s bad news for
species already teetering on
extinction, especially in the
Columbia River Basin.
For example: A recent
study predicts 77 percent of
Snake River Chinook
salmon will be nearly extinct
in four years if current
trends hold.
According to the U.S.
Drought Monitor, 72 percent
of the state of Oregon is in
severe or extreme drought
status.
That’s prompting state
wildlife officials to consider
removing bag level limits in
some areas, releasing fish ear-
lier in the summer from
hatcheries into lakes and
streams, and relocating fish
to a different body of water
to save them.
Impacts to fish popula-
tions will vary across the state
but migratory fish like salmon
and steelhead and areas and
tributaries along the coast
may see the biggest impact.
Many streams are already
at 25 percent of the flow that
is typical for this time of year,
with flows usually seen in early
summer observed in April
and May on some southern
Oregon streams.
ODFW scientists are
working to identify coldwater
refuges, support flow resto-
ration projects and improve
habitat where possible to miti-
gate the effects of climate
change on fish.
Klamath crisis
Tensions are escalating
in Klamath Falls as the
southern Oregon water cri-
sis deepens.
For more than 100 years,
the Bureau of Reclamation
has released water from Up-
per Klamath Lake for farm-
ers to irrigate crops, for Na-
tive tribes to fish and, more
recently, to protect endan-
gered species.
But this year, with the
amount of water flowing into
it from rivers and streams
drastically reduced, the bu-
reau announced last month
that it wouldn’t release any
water for farmers or tribes
or wildlife, all of whom de-
pend on it.
“This year’s drought con-
ditions are bringing unprec-
edented hardship to the com-
munities of the Klamath Ba-
sin,” said Camille Calimlim
Touton, deputy commis-
sioner for the Bureau of Rec-
lamation, which oversees ir-
rigation on farms in an area
known as the Klamath
Project.
As the basin has dried up,
the crisis has grown into a
water war pitting the Native
tribes against farmers.
Around Indian Country
Yakama Nation victory in reservation land case
2018
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GMC
Terrain -
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miles -
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2015
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Equinox -
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miles -
2015
GMC
Sierra -
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miles -
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$23,995
#46039A
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2013
Chevrolet
Cruze -
112,00
miles -
2012
Chevrolet
Traverse -
129,492
miles -
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$11,995
#86879B
#50934B
2007
GMC
Sierra -
179,164
miles -
$183,995
#CO139
2006
Chevrolet
Silverado
- 160,901
miles -
$19,995
#08841A
The U.S. Ninth Court of
Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Court of Appeals ruled this
month in favor of the
Yakama Nation, in a reserva-
tion land dispute case.
The tract of land in ques-
tion is significant: 121,465
acres within the southwestern
corner of the Yakama Res-
er vation, including Mt.
Adams and the Glenwood
Valley.
“The Ninth Circuit’s deci-
sion is a resounding victory
for the rights that our ances-
tors reserved in the Treaty of
1855,” said Yakama Nation
Tribal Council Chair man
Delano Saluskin.
“Both parties to the Treaty
joined together to protect the
Yakama Reservation from
Klickitat County’s challenge,
and we are thankful the Ninth
Circuit honored the Treaty
parties’ common understand-
ing.”
The Confederated Tribes
and Bands of the Yakama
Nation ceded certain rights to
more than 10,000,000 acres
of land for the rights re-
served in the Treaty of 1855,
including the right to the ex-
clusive use and benefit of
the 1.4 million acre Yakama
Reservation.
The Treaty includes a
tract of land south of Mt.
Adams known as ‘Tract D’
within the Reser vation
boundaries, which the
United States depicted on a
Treaty Map in 1855, but the
map was lost in government
files.
After a three day trial be-
fore United States District
Court Judge Thomas Rice,
the district court held that
Tract D was included within
the Yakama Reservation by
Treaty, and remains within
the Yakama Reservation to-
day.
On appeal, before the
Ninth Circuit’s three-judge
panel, Klickitat County ar-
gued that the Yakama Na-
tion did not reserve Tract D
within the Yakama Reserva-
tion in the Treaty of 1855.
Even if it did, the county
argued that in 1904 Con-
gress subsequently changed
the Yakama Reservation’s
boundaries to eliminate
Tract D’s Reservation-status.
The Yakama Nation re-
sponded that clear evidence
from the Walla Walla Treaty
Council supported Tract D’s
inclusion within the Yakama
Reservation, and that Con-
gress did not clearly express
an intent to change the
Yakama Reservation’s bound-
aries thereafter.
The court fuond: “The
treaty terms ‘must be con-
strued in the sense in which
they would naturally be un-
derstood by the Indians’”
wrote Ninth Circuit Judge
Michelle Friedland in today’s
decision.
“The Yakamas understood
the Treaty to include Tract D
within the Reser vation’s
boundaries.”