Smoke Signals
8 MARCH 1, 2001
Tribes, States Agree on Salmon Protection; BPA Announces Conservation Measures
PORTLAND, OR. (AP) - Indian
Tribes have agreed with the states of
Oregon and Washington to develop a
plan for doubling Columbia River
Basin salmon runs within 25 years.
"The agreement marks the first
time we have had a coast wide, conservation-based
approach to wild
salmon management," said Wash
ington Department of Fish and Wild
life Director Jeff Koenings.
Under the agreement, reached af
ter months of negotiations, the Tribes
and the two states will attempt to pro
duce a joint long-term plan to save
fish by December 2003. It will focus
on rebuilding Snake River spring and
summer chinook, Upper Columbia
spring chinook and Snake River sock
eye. Harvest rates will be adjusted
based on the number of wild fish pro
jected to return in a given year.
Officials hope to increase the
salmon runs to 5 million fish and
raise the proportion of wild salmon
and steelhead to hatchery fish, said
Guy Norman of the Oregon Depart
ment of Fish and Wildlife.
The agreement also sets guidelines
for Tribal, commercial and sport har
vest of an unprecedented return of
364,000 spring chinook.
Hatchery fish will provide the bulk
of the catch. Biologists expect nearly
300,000 will be adults released from
hatcheries two and three years ago.
Leaders from the Yakama Nez
Perce, Umatilla and Warm Springs
Tribes and the governors of Idaho,
Washington, Oregon and Montana
say a long-term plan is vital to meet
ing Columbia River salmon recovery
goals.
"This agreement has both logic and
vision but, importantly, it provides
the resource and fishers some level
of certainty, something they haven't
had much of in recent years," said
Randy Settler, Chairman of the
Yakama Nation's Fish and Wildlife
Committee.
Tribal and state fisheries manag
ers said the agreement will provide
stability in both harvest and hatch
ery production and will allow man
agers to spend more time improving
salmon habitat and their passage
past hydroelectric dams.
The long-term plan will include a
sliding scale to restrict harvest for the
protection of threatened salmon
stocks, ways to protect wild salmon
from being caught along with hatch
ery salmon and a resolution of dis
agreements over hatchery policy.
Officials expect the federal govern
ment to endorse the plan as consis
tent with the conservation require
ments of the Endangered Species Act.
Recently, the Bonneville Power Ad
ministration said it has decided to
launch a $200 million energy conser-
vation and renewable resource devel
opment program several months early
in order to help relieve the electricity
shortage and save salmon.
"This is a program we had intended
to start next fall, but, with the cur
rent shortage, we are offering it im
mediately," said Bonneville Power
Acting Administrator Steve Wright.
"With the energy shortages and the
high cost of purchasing power in this
market, we and our customer utili
ties wanted to kick conservation into
high gear now."
Regional utilities that buy power
from Bonneville Power and choose to
participate will get a discount on
their wholesale power bill if they
agree to invest in conservation mea
sures or renewable resources.
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Yakama Nation will be featured in Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian
TOPPENISH, WA. (AP) The
Smithsonian Institution has asked
the Yakama Nation to tell the story
of its people in a new exhibition be
ing developed for permanent display
in Washington, D.C.
The Yakamas will be among nine
Tribes from North and South
America featured in the "Our Lives"
exhibition at the National Museum
of the American Indian, scheduled
to open in 2003.
"It will give us a chance to share
our story and our culture with the
rest of the nation," said Marilyn
Malatare, Curator of the Yakama
Nation Museum.
Smithsonian curators were inter
ested in the 9,000-member Yakama
Nation because it is composed of 14
separate bands and Tribes. They
66
It will give us a chance to share our story
and our culture with the rest of the nation.
Marilyn Malatare, Curator of the Yakama Nation Museum
were pushed together on the nearly
1.4-million-acre reservation in Cen- :
tral Washington after their leaders
signed an 1855 treaty with the
United States, ceding 10 million acres
to the federal government.
The forced confederation raises in
teresting questions about identity,
said Cynthia Chavez, curator of the .
"Our Lives" exhibit on contemporary
Tribal life.
"What makes you Yakama people?
What makes this a Yakama commu- .
nity?" she asked.
Smithsonian employees were in
Toppenish recently, meeting with
the Yakama museum's four-person
staff to plan for a year of research.
The Yakama staff will work with
the Tribe's members to decide what
should be included in the exhibition.
That's still to be determined, but it's
likely to include personal narratives
from Tribal representatives. .
"We're just beginning our collabo
rative work with the Yakama Na
tion," Chavez said.
And one of the goals is to let Na
tive people tell their own stories, said
Susan Secakuku, another Smith
sonian staffer.
The National Museum of the
American Indian also will have sec
tions titled "Our Universe," on the
world-views and philosophies of eight
Native communities, and "Our
People," featuring the history of 12
Tribes.
The new building is currently un
der construction on the National
Mall. Smithsonian staffers estimate
it will draw 3 million visitors annu
ally. The National Museum of the
American Indian also includes satel
lite museums in Suitland, Maryland
and New York City.
In 1990, the Smithsonian acquired
800,000 artifacts from the Heye
Foundation's Museum of the Ameri
can Indian in New York.
On the Net: www.nmai.si.edu
Tribe Awarded Self-Regulation
The Grand Ronde Gaming Commission was recently awarded a Certifi
. cate of Self Regulation from the National Indian Gaming Commission
(NIGC). The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde is one of only two
Tribes in the nation to be awarded self-regulation. The self-regulation
program provides a process that allows the Tribal Gaming Commission to
assume greater regulatory responsibility over class II activities. The award
demonstrates that the Grand Ronde Tribe has made a concerted effort to
establish a strong, independent Tribal regulatory commission.
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Tribal Council Vice-Chair Ed Larsen, (right) accepted the award from
Theresa Poust, NIGC Commissioner and Randy Sitton, NIGC Region Chief.
Thorpe Family wants Body Brought back to Oklahoma
OKLAHOMA CITY, OK. (AP)
Several relatives of Jim Thorpe, one
of the greatest athletes of the 20th
century, are working with an attor
ney and are trying to raise money to
move Thorpe's body from Pennsyl
vania to his home state of Oklahoma.
The body is now in a town that re
named itself Jim Thorpe.
"I think the timing is right,"
Thorpe's son, Jack Thorpe, said in a
news conference recently. "We will
help Jim Thorpe (Pa.) all we can. The
bones of our father will not make or
break (their) town."
However, one of Jim Thorpe's de
scendants thinks the body should be
left where it is.
Grace Thorpe, who was born to
Thorpe and his first wife, said the City
of Jim Thorpe has acted in good faith.
"They have done what they said
they would," she said.
The community has become a tour
ist stop.
"They've gone out of their way to
honor Dad," she said.
In 1912, Jim Thorpe became the
only Olympian ever to win the de
cathlon and pentathlon. The Olym
pic committee later stripped him of
his medals because he had played
semi-professional baseball. In the
early 1980s, the Olympic committee
returned his medals and restored his
name to the record books.
Jim Thorpe died in March 1953. He
was born on May 12, 1887.
The issue of Thorpe's final resting
place was raised last month when
Jack Thorpe told a reporter that he
wanted his father's body returned to
Oklahoma.
Thorpe's third wife, Patricia
Thorpe, signed a contract with the
town of Jim Thorpe that guaranteed
the body would remain there as long
as the town abided by certain condi
tions. He said the family wants to bury
Jim Thorpe near his father in an an
cestral burial ground.
Members of the Sac and Fox Na
tion believe that until a person's body
is laid properly in the ground, the
person's soul continues to roam.
Thorpe's body is in a mausoleum in
Pennsylvania.