MAY 15, 2003
( V: TV 77 sX FlyTTr7
A Publication of the Grand Ronde Tribe
www.grandronde.org
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Columbia River Dredging Project Digs Up Concerns
What will happen with the spoils of the proposed dredging project and can the sludge
really be used in eco-restoration?
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As The River Runs The Interstate Bridge runs across the Columbia River between Oregon and Washington. The Columbia River could
be the site of a $134 million dredging project that would lower the channel to 43 feet deep. Although modern day Tribes may understand the
economic reality of the situation, they want the river's ancient cultural sites and salmon populations to be protected along the 106-mile project.
Piestewa Death Again
Raises Indian Name Issue
Arizona's Squaw Peak could be renamed after
soldier killed in Iraq; Oregon still has work to do.
By Ron Karten
Private First Class Lori
Piestewa died a hero's death.
The first Native American and
the first woman to die in the brief
war with Iraq, Piestewa's body
was returned to her home in
Tuba City, Arizona recently for
a five-hour memorial service
with 5,000 mourners from Tribes
across the country in atten
dance. One result of her new status
Piestewa continued on page 3
f i
Lori Piestewa
By Ron Karten
Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde
Community of Oregon
9615 Grand Ronde Road
Grand Ronde, Oregon 97347
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ith a 106-mile Columbia
River dredging project
in mind, the Portland
office of the Army Corps
of Engineers approached all recognized
Oregon Tribes in the early 1990s, and
invited them to participate in formal
government-to-government discus
sions between technical staffs, accord
ing to Matt Rabe, Public Affairs Spe
cialist with the Portland Office of the
Corps.
With the removal of 1.5 million truck
loads of river bottom in store, (enough
to fill the Rose Garden 1 19 times), and
political constituencies across two
states still to weigh in, Indian concerns
about sacred sites along the river,
about preserving the fish runs and the
delicate economics of what's left of In
dian fishing on the river were never
going to be more than a small part of
the overall picture.
The Confederated Tribes of Grand
Ronde, whose ancestral lands extend
to the Columbia River, were notified
at the time, according to Cliff Adams,
Tribal General Manager but Director
of Natural Resources at the time, "but
no," he said, "we did not have the staff
or enough information about the
project at that time to comment." The
river Tribes have taken the lead on
this issue, but with the project poten
tially less than a year from beginning,
the Grand Ronde Tribe is seeking the
counsel of its experts.
"We have concerns," said Pete
Wakeland, Manager of the Tribe's
Natural Resources Department. "The
short term effects the impacts to
salmon migration, the impacts to ju
venile lamprey (they live in the mud)
and disposal of the dredging spoils.
There's got to be some toxins in there.
If we're removing toxic soil from the
bottom of the river, we need to know
how we're going to dispose of those and
mitigate at the disposal site. If you've
dredged the bottom of the river, is
there going to be continued leaching
of toxins into the river? And what
about three to five years out, what hap
pens to fish migration patterns?
There are a lot of unanswered ques
tions." Individual members of the Tribe also
have opinions on the matter.
"As far as I'm concerned, they're
changing the pathways of the fish,"
said Pat Allen, Chairwoman of the
Tribe's Cultural Committee. "When
the fish are born, they go down that
channel and they go out, and they re
turn the same way, and when it's not
like it used to be, they get lost, like
anybody else. Why do they go to our
main sustenance when we're trying
to purify it? When they dredge, it just
brings all that sludge up again. It's a
disturbance to the plants and that
water, it's trying to be healed, and it
never gets healed. It's like a scar that's
never healed. I'm just totally against
it."
The Yakama and Warm Springs
Tribes participated in the formal gov
ernment to government consulta
tions; Nez Perce and Umatilla
Dredging continued on page 6