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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (May 1, 2016)
14 S moke S ignals MAY 1, 2016 'All the other people are visitors' HARVEST continued from page 9 impact or any measurable effect on recreational salmon and steelhead isheries in the Willamette basin.” For example, an estimated 42,000 hatchery spring Chinook salmon passed Willamette Falls in 2015 and typically more than 20,000 summer steelhead also pass up- stream of the Falls each year. “The harvest of 15 of these ish would have not have a measurable effect on isheries upstream of this location,” the summary stated. “The effect on naturally produced salmon and steelhead populations should also be negligible since the harvest is limited to hatchery origin ish only.” Tribal members issued a ceremo- nial harvest tag will be allowed to ish in an area immediately down- stream of Willamette Falls that is currently closed to recreational angling and access by boats. Fish- ing will not be allowed within 75 feet of any of the three ish ladder entrances. Fishing will be allowed during daylight hours from the shore or from a platform the Tribe will con- struct, and only traditional ishing methods, such as dip nets, will be allowed. The resulting catch can be used for Tribal ceremonial and cultural purposes, but ish or ish parts cannot be bartered or sold. The Tribe also will be required to notify Oregon State Police and the Department of Fish & Wildlife two days in advance of ishing or access- ing the platform. In addition, the Tribe will be required to report to the state within 30 days following the end date of the ishing season the number of unmarked wild salmon and steelhead captured and released. “These proposed rules will pro- vide an opportunity for Oregonians to see traditional salmon ishing methods in use at this historic site, and will provide the Tribe an important cultural link to its past,” stated the summary. Leno, Giffen and Kennedy were accompanied by Tribal Council members Ed Pearsall, Tonya Glea- son-Shepek and Jon A. George, as well as staff members Greene, Fish and Wildlife Program Manager Kel- ly Dirksen, Senior Staff Attorney Jenny Biesack, Natural Resources Department Manager Michael Wilson, Aquatic Biologist Bryan Fendall and Cultural Outreach Coordinator Bobby Mercier. Commissioner Jason Atkinson of Jacksonville said that it was “very important for his son to see Grand Ronde on this platform.” He added that it was one of the most important votes he has cast as a commission member. Commissioner Gregory Wolley of Portland commended the Grand Ronde Tribe for its spirit of coop- eration, humility and forgiveness during the process. The Chinookan-speaking Clack- amas and Clo-We-Walla are the people of Willamette Falls who signed the Willamette Valley Trea- ty of 1855. Along with their head- men, they were removed to the Grand Ronde Reservation. Tribal ancestral villages, burial sites and ishing grounds are at and around the Falls. During the hearing, Kennedy ac- knowledged that descendants of the keepers of the Falls that included Chief Wachino were testifying be- fore the commission. The Tribe will begin ishing from the shore at Willamette Falls and construction of a platform within the coming months. “This just solidiied the fact that we are the people of the Willamette Falls,” said Leno. “All the other people are visitors.” Sovereignty pursued Ever since signing the consent de- cree in January 1987 with the state of Oregon that sacrificed Tribal ishing and hunting rights in return for support of its Reservation Plan, the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde has slowly and persistently worked toward recovering those lost rights. “Since 1988 and the return of part of the Tribe’s original Reservation, the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde has worked tirelessly to re- store its traditions and ways of life in places within its ceded lands that were signiicant for our ancestors,” Leno said before the Oregon Fish & Wildlife Commission. “The Tribe has a proven record as a responsible steward of natural resources and to us that was always self-evident that the Tribe would be a good steward,” Greene said. “But for other people, perhaps, it wasn’t self-evident. “With the Tribe’s record and the way that it has managed its Res- ervation, both in terms of timber- lands and also in terms of wildlife and ish resources – take the ish weir for example and the studies we have done at Willamette Falls for lamprey – we are one of the best stewards of natural resources in western Oregon and people see that. Because of that, they respect what we are trying to achieve and then they cooperate with us.” The effort to restore Tribal hunt- ing and ishing rights received its first big victory in August 2007 when then-Tribal Council Chair- man Chris Mercier signed the irst state-Tribal proclamation with then-Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski, which was the initial step toward obtaining Grand Ronde Tribal See HARVEST continued on page 19 Ad created by George Valdez