S moke S ignals
MAY 1, 2016
9
'It was a very historic day'
HARVEST continued
from front page
with a limit of no more than 15 ish
taken per year by Tribal members.
Only hatchery-origin ish will be
allowed to be taken. Wild ish will
be released unharmed back into the
Willamette River.
“I think it was an historic day
for the Tribe to recover our ishing
rights up at Willamette Falls on
a platform,” said Tribal Council
Chairman Reyn Leno, who drove
four hours to Bandon to testify.
“I think it will mean a lot to our
people to recover our ceremonial
ishing rights. Those rights were a
piece of our sovereignty that was
taken away from us and I am very
proud to get a piece of that back.
Sovereignty is something we try to
recover on a daily basis. I was very
proud to testify for the Tribe.”
Tribal Attorney Rob Greene said
he agrees that the vote was an im-
portant moment in Tribal history.
“It was a very historic day,” said
Greene. “It was part of a process
that we have engaged in for many
years to recover the Tribe’s rights
on its historic lands.”
The Tribe harvested one spring
Chinook salmon at Willamette
Falls in May 2013 from the ish lad-
der for use during the First Salmon
Ceremony held at the McLean
House in West Linn. The authori-
zation was through an amendment
to the Tribe’s Oregon Scientific
Taking Permit. The process was
repeated in 2014 and ’15.
In January 2015, Leno sent a
letter to the Department of Fish
and Wildlife requesting that state
employees assist Tribal staff in
formally establishing a seasonal
platform fishery at Willamette
Falls for the Tribe’s annual First
Salmon Ceremony, which will be
held this year on Friday, May 6.
Archuleta’s idea
Leno credited Tribal member
Greg Archuleta with the idea. He
said it was Archuleta who asked
the simple question, “Why can’t
we have our own platform at Wil-
lamette Falls?” and that Tribal
leaders and staff took it from there.
“This is a great day for all our
Grand Ronde Tribal members. It’s
great to hear about the restoration
of the Tribe’s ishing by traditional
methods at Tumwater (Willamette
Falls),” said Archuleta via e-mail.
“This is a continuation of our
work with ODFW when we got our
ceremonial hunting and our own
management plan on the Reserva-
tion,” said Leno. “We have a great
working relationship with ODFW
so we posed the question to them.
“We’ve been fortunate, I think,
to recover some of our ceremonial
hunting rights and now some of
our ceremonial fishing rights. I
think that’s a good thing. The com-
missioners seemed humbled by us
coming and asking for something
that should have been our right
to do in the irst place. They (the
commissioners) even asked us if we
wanted more ish.”
The relationship between the
Tribe and the state hasn’t always
been so amicable. In the mid-1980s
when the Tribe was restored, meet-
ings about hunting and ishing had
a much different tone. Sport ish-
ing organizations in Oregon were
not only in attendance, but their
members also were very vocal and
demonstrative in efforts to ight any
harvesting and gathering rights the
Tribe sought to regain.
Tribal Council Secretary Cheryle
A. Kennedy, who served on early
Tribal Councils in the 1980s, said
it was a “terrible time” for the Tribe
and that Tribal Council members
felt like they were being held hos-
tage choosing between hunting and
fishing rights or getting support
for a Reservation Plan that would
re-establish a land base for the
Tribe.
Leno said the key to the good re-
lationship now has been the Grand
Ronde Tribe’s willingness to stay
the course and remain respectful.
“I think it’s about patience and
the idea that we have been here for-
ever and we are going to be here for-
ever,” said Leno. “In my testimony,
I stated that hunting and ishing is
a way of life for Native Americans.
It’s not a sport. In 32 years of Res-
toration they now understand that
we are a Tribe … we are a sovereign
nation. That’s the difference today
is that they understand that we are
a Tribe and once they understand
that we are sovereign it changes
the whole deal.”
The commission’s vote was the
culmination of a long-term Tribal
Council and Tribal staff collabora-
tive effort.
“This is a process that has been
ongoing for many, many years,”
said Tribal Council Vice Chair
Jack Giffen Jr. “We attended many
meetings to make this small por-
tion of our sovereignty return to
the Tribe. It’s an historic day; it’s
a day that you can feel good about
returning historical treaty rights
to the Tribe. It’s just a great day
when you accomplish something
that many current and past council
worked very hard on and attended
many meetings to make happen.”
No effect on isheries
According to the commission’s
Agenda Item Summary, the new
rules “preclude the potential for
the harvest to have any biological
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