|
The United States government is killing salmon because of the dams...there's actually an abrogation of treaty rights, a taking of a treaty right without compensation...The cycle the salmon go through when they come up, spawn, and give birth and die and give life to other animals...similar to the cycle that we live through our laws. And you ruin that cycle, you take the salmon out, then the Indian people will be the next to go. The Umatilla River originates in Oregon's Blue Mountains, winds through Eastern Oregon's most populous county and travels through the Umatilla Reservation. The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) worked with the irrigators, the Bureau of Reclamation, the Bonneville Power Administration, the Oregon Water Resources Department and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to develop the Umatilla Basin Project in 1988. The project allows irrigators to use water from the Columbia River rather than the Umatilla River, thereby increasing salmon habitat in the Umatilla. Success is evident in a growing salmon population. In 1995, scientists counted 1600 salmon for the entire Snake Basin. In 1996, 2300 Chinook salmon returned to the Umatilla Basin. The tribes have also called for the breaching of four dams on the lower Snake River.
|
