Fall Chinook Salmon Spawn in Record Numbers in Snake River

Nez Perce Tribal Fisheries/Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish CommissionSalmon nests, known as redds, in the Clearwater River. Fall 2013 saw a record number along with an equally record number of returning salmon. — Nez Perce Tribal Fisheries/Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission
Salmon nests, known as redds, in the Clearwater River. Fall 2013 saw a record number along with an equally record number of returning salmon.

Source: Indian Country Today Media Network

Fall Chinook salmon not only returned in droves to spawn in the Snake River Basin, but also created a record number of redds, or nests, that bodes well for the future.

Data culled from several sources show that a record number of salmon spawned in the Snake River Basin in 2013, boosted by a record number of wild fall Chinook that passed Lower Granite Dam, the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission (CRITFC) announced on February 25. It was the highest number of wild fish to return since the Ice Harbor Dam was built in 1960.

“The multi-agency run reconstruction of fish returning to Lower Granite Dam revealed 21,000 wild fall Chinook returned to the Snake River in 2013, accounting for 37.5 percent of the total Snake River fall Chinook return of 56,000 fish,” the CRITFC said in a statement. “Over 6,300 redds were created in the Snake River and its tributaries between Lower Granite and Hells Canyon dams. The increase in Snake River returns and the increased distribution in redds were aided by tribal programs that supplement existing Snake River fall Chinook populations.”

Fall Chinook numbers were already surpassing expectations in the Columbia River, with more than a million returning, the CRITFC noted back in September 2013. Moreover, fall 2014 is looking to surpass even that record, with a potential 1.6 million returning, the Lewiston Tribune reported on February 21.

Now, Northwest tribes are again jubilant at yet another “return of the king,” as Chinook are known. The Snake River return records are being attributed to the success of an innovative hatchery program that intermingles hatchery fish with wild. It was a controversial notion when it was first implemented, but subsequent studies have indicated that the interbreeding does not harm either population.

“The Nez Perce Tribe’s Snake River recovery program has resulted in fall chinook returns that the region can truly celebrate,” said CRITFC Chairman and Nez Perce Tribe Executive Committee member Joel Moffett in the statement. “Despite returning to a river noted for hot temperatures and poor passage conditions, these resilient fish were able to spawn in numbers not witnessed in many, many years.”

Every year the Nez Perce Tribe releases 450,000 yearling fall chinook and 2.8 million sub-yearling fall Chinook, the CRITFC said. In all, the broader program releases five million juvenile fish back into the Snake and Clearwater river systems. Since 1990, when the adult fall Chinook return numbered just 78 in the Snake River, the number has increased to 2013’s 21,000 wild adults, the commission said. More information on the ins and outs, as well as the history, of the Nez Perce restoration project is at Snake River Fall Chinook.

“Abundance is a key to success in the Columbia Basin. The Nez Perce Tribe has shown the Columbia Basin that we can rebuild salmon runs with the assistance of hatcheries,” said CRITFC Executive Director Paul Lumley in the statement. “We are anticipating a lot of fall chinook returning to the Columbia River this year. For anyone wondering why, the answer lies with tribal programs like the Nez Perce Tribe’s Snake River Fall Chinook Program. It is as simple as putting fish back in the rivers and protecting the watersheds where fish live.”

Moffett noted that the record numbers are just the beginning and do not guarantee future success without continued effort.

“This year’s run gives us hope for the future, but we still have a long way to go,” Moffett said. “We must continue to do everything we can to ensure the fish runs continue on this path toward a healthy, self-sustaining population capable of supporting well-managed tribal and non-tribal fisheries. Doing so will ensure the success of this run is repeated in years to come.”

Mike Connor Confirmed as Interior Deputy Secretary

Mike Connor pictured with Interior Secretary Sally Jewell.

Rob Capriccioso, ICTMN, 2/28/14

Mike Connor has been confirmed to become the Obama administration’s next deputy secretary of the Department of the Interior, the number two position at the agency under Secretary Sally Jewell.

Connor was confirmed February 27 by a vote of 97 to 0 in the Senate.

“Mike is exactly the right person to help lead this Department—thoughtful, smart, organized and full of energy,” said Jewell in a statement. “His wealth of knowledge, experience and collaborative approach to complex challenges will be of great benefit to me and to this Department. Mike is a true public servant, and this new role will tap all of his experiences for the benefit of the American people.”

“Mike Connor is a dedicated public servant with the experience and background needed to help meet our nation’s goals for energy independence and our environment,” said Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) in a statement. “He is passionate about finding solutions on a range of issues important to New Mexico, including land and water conservation and addressing climate change.

“Mike is a staunch ally of Indian country and has a strong record of working effectively and collaboratively with Democrats, Republicans, and Independents,” Heinrich added.

Connor has in the past worked for Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), served at the Secretary of the Interior’s Indian Water Rights Office as director from 1999 to 2001 and as deputy director there from 1998 to 1999, and he worked as a lawyer at multiple offices at Interior from 1993 to 1997, including the Southwestern Regional Solicitor’s Office, the Division of Indian Affairs, and the Solicitor’s Honors Program. He has served as the commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation at Interior since 2009 where he implemented five Indian water rights settlements.

Connor has received strong tribal support to replace David Hayes, who retired from the position in 2013 after tribal officials raised concerns about his role in some Indian-focused dealings, especially involving the stalled Carcieri land-into-trust legislative fix situation. Many tribal leaders hope Connor will be particularly strong on Indian energy and water issues, given his background.

While not an enrolled tribal citizen, Connor does have roots with the Taos Pueblo, as his maternal grandmother was an original member of Taos Pueblo’s water rights task force.

According to Interior officials, Connor is the first person with ties to Indian country to serve in the number two position at the department, which oversees many of the nation’s federal Indian affairs.

BIA adds golf course property to Suquamish Tribe’s reservation

The White Horse Golf Club, owned by the Suquamish Tribe of Washington. Photo from White House Golf Club

Source: Indianz.com

The Port Madison Reservation, home to the Suquamish Tribe of Washington, has just grown in size.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs added about 283 acres to the reservation. The property includes the White Horse Golf Club, which the tribe purchased in 2010 for $4.65 million. “The land was proclaimed to be an addition to the Port Madison Reservation of the Suquamish Indian Tribe of Washington, for the exclusive use of Indians entitled by enrollment or tribal membership to reside at such reservation,” the BIA said in a notice that was published in today’s issue of the Federal Register.

Federal Register Notice:
Proclaiming Certain Lands, White Horse Golf Course Property, as an Addition to the Port Madison Indian Reservation for the Suquamish Tribe (February 28, 2014)

LIBERATION DAY: AIM Members Gathers at Wounded Knee to Remember 1973 Takeover

BY LEVI RICKERT / 28 FEB 2014

Liberation Day: They gathered to remember 1973 Wounded Knee. PHOTO Courtesy: Michelle Mills — Liberation Day: They gathered to remember 1973 Wounded Knee. *PHOTO Courtesy: Michelle Mills*

WOUNDED KNEE — Despite wintry temperatures, under a brilliant blue sky, Wounded Knee 1973 veterans, such as Clyde Bellecourt and Bill Means, were joined Thursday, February 27, 2014 with a younger generation of American Indian Movement grassroots members—many of whom were not yet born—to remember the takeover 41 years ago of Wounded Knee.

February 27th is known in Indian country as Liberation Day because it was on that date in 1973 the American Indian Movement (AIM) occupied the Pine Ridge Reservation near Wounded Knee in protest against the federal government and its policies related to American Indians.

PHOTO Courtesy: Richard Milda

A 71-day standoff between federal authorities and AIM ensued. On March 13, assistant attorney general for the Civil Division of the US Justice Department, Harlington Wood Jr., became the first government official to enter Wounded Knee without a military escort. Determined to resolve the deadlock without further bloodshed, he met with AIM leaders for days and, while exhaustion made him too ill to conclude the negotiation, he is credited as the “icebreaker” between the government and AIM.

PHOTO Courtesy: Richard Milda

Both sides reached an agreement on May 5 to disarm, and three days later the siege had ended and the town was evacuated after 71 days of occupation; the government then took control of the town. During the incident, a Cherokee and an Oglala Lakota were killed by the FBI.

Yesterday, those gathered remembered and honored the memory of 1973 Wounded Knee veteran, Carter Camp (Ponca), who walked on in late December with a dinner in Manderson, South Dakota.

Editor’s Note: Indigenous Peoples Issues and Resources contributed to this article.

How Native Americans Survived Last Ice Age Mystery Solved

By Hannah Osborne , February 27, 2014 19:00 PM GMT

The mystery of how Native Americans managed to survive the last Ice Age 25,000 years ago has finally been solved. they got through the extreme cold by battening in one place and feasting on woolly mammoths.

Researchers at Royal Holloway, University of London, and the Universities of Colorado and Utah believe they have worked out where Native Americans spent the 10,000 years before they settled in Alaska and North America.

Published in the journal Science, the scientists analysed fossils showing that ancestors of Native Americans lived in a region between Siberia and Alaska where there were enough woody plants to make fires to keep warm.

Prior to their findings, it was a mystery where Native Americans jumped the Ice Age gap and spent ten millenna before they arrived in the US.

Scott Elias, of Royal Holloway, said: “This work fills in a 10,000-year missing link in the story of the peopling of the New World.”

“Once burning, large leg bones of ice-age mammals would have burned for hours, keeping people alive through Arctic winter nights.”

–Researcher Scott Elias

The study shows how ancestors of Native Americans lived on the Bering Land Bridge, which now lies beneath the waters of the Bering and Chukchi Seas. The central part of Beringia was covered in shrub tundra – the dominant vegetation in modern Arctic Alaska – with dwarf willow, birch shrubs, moss and lichens abundant.

They made their discovery after analysing insect and plant fossils found in sediment cores taken from the ancient land bridge surface, around 60 metres below the water’s surface.

Elias said: “We believe that these ancestors survived on the shrub tundra of the Bering Land Bridge because this was the only region of the Arctic where any woody plants were growing. They needed the wood for fuel to make camp fires in this bitterly cold region of the world.

“They would have used dwarf shrub wood to get a small fire going, then placed large mammal bones on top of the fire, to ignite the fats inside the bones. Once burning, large leg bones of ice-age mammals would have burned for hours, keeping people alive through Arctic winter nights.”

Hawks Win Tri-District Championship: On to regionals, 1 game away from the State Championships.

By Andrew Gobin

Tulalip Heritage Hawks kept the audience on their toes cheering for the win over Neah Bay Red Devils February 22^nd, taking the Tri-District Title 68-66. Jolene Fryberg, mother of starting senior Shawn Sanchey, said the game was nauseatingly intense, with the outcome uncertain until the final shot.

Hawks play at regionals at Everett Community College on February 28^th. They are one win away from the state championships tournament.

Heritage Hawks 21 15 10 12 —68

Neah Bay Red Devils 14 14 25 14 —66

Shawn Sanchey led the Hawks with 18 points scored, Brandon Jones 8, Bradely fryberg 10, Robert Miles 2, Keanu Hamilton 16, Willy Enick 4, Ayrik Miranda 9.

Examining the needs of early childhood education in indian country

UNITED STATES SENATE COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS

Chairman Jon Tester (D-MT)

For Immediate ReleaseFebruary 26, 2014

Contact: Reid Walker
202-224-0466

U.S. SENATE –Today the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs held an oversight hearing on the importance of Early Childhood Development and Education in Indian Country – one of the first in a series of hearings examining the critical state of education in Indian Country.

“As a former educator, I know first-hand the impacts that a quality education can have on young folks throughout their lives, and I believe that improving those opportunities can be a starting point for addressing many of the issues that are too prevalent across Indian Country,” said Committee Chairman Jon Tester (D-MT).

“When we invest in early childhood education, we are investing in not only the child, but the family and community around him or her,” Tester added. “And to me, that is good policy. Another important benefit is the ability of our programs to support Native languages, and help preserve and protect these important connections to Native culture and identity – something I strongly support.”

According to Federal data, in the 2011 school year, the percentage of children and youth served under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act was highest for American Indians/Alaska Natives. In 2010, approximately 28.4 percent of the AI/AN population lived in poverty compared with approximately 15.3 percent of the total population. In 2010, unemployment on Indian reservations was at approximately 50 percent and 49 percent of AI/AN children lived with parents who lacked secure employment compared to approximately 33 percent of the total U.S. population.

Children in AI/AN families are also more likely to experience violence, substance abuse and neglect. A study of Adverse Childhood Experiences in seven tribes found that approximately 86 percent of participants had one or more adverse experiences and approximately 33 percent had four or more. Approximately 28 percent of AI/AN households with children were food insecure, compared with approximately 16 percent of non-AI/AN households.

“Given these facts, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is moving forward through a number of programs to improve the well-being and education of AI/AN children,” said Linda Smith, Deputy Assistant Secretary and Interdepartmental Liaison for Early Childhood Development of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families. “Administration for Children and Families has four important programs that serve children prenatally through school entry. These efforts mirror the President’s Early Learning Initiative, which starts with home visiting as the entry point for early childhood services through the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program and also includes: The Child Care and Development Fund; Early Head Start and Head Start Programs; The Race to the Top – Early Learning Challenge Program; and The Tribal Early Learning Initiative.”

Smith added, “As with all of our nation’s early learning programs, there is more that could be done to provide more high quality, stable programs for all of our youngest and most vulnerable citizens.”

“American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian children need quality child care settings to improve lifelong outcomes. Increased risk factors such as poverty, low birth weight, and low educational attainment of mothers contribute to the need for investment in quality child care in Indian country,” said Barbara Fabre, a tribal member from the White Earth Nation in Minnesota, and Chairwoman of the National Indian Child Care Association. “There are many challenges faced by American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian children. Tribal child care is a vehicle for intervention and support of quality care and cultural strengths. The Federal government must take into account the needs of tribal communities, which must be determined by tribal communities, and served by tribal programs in order to make meaningful changes to practices. Reduced funding and resources will continue to undermine tribal culture and American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian children’s development.”

“Currently over 90 percent of Native American students are in public schools,” saidDanny Wells, Executive Officer for the Division of Education, representing the Chickasaw Nation. “There are too many issues in public schools to expect the teachers or administrative staff to be aware of tribal programs, which results in tribal students being disconnected to services that could help them perform better academically and socially. Tribal representatives should have access to student records (attendance, grades, etc.) so that tribes can become partners with the schools to improve the tribal student’s education or prevent at-risk students from failing or dropping out of school.”

Dr. Elizabeth Costello, professor with the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine, Duke University School of Medicine and Associate Director for Research,

Duke University Center for Child and Family Policy reviewed her 20 year research on the impact of children from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in North Carolina. Her researched showed a substantial impact of a relatively small economic boost to families of the tribe. “Based on these data, we can choose to pay less now or pay more later. Our tax dollars can support poor families while their children are growing and developing. Or we can pay the higher costs of their lack of education, obesity, alcohol abuse, and crime in the health care and criminal justice systems and in loss of economic productivity down the road. Twenty years of research make the choice very clear.”

Historical fish hook draws community together

Makah tribal member Alex Wise works to wrap one of the halibut hooks during a community volunteer session where the hooks were made. He later used them in a test fishing project.

Source: Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission

A fish hook has tied history, culture and the Makah community together in unexpected ways.

The čibu·d (pronounced “cha bood”), or halibut hook, became the subject of a student project during an internship with Makah Fisheries Management.

“I had a student, Larry Buzzell, come to me wanting to do a project that related to historical fishing methods,” said Jonathan Scordino, marine mammal biologist for the Makah Tribe.

Historically the hooks were made of both wood and bone. As the tribe gained access to new materials, they also made hooks from metal.

“The goal of the project was to test if the čibu·d was more selective for catching halibut than contemporary circle hooks when fished on a longline,” Scordino said.

Setting up the experiment was challenging because the study required 200 čibu·d to be made by hand.

“We decided to put it out to the community to see if they would come in and help us make them,” Scordino said.
The Makah Cultural and Research Center (MCRC) opened its exhibit preparation space for several weeks to allow community members to come in and help make the hooks.

“The response was terrific,” Scordino said. “Several volunteers put in more than 20 hours making čibu·d.”
Through trial and error, the group learned it was better to bend the metal hooks cold rather than heat the metal. The design of the hook more closely mimics Polynesian fishing gear than historical North American fishing gear.

Elder Jesse Ides (Hushta) watched as young people learned to make the hook he used in his youth.
“It’s terrific seeing them show the determination to make it and use it,” Ides said.
He recalled his father hauling canoes out to the halibut grounds to fish. “You’d catch just halibut with that gear, nothing else,” he said.

Makah tribal member Alex Wise discusses his halibut hook project with Jacqueline Laverdure, education specialist for the Olympic Coast Marine Sanctuary prior to receiving a Student Scientist award from the Feiro Marine Life Center.

Alex Wise is finishing the project by writing up how the catch of halibut and bycatch compared between čibu·d and circle hooks during the study. “It was an interesting project. I have always been interested in fisheries and it just seemed like the right choice for me,” said Wise, who won a Art Feiro Science Student of the Year award recently from the Feiro Marine Life Center in Port Angeles for his work on the hooks.

“The čibu·d was known to not only fish selectively for halibut, but not catch too small or too big a halibut,” Scordino said. “From a management perspective, that’s exactly the size you want to catch so the older spawners remain and the young grow to be a harvestable size.”

Tribal member Polly McCarty, who helps prepare exhibits at the MCRC, was thrilled to see the community participation.

“This museum and its contents belong to the village,” McCarty said. “It was wonderful to have them come in and interact with the history.”

A parallel project is to film the creation of wooden čibu·ds. Additionally an exhibit was created in the Makah Fisheries Management building with the kelp line and hooks, and descriptions of the history. A Preserve America and a cooperative National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration grant helped pay for the projects.

Native American mascot bill gets mixed reaction from Oregon House panel

Rep. John Huffman, left, D-The Dalles, confers with Rep. Chris Gorsek, D-Troutdale, during a House Education committee meeting. A bill allowing some schools to keep Native American mascots drew strong emotions from Gorsek and Huffman Monday. (Michael Lloyd/The Oregonian )

By Christian Gaston | cgaston@oregonian.com
on February 24, 2014 at 6:29 PM, updated February 24, 2014 at 7:28 PM

A bill allowing some Oregon schools to retain their Native American mascots in spite of a statewide ban drew a mixed reaction from lawmakers Monday.

Lawmakers passed a similar bill last year but Gov. John Kitzhaber vetoed it, saying its exemption to a blanket ban adopted by the Oregon Board of Education in 2012 was too broad.

Senate Bill 1509 kicks the issue back to the board, charging it with setting up new rules for acceptable mascots in consultation with Oregon’s nine federally recognized tribes.

Sen. Jeff Kruse, R-Roseburg, who sponsored the original bill told members of the House Education Committee the compromise strikes the right balance.

“This is round two and this time we got it right,” Kruse said.

Sam Sachs, a member of the Portland Human Rights Commission, said by passing the bill lawmakers were tacitly approving of race-based mascots which harm Native American students.

“It’s a bad road to go down,” Sachs told lawmakers. “We’ve been on this path for eight years to eliminate the use of Native American mascots. It doesn’t make sense to in five weeks overturn that.”

Sachs said if lawmakers are going to pass the bill, Gov. John Kitzhaber should form a taskforce to study the impacts of Native American mascots on students. Studies reviewed by the Oregon Department of Education showed such mascots left Native American youth with a poor self image.

Rep. Jeff Reardon, D-Portland, said he agonized over the vote. While Oregon’s nine federally recognized tribes would be consulted under the bill, he worried about Native American students that didn’t belong to an Oregon tribe losing their voice in the process.

“I want to advance the cause of education for Native Americans but I want to do that for all,” Reardon said. “How do we have any kind of agreement that doesn’t take into account necessarily all of the kids?”

During the meeting Rep. Chris Gorsek, D-Troutdale, raised his voice in response to a lawmaker who suggested not all schools with Native American mascots were hot beds of discrimination.

“It offends me that people don’t pay attention to research,” Gorsek said, waiving a file folder in the air.

The committee advanced the bill to the House floor for a vote. Gorsek and Reardon voted no. The Oregon Senate unanimously approved the bill.

— Christian Gaston

NFL may throw flag on N-word, but what about the ‘R-word’?

By Simon Moya-Smith

updated 6:24 PM EST, Tue February 25, 2014

NFL considers penalty for ‘abusive’ talk

(CNN) — This week, the elite owners of the National Football League are considering instituting a 15-yard penalty for any NFL player caught using the N-word on the field.

Noble gesture? Sure. Clueless? Absolutely.

Why is it bad to demean a player of African descent, but the pejorative “Redskins” is still just fine for use as the name of the Washington football team? Makes no sense.

As a Native American, a citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation and someone who participates in the Native American community and doesn’t just claim to be Native American because I have a picture somewhere of a great-grandma who had high cheekbones, I wonder: Hey NFL, why aren’t you just as pissed about the R-word?

Simon Moya-Smith

I’m not black, and although I find the N-word repugnant and wrong, I’m not here to rage about it. I’m here, in fact, to make a point.

Throughout the last NFL season, Native Americans diligently and consistently worked to remind the conscientious objector (not the bigot — you can’t get much into the brain of a bigot) that Redskin is a racial slur. And we, the descendants of those who survived the Founding Fathers and westward expansion and Christian boarding schools, will not sit idly by as opulent white men tell us that the R-word isn’t an epithet and that it’s part of their tradition.

Don’t mistake me here, folks. Privilege in sports isn’t just white. I encounter African-Americans in Redskins garb and Latinos in Cleveland Indians jerseys.

In fact, this was the case last week on the D train here in New York City when, in a moment, I had enough of it all and encountered a tall black man with headphones on his ears and a Redskins lid on his skull.

He was standing, and I was standing. We faced each other, backs to the sliding doors, and I remember staring and glaring at his hat, then at his eyes, then up again to his cap. It wasn’t long, maybe just one stop, before he ripped his headphones off and asked me if I had a problem.

“With your hat,” I said. “So, yeah, I do.”

He paused for a quick second and seemed a bit perplexed by my response. He probably thought I was a mad fan of a different team — the kind of person who fights in stadium parking lots with beer in his gut and hate in his heart for any insolent denizen who dares don the logo of the visiting team.

“What a privilege,” I continued, “to be able to walk into a subway and not have to see someone wearing a hat with the stereotypical likeness of your people on it and a racist pejorative to accompany the image.”

And it gets better. I was on a Canadian radio show recently discussing the utter vulgarity of the R-word when a caller said to me, “You know, it’s so trivial. It’s just a word. …”

“But isn’t ‘colored’ just a word, too?” I barked. “Would you be so audacious as to make the same argument to an African-American about that word?” I waited for a loathsome rebuttal, but I all I got in return was dead Canadian air.

So, if you’re still curious “what makes the red man red?” (Thanks again, Disney’s “Peter Pan”), all you have to do is go to New York City and see the bevy of Christopher Columbus statues, and then go to Ohio and see the wiggy white men painted in red-face at the Cleveland Indians game and then end up back in Landover, Maryland, where the white and black and brown Washington Redskins taunt you, and then still ask: “What’s the big deal?”

Here’s the big deal. It’s wrong.

I recently asked my Native elder in the West about what he thinks of the term. He said, “I’m not red … I’m pissed.” And so am I — because if you’re not pissed, you’re not paying attention.

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The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Simon Moya-Smith.

Editor’s note: Simon Moya-Smith is a citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation and a writer living in New York City. He has a master’s from the Columbia University School of Journalism. You can follow him on Twitter @Simonmoyasmith.