Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission

Last updated

The Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission (CRITFC) is a fishery resource for the treaty tribes of the Columbia River. Under the treaty, the native tribes, the Nez Perce Tribe, Warm Springs Reservation Tribe, and Umatilla Indian Reservation Tribe, have to the right to fish in the Columbia River, which means their fishery must be reserved and protected. CRITFC also serves as a tribal police force. [1]

Contents

History

As stated in The First Oregonians, "The Yakama Nation, the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, and the Nez Perce Tribe, who reserved the rights to fish under 1855 treaties with the United States, found CRITFC in 1977.” [2] Their members may fish at all usual and accustomed fishing locations in the Columbia River Basin. The rights includes ceremonial, subsistence, and commercial fisheries.

In an article by Government Innovators Network, Innovations Harvard in 1977 the tribes of Yakama, Umatilla, Nez Perce, and Warm Springs decided to converge together because of the growing problem of salmon not being restored. [3] This was because the federal and state government for over 100 years have been using salmon as something to mass harvest than to protect. This group that collaborated created what's known as the Columbia River Inter- Tribal Fish Commission (CRITFC). [3] Their main goal is to look at salmon as not to be seen as something of natural resource to be used at such a big project, but to have them be restored and saved for the tribes, and people in the Pacific Northwest. [3] The CRITFC first had to go through multiple steps in order to create the commission such as fundraising, fish management, habitat restoration, and many more steps. Currently in Portland Oregon is where their headquarters is located, and is directed by members of the four tribes. CRITFC has much strength when it comes to how they operate including the many programs that are utilized such as fishery management. [3]

Impact

In 1986, CRITFC successfully sued to prevent new hydropower projects in areas that the Commission deemed to be a protected area for salmon. A couple years later in 1988, a plan was signed to protect a very important run of fall chinook salmon.

In 1994, CRITFC brought training to youth and adults to help create a better environment for salmon. [4] They did this by planting trees, which can help regulate water temperature and create erosion-resistant banks, as well as checking water temperature and observing data.

In 2011 the Condit Dam was removed because it was blocking fish from traveling upstream to the places they used to spawn before the dam was constructed. [4] The removal of this dam not only helped with temperature of the water to be more regulated, but also opened up passage for fish to travel further upstream to their natural spawning grounds the salmon may have used for thousands of years. [4]

CRITFC has also been involved with recruiting biologists, lawyers, hydrologists, and public relations professionals to aid in the various efforts needed to create and maintain of better habitats for salmon. [3]

Future plans

CRITFC has been very involved in restoring salmon habitat over the past 40 years and plan to continue into the future. [4] Plans for future involve making sure that the federal government reduces funding for anything that may set back CRITFC's efforts, and helping the growth and return of salmon. They are also working on an issue of contamination in the Columbia River Basin; they hope to find a way to eliminate the toxic chemicals that are currently polluting the river. [4]

Fish market

In order to assist the tribal fishers to maintain their traditions and supplement their incomes, CRITFC promoted “direct-to-public” sales at fishing sites, that were built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in the Columbia River. [2] CRITFC is currently encourages fishers to participate through a fisher marketing project of the Chef's Collaborative called Fish-Chef Connection. CRITFC and Ecotrust is working with Food Innovation Center on a value-added products for tule fish, which are low-end, white-fleshed fish that usually, after market, left over. With the ability to create a value-added product, it is likely that fisher's income will raise after fishing season. [2] According to The First Oregonians, “The Columbia River Inter-Fish Commission estimates that for every ten dollars generated by fish sales, as much as seven dollars is contributed to local economies.” [2]

The

Dioxin discovery

A survey was conducted to the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) and revealed that tribal members who caught and consumed fish near the Columbia River Intern-Tribe Fish Commission may be at a higher risk of toxin disease because they consume more fish than most people in America. Because of these concerns, the EPA worked with CRITFC to investigate the fish consumption between 1990 and 1991 and found out that the entire Columbia River in Oregon, and the Snake River in Washington, contained toxic chemical products. It was contaminated because of industrial polluters. Since this revelation, CRITFC and EPA partnered with other agencies and find existing toxins in the river while helping native tribe members who were affected by the toxins. [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nez Perce</span> Indigenous peoples of North America

The Nez Perce are an Indigenous people of the Plateau who still live on a fraction of the lands on the southeastern Columbia River Plateau in the Pacific Northwest. This region has been occupied for at least 11,500 years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yakama</span> Ethnic group

The Yakama are a Native American tribe with nearly 10,851 members, based primarily in eastern Washington state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cayuse people</span> Native tribe of present-day Oregon and Washington, US

The Cayuse are a Native American tribe in what is now the state of Oregon in the United States. The Cayuse tribe shares a reservation and government in northeastern Oregon with the Umatilla and the Walla Walla tribes as part of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. The reservation is located near Pendleton, Oregon, at the base of the Blue Mountains.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palouse people</span> Ethnic group

The Palouse are a Sahaptin tribe recognized in the Treaty of 1855 with the United States along with the Yakama. It was negotiated at the 1855 Walla Walla Council. A variant spelling is Palus. Today they are enrolled in the federally recognized Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation and some are also represented by the Colville Confederated Tribes, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and Nez Perce Tribe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Umatilla people</span> Indigenous people of America

The Umatilla are a Sahaptin-speaking Native American tribe who traditionally inhabited the Columbia Plateau region of the northwestern United States, along the Umatilla and Columbia rivers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation</span> Indian tribes in Oregon, United States

The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation are the federally recognized confederations of three Sahaptin-speaking Native American tribes who traditionally inhabited the Columbia River Plateau region: the Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Willamette Falls</span> Waterfall on the Willamette River in Clackamas County, Oregon, United States

The Willamette Falls is a natural waterfall in the northwestern United States, located on the Willamette River between Oregon City and West Linn, Oregon. The largest waterfall in the Northwest U.S. by volume, it is the seventeenth widest in the world. Horseshoe in shape, it is 1,500 feet (455 m) wide and forty feet (12 m) high, with a flow rate of 30,850 cu ft/s (874 m3/s). Located 26 miles (42 km) upriver from the Willamette's mouth at Portland, Willamette Falls is a culturally significant site for many tribal communities in the region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Celilo Village, Oregon</span> Unincorporated community in Oregon, United States

Celilo Village, Oregon is an unincorporated Native American community on the Columbia River in northeastern Wasco County in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is near Lake Celilo, the former site of Celilo Falls; it is just south of the community of Wishram, Washington, across the Columbia River.

Sahaptin, also called Ichishkiin, is one of the two-language Sahaptian branch of the Plateau Penutian family spoken in a section of the northwestern plateau along the Columbia River and its tributaries in southern Washington, northern Oregon, and southwestern Idaho, in the United States; the other language is Nez Perce (Niimi'ipuutímt).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wasco–Wishram</span>

The Wasco-Wishram are two closely related Chinook Indian tribes from the Columbia River in Oregon. Today the tribes are part of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs living in the Warm Springs Indian Reservation in Oregon and Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation living in the Yakama Indian Reservation in Washington.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walla Walla Council</span> 1855 meeting between the United States and Native Americans

The Walla Walla Council (1855) was a meeting in the Pacific Northwest between the United States and sovereign tribal nations of the Cayuse, Nez Perce, Umatilla, Walla Walla, and Yakama. The council occurred on May 29 – June 11; the treaties signed at this council on June 9 were ratified by the U.S. Senate four years later in 1859.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs</span> Indian tribe in Oregon, United States

The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs is a federally recognized Native American tribe made of three tribes who put together a confederation. They live on and govern the Warm Springs Indian Reservation in the U.S. state of Oregon.

<i>Sohappy v. Smith</i> 1969 federal case in Oregon

Sohappy v. Smith, 302 F. Supp. 899, was a federal case heard by the United States District Court for the District of Oregon, decided in 1969 and amended in 1975. It began with fourteen members of the Yakama who sued the U.S. state of Oregon over its fishing regulations. The federal court combined the case with another case, United States v. Oregon, in which the U.S. federal government sued the state along with the Yakama, Warm Springs, Umatilla, and Nez Perce tribes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oxbow Regional Park</span> Regional park in Oregon, United States

Oxbow Regional Park is a 1,000-acre (4.0 km2) natural area park located ten miles (16 km) southeast of Troutdale along the Sandy River in the U.S. state of Oregon. Owned and operated by Metro regional government, it hosts a yearly festival celebrating salmon.

Umatilla is a variety of Southern Sahaptin, part of the Sahaptian subfamily of the Plateau Penutian group. It was spoken during late aboriginal times along the Columbia River and is therefore also called Columbia River Sahaptin. It is currently spoken as a first language by a few dozen elders and some adults in the Umatilla Reservation in Oregon. Some sources say that Umatilla is derived from imatilám-hlama: hlama means 'those living at' or 'people of' and there is an ongoing debate about the meaning of imatilám, but it is said to be an island in the Columbia River. B. Rigsby and N. Rude mention the village of ímatalam that was situated at the mouth of the Umatilla River and where the language was spoken.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Columbia Plateau (ecoregion)</span> Xeric shrubland ecoregion of Canada and the United States

The Columbia Plateau ecoregion is a Level III ecoregion designated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) encompassing approximately 32,100 square miles (83,139 km2) of land within the U.S. states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. The ecoregion extends across a wide swath of the Columbia River Basin from The Dalles, Oregon to Lewiston, Idaho to Okanogan, Washington near the Canada–U.S. border. It includes nearly 500 miles (800 km) of the Columbia River, as well as the lower reaches of major tributaries such as the Snake and Yakima rivers and the associated drainage basins. It is named for the Columbia Plateau, a flood basalt plateau formed by the Columbia River Basalt Group during the late Miocene and early Pliocene. The arid sagebrush steppe and grasslands of the region are flanked by moister, predominantly forested, mountainous ecoregions on all sides. The underlying basalt is up to 2 miles (3 km) thick and partially covered by thick loess deposits. Where precipitation amounts are sufficient, the deep loess soils have been extensively cultivated for wheat. Water from the Columbia River is subject to resource allocation debates involving fisheries, navigation, hydropower, recreation, and irrigation, and the Columbia Basin Project has dramatically converted much of the region to agricultural use.

The Project on Indigenous Governance and Development, previously named the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, also known as the Harvard Project, was founded in 1987 at Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University. It administers tribal awards programs as well as provides support for students and conducting research. The Harvard Project aims to understand and foster the conditions under which sustained, self-determined social and economic development is achieved among American Indian nations through applied research and service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sherars Falls</span> Waterfall in Wasco County, Oregon

Sherar's Falls, is a small waterfall along the Deschutes River shortly before emptying into the Columbia River. It is a place considered a sacred fishing ground by local native tribes. It is located just north of the city of Maupin on Oregon Route 216 at Sherar's Bridge in Wasco County, in the U.S. state of Oregon. It totals 15 feet fall in a single drop and is the last waterfall along the Deschutes River before the Columbia River. The waterfall is rated as a class 6 whitewater and has an administrative closure to boaters because of the danger. It was named after Joseph Sherar, a 19th-century wagon road builder.

The Celilo Fish Committee is a committee formed by representatives from the Yakama Nation of Washington.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Columbia Basin Initiative</span> 2023 agreement for salmon restoration and clean energy production

The Columbia Basin Initiative is a 2023 agreement between the U.S. government, four sovereign Native American Tribes and the U.S. states of Washington and Oregon to provide over $1 billion in funds for salmon restoration and clean energy production. The agreement comes after over twenty years of litigation with the U.S. government for violating the Endangered Species Act. The agreement honors the treaty rights of the four tribes to fish and gather food in the Columbia Basin. The funding also will be used to support Tribally-owned energy projects.

References

  1. ↑ "Enforcement". CRITFC. Retrieved 2025-01-07.
  2. 1 2 3 4 The first Oregonians. Laura Berg, Oregon Council for the Humanities (2nd ed.). Portland, Or.: Oregon Council for the Humanities. 2007. ISBN   978-1-880377-02-4. OCLC   123767094.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission". www.nwcouncil.org. Retrieved 2021-03-16.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "CRITFC Impact | Treaty fishing rights, salmon restoration". CRITFC. Retrieved 2021-03-16.
  5. ↑ "Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current, October 14, 1994, Image 1 « Historic Oregon Newspapers". oregonnews.uoregon.edu. Retrieved 2021-03-16.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.