Read this powerful op-ed below by Nimiipuu (Nez Perce) tribal member Allen Pinkham Jr. published in the Wallowa County Chieftain on December 9, 2020.
I belong to the Wallowa and Palouse bands of the Nez Perce. My family are descendants of Chief Red Bear, who helped Lewis and Clark build canoes and navigate the free-flowing Columbia River. I am the great-great-great-grandnephew of Chief Joseph.
These rivers have been the lifeblood of Mother Earth since time immemorial and it’s no coincidence that I’m carving canoes today that I will launch into these waters next spring. It’s a part of my agenda to restore our river and recover salmon.
The river was broken the day the first dam was built. As dams were built on the Columbia and Snake rivers, our communities were cut off from the water, our culture diminished and our salmon runs disappeared. Much of this you can’t quantify in scientific or even economic terms, but only in the damage that is done, when those runs are no longer there.
But now we’re working hard to bring our culture back. Building canoes, teaching our youth and reconnecting with our tribes up and downstream to the coast — from the Wallowas to Astoria — is strengthening our people. And central to the revitalization of our culture is the restoration of the rivers that carry our canoes and support us and all of creation.
While salmon runs in the Columbia and Snake rivers have been declining for decades, we’re now facing a moment of crisis. And let me be clear. I am not simply talking about a species, about wildlife. I am talking about our relatives.
Read the entire op-ed on the Wallowa County Chieftain’s website