Indians Quit Salmon Commission Four Tribes Withdraw, Claiming That Process Was Just For Show

Indian tribes angrily pulled out of the federal salmon restoration review process for the Columbia and Snake rivers on Thursday, calling the year-old effort at consensus a sham.

The Yakama, Warm Springs, Umatilla and Nez Perce tribes took the action in an executive session of the Columbia Inter-Tribal Fish Commission.

The tribes will no longer participate in the executive committee formed to resolve disputes over federal salmon policy or in any of the other committees that were part of the process formed by the National Marine Fisheries Service.

“We find the decisions are not being made for the salmon,” said Ted Strong, executive director of the Columbia Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. “The decisions are being made in the defense of the federal hydropower system that has been developed on the Columbia River.”

The tribes’ action follows the recent withdrawal of the state of Montana from the process. The executive committee initially was made up of the four tribes, the states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana, and the federal agencies in charge of developing and carrying out salmon restoration efforts under the Endangered Species Act.

The tribes’ withdrawal could spell the end of the entire effort at reaching a consensus over the hotly debated salmon recovery issue.

“It certainly doesn’t look good,” said Brian Gorman, spokesman for the National Marine Fisheries Service in Seattle. “The whole idea of a regional process is to involve all the stakeholders and this doesn’t bode very well toward any kind of cooperation.”

The collapse of the process would be a gigantic blow to efforts to keep the salmon recovery issue out of court and avoid the kind of turmoil that swirled around efforts to protect the northern spotted owl.

“This is exactly what we didn’t want to happen,” Gorman said. “We’ve argued all along that there’s got to be a way to work these problems out among ourselves without throwing our hands up and saying to a judge, ‘You solve the problem.”’

The tribes believe that the effort was done just for show and that the federal agencies are doing what they want to do regardless of what the other parties believe.

“In looking back on it, one would have to say that it was absolutely an illusory concept,” Strong said. “We were led to believe one thing and something else was actually put into practice. It made the federal government look good.”

Strong said the tribes will return to dealing with the federal government as sovereign nations as defined in their treaties.

“It ultimately will lead us back to where it all started, which is litigation,” he said. “If we can’t participate in a meaningful political process, it forces us back to litigation.”