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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Yakamas release sockeye into Cle Elum Lake

About 100 sockeye salmon are released Tuesday into Lake Cle Elum outside of Ronald, Wash.  The Yakama Nation Indian Tribe released sockeye salmon into a lake on the east slope of the Cascades Tuesday, marking yet another effort by Pacific Northwest tribes to restore fish in areas where they have long been extinct.  (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Shannon Dininny Associated Press

SALMON LA SAC, Wash. – The Yakama Nation Indian Tribe released sockeye salmon into a lake on the east slope of the Cascades on Tuesday, marking yet another effort by Pacific Northwest tribes to restore fish in areas where they have long been extinct.

A ceremony that included Native song and dance and a prayer for the future of the fish ended with the release of 100 sockeye salmon into Cle Elum Lake in Central Washington. Biologists plan to release 1,000 fish in the coming weeks in hopes of restoring sockeye to the headwaters of the Yakima River basin.

Phil Rigdon, deputy director of the Yakama Nation’s Natural Resources Department, called Tuesday’s event “an important milestone into what we are trying to achieve as a tribe.”

Also known as the “blueback,” sockeye salmon are revered by Pacific Northwest tribes. Juvenile salmon migrate to the ocean for about two years, then return upriver to spend several months in a lake before spawning in mountain creeks and rivers. They were eradicated in central Washington rivers when the rivers were dammed, barring fish passage.

Fidelia Andy, a Yakama Nation councilwoman and treasurer of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, remembers her grandmother’s stories about drying salmon to get through the winter.

“We’d have bundles and bundles of it put away for winter,” Andy said, recalling the telling of her grandmother’s stories. “All she would put away was the blueback.”

State and federal officials praised the Yakamas’ efforts, saying sockeye restoration wouldn’t have been possible without the tribe.

“I have no doubt, without the tireless efforts of the Yakama Nation, we would be wondering if any fish remain in the Yakima basin,” said Jeff Tayer, regional director for the Washington state Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Tribes across the region have led the way in the reintroduction of lost species, said Dale Bambrick, Eastern Washington branch chief for NOAA Fisheries.

“The tribes, starting about 25 to 30 years ago, said, ‘We aren’t going anywhere, we reside here, and we want fish to come back here where they belong,’ ” he said.

In north-central Washington, the Colville Confederated Tribes have worked to restore sockeye to the Okanogan River. In Oregon, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla successfully restored spring chinook salmon to the Umatilla River and are now working to replicate that success in southeast Washington’s Walla Walla River basin.

The Yakima River basin stretches from Snoqualmie Pass to Richland.

Three species of fish were essentially wiped out there when early dams were built to create reservoirs for irrigation and flood control: coho, summer chinook and sockeye.