Portland area has some dam problems

Through 12 years in the military I’ve deployed to 11 different countries. I’ve been lucky enough to see and experience many different cultures and regions. I’ve also borne witness to some of the lowest forms of poverty on earth. So imagine my surprise when I discovered people in conditions that rival any third-world country, here in the Portland area. Follow the Columbia River Gorge east and scattered among several  large dams you will find what can only be described as shanty towns of Native Americans. All the residents claim to have been displaced by back water created by those dams. That makes this much more than just people living in extreme poverty. Being displaced makes them refugees:  Portland’s refugees.

A total of four dams were built on the Columbia River, east of Portland, on the Oregon-Washington border. Their purpose is to generate electricity for the Pacific Northwest. Construction began in the 1930s and wrapped up in the 1970s. Each time, backwater quickly inundated the area just upstream. The region had been home to countless small Native American fishing communities that relied on the Columbia for sustenance. As the backwater built up, it flooded everything. Whole Native American communities were wiped out. No one knows exactly how many villages were destroyed or how many people were displaced; the government did not bother to contact the communities and conduct a count before the waters came. However, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers report did note that The Dalles Dam destroyed two entire villages.  Many inhabitants from those villages chose to stay in the area. Those refugees, a generation later, are still there, calling Lone Pine, Ore., their home.

While these people might call Lone Pine home, it is not a town. Lone Pine is a fishing station created by the federal government to compensate the tribes that lost their homes to The Dalles Dam. It is meant to provide a fishing location, but in reality has been inhabited by these tribes since its creation. Lone Pine is one of 31 such stations around the four dams, each containing nothing more than a fish cleaning station, a couple public restrooms and showers, one dock, and an access road. While these facilities were meant as a camping and fishing site, they have become permanent. A generation or more later, they are still there.

A federal fact finding report from earlier this year concluded that the Native Americans at these sites were displaced by the dams. Unfortunately no funding is available for this issue beyond the initial report so any further action would require congressional approval. Given the divisive political climate today there is little chance of any movement on the matter during this Congress’s term. The Colombia River Housing Authority is working with various Native American organizations to help these communities. In the mean time, residents remain at these sites with little hope for immediate assistance.

When I moved to Portland one of the major draws was the idea of living in a socially conscious community. Instead, I fear I have found myself in another corporate American city built at the expense of the less fortunate. How is it that the modern Rose City of hippies, hipsters, and hip coffee could exist right next to these refugee camps that came to be less than 40 years ago? Unlike the Civil Rights movement for our parents and grandparents, or the problem of slavery from our history books, this is happening now, in our community. The real problem today is that Portland feels it is too hip to help.