Travels all over the world create unforgettable memory

All told, my travels have taken me to 11 countries across both hemispheres. I’ve felt the sands of exotic beaches cascading between my toes and I’ve soaked in the sticky aroma hanging in the air of their markets like a spicy fog. I’ve also borne witness to some of the darkest, deepest poverty that exist on this earth; the type of multi-generational despair that leaves its victims questioning the survival of not just their friends and families, but their people as a whole.

With this exposure to such extreme poverty requiring travel to some far-off land, imagine my surprise to find that people are living in conditions that rival any third-world country, just upriver from the Rose City. Follow the Columbia River Gorge east, and scattered among massive dams that provide us with so much you will find what can only be described as shanty towns of Native Americans.

Within the last 80 years, four massive dams were built on the Columbia River along the Oregon-Washington border. In fact, these dams are a small part of the massive web of dams peppered across the backs of our rivers – the Columbia and Snake – as they wind their way through much of the Pacific Northwest. With many of these dams came hydroelectric power, a lock system to allow ships passage upstream, and various supporting facilities. That means ample employment and a renewable energy source for a large rural expanse of America that might otherwise not have access to much of either. Our neighbors to the east, Idaho, get 54 percent of their power from hydroelectricity, while it accounts for nearly 70 percent of Washington’s. Oregon comes in third, with almost 43 percent of our power coming from hydroelectric sources. Those are substantial, renewable numbers in our age of strict energy conservation.

While these dams are an excellent source of green energy, they have devastated local ecosystems at every level of the food chain. One of the largest problems arising from the dams is the damage to annual salmon runs, which have been slowed or completely diverted, which greatly reduces the food supply for predatory wild life upriver, including eagles and even bears.

Human populations were not spared from the devastation, either. Through these dams, the federal government wiped out centuries-old Native American communities along the Columbia. When the river backed up behind the dam, these communities were inundated with water. The villages were later replaced with 31 designated encampments, now home to hundreds of remaining Native Americans since their ancestral lands had been flooded.

These are not recent habitations, either: Archaeological evidence shows the area, along with much of the Pacific Northwest, was continuously occupied for least the last 13,000 years. These communities span a time dating back to the last ice age, yet, locally, these are the same people(s) who would eventually come to witness the arrival of the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1805-06.

These peoples made up many different cultures, languages, and values, as well. Much of the area from the Pacific Ocean coast to the east side of the Cascade Mountains, from Canada to the north edge of the Great Basin (Salt Lake basin), was a massive collection of small communities, not singular large tribes. In the gorge, these peoples shared one thing above all others: the Columbia River. The salmon the river and its tributaries have provided have always been much more than a food source; the river and its fish are the base of an ancient life cycle that’s been maintained for longer then we may ever know.

The inevitable yet unfortunate arrival of white explorers also brought with it unprecedented death and upheaval. First came the Native American refugees from east of the Rockies, who were displaced by rival tribes newly empowered by the horses and firearms they received from white traders. Then came disease. Smallpox and other diseases decimated every single Native American community. According to Dr. John McLoughlin, chief physician (and head administrator) at Fort Vancouver (the Hudson Bay Co.’s fur-trade center on the Columbia), many tribes experienced a 90 percent mortality rate. His estimates would mean that by the time Lewis and Clark arrived in the gorge, about half the original population had fallen victim to various diseases. Smallpox and malaria epidemics would go on to continually ravage most west coast Native American communities well into the 1850s.

Meanwhile, the trickle of trappers and traders soon turned into a massive torrent of immigrants. By the 1840s, the fur trade’s decline shifted the economic staple of the region towards development of permanent settlements and land claims. This meant life in the gorge would continue to change at a furious pace, often at the expense of the true locals. While overhunting would cause the fur trade to give way to timber and food ranching, the river and its salmon continued to provide an economic foundation for many in the area, including the native residents. Unfortunately this resource was also soon depleted, primarily due to overfishing and habitat loss from the dams.

By this point, the turbulent flow of the Columbia, along with its seasonal changes, had become a hindrance to river navigation by the white settlers. By 1896, Oregon looked to tame the river with the completion of a lock-canal system where Cascade Locks now stands. Then came the push for hydroelectric power and construction of the aforementioned dams, beginning in the 1930s and wrapping up in the 1970s. With each dam, backwater quickly inundated the area just upstream. It flooded everything, and 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 conduct a count before the waters came. While an untold number of natives fled, many inhabitants from those villages chose to stay in the area.

While the dams were being built, federal officials promised a permanent housing settlement for the Warm Springs, Yakama, Umatilla and Nez Perce tribes who all call the Columbia River Gorge home. That promise has yet to materialize, unless those displaced are white. In the 1970s the government began to relocate several predominantly white towns that were in the path of the dam’s destructive backwaters.

One such relocation was the town of North Bonneville, which sprouted up near the Bonneville Dam as workers began to settle near their place of employment. By the 1970s, North Bonneville stood in the path of new dam/powerhouse construction, so it, too, would have to go.  The Corps designed and built a whole new city from scratch. All the infrastructure was funded, including streets, a sewage system, electrical connections, water storage, and even a school.

Unfortunately none of the 13,000-year old Native American communities in the area received the same treatment. Instead, the Corps replaced these community lands with those 31 fishing stations.

While these “facilities” are meant to provide a temporary camping and fishing site, in reality they became permanent communities nestled in the shadows of the gray, concrete, monolithic dams. The camps are usually limited to a fish cleaning station, a couple of public restrooms and showers, a dock, and an access road. Most residences are trailers, automobiles, and even tents. Some of these communities are estimated to house up to 30 families, yet they share a single restroom and have no access to city amenities such as electricity or even operational fire hydrants. Most residents that have electricity get it from the bathroom lights, or from generators.

In 2013, the Corps office in Portland publicly acknowledged it never fulfilled its duty to find permanent housing for tribal fishing families displaced by the construction of dams starting in the 1930s.

Moving forward from that acknowledgment  has been difficult, but meaningful action could be coming in the near future.

In April 2016, U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon, and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, modified an appropriations bill in an effort to allow the Corps to start planning a new, permanent tribal community adjacent to the Dalles Dam. The bill passed in Congress with little opposition.

According to a press release on March 15 of this year issued by Murray and Merkley, along with fellow Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon and Maria Cantwell, D-Washington, and U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Portland, this bill allows the Corps to dedicate up to $1.56 million for a village development plan to replace housing lost during construction of the Dalles Dam during the 1950s. Another $1.49 million will go towards planning and development, depending on congressional funding for the rest of fiscal year 2017.

Per the joint press release, “It is critical that the federal government move quickly to complete the village development plan for The Dalles Dam… Conditions at many treaty fishing access sites and in-lieu sites are highly unsafe and unsanitary, and it is finally time for the federal government to fulfill commitments made when the dams were constructed and to honor the treaties signed with the four Columbia River Treaty Tribes.

“A strong commitment from the Army Corps and Office of Management and Budget is needed to make progress this year in the interest of public health and safety and upholding treaty rights,” the statement said.

A strong commitment is needed on our behalf, as well. The people of Portland and all the Pacific Northwest have been reaping the benefits on our native neighbors’ land and resources for generations, and it’s high time we give something in return.

https://www.merkley.senate.gov/news/press-releases/sens-murray-merkley-cantwell-wyden-and-rep-blumenauer-urge-federal-government-to-dedicate-future-funding-address-unmet-obligations-to-columbia-river-treaty-tribes