13 June
2003
Media Contact:
Charles Hudson, CRITFC,
(503) 731-1257
Christopher Swain (503) 793-8565
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Treaty tribes praise Columbia
swimmer's arrival at last dam of journey
Portland, Oregon
- As Columbia River
swimmer Christopher Swain approaches the last leg of his 1,243-mile,
downstream journey, the region's treaty fishing tribes are applauding
the Portland activist for increasing awareness of the troubled basin.
Swain will begin his final push to the Pacific Ocean at 10:30 a.m.
Monday, June 16, at the Tanner Creek fishing area just below Bonneville
Dam, located 146 miles from the mouth of the Columbia River. The 197-foot-tall,
2,690-foot-long, concrete structure was the last obstruction Swain
had to pass in his grueling effort that began June 4, 2002, at the
Columbia's headwaters in British Columbia, Canada.
Officers from CRITFC's Hood River-based enforcement division, Columbia
River Inter-Tribal Fisheries Enforcement, have conducted the escorts
through Zone 6, a 147-mile stretch of the river between Bonneville
and McNary dams, since May 30. The officers are in one of the department's
high-speed, aluminum-hull boats used to patrol tribal treaty fishing
sites and have remained on call during the escorts.
"It's been an honor for our department to be a part of Christopher's
incredible feat," said enforcement Chief John Johnson. "Our
enforcement team is always concerned about safety on the water, so
ensuring this young man's safe passage through Zone 6 was the least
we could do."
Olney Patt Jr., executive director of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal
Fish Commission and a Warm Springs tribal member, figures Swain has
learned a lot about fisheries issues the tribes have dealt with for
decades, such as habitat loss, pollution, and spill and flow fluctuations.
"I'm sure it's been an eye-opening experience for him, and I
know he'll tell many people about what he's seen," Patt said.
"He is proving that getting to the ocean is not an easy task.
It's an equally long, arduous journey for the salmon, and we need
to take steps to make it easier."
According to CRITFC scientists, juvenile salmon could travel downstream
from Lewiston, Idaho, at the confluence of the Snake and Clearwater
rivers, to Astoria, Ore., at the mouth of the Columbia in just four
or five days before the eight federal dams along that route were constructed
between 1938 and 1971. It now takes juvenile salmon 30 to 40 days
to move downstream -- if they survive bird predation, hydroelectric
turbines and other hazards.
Swain said the tribes' tireless efforts to return the river to its
historic flows have been a motivating force for him. "I look
forward to the day there are no dams on the system and that Indian
people are fishing in their usual and accustomed places once more."
Patt adds that it wasn't that long ago that anyone could swim in the
Columbia River without concern for adverse health effects, barge traffic
and other hazards.
"I'm sure it's been quite a shock for people working at the heavy
industries along the Columbia River to see Christopher swimming by,"
Patt said. "A century ago, it wouldn't have been unusual to see
many people, particularly Indian people, in and around the river --
swimming in it, fishing in it, drinking from it."
CRITFC is working with the basin's treaty fishing tribes on a plan
that will address the effects of toxic contamination on the river's
fish species and the potential risks to the Indian people who consume
them. The project is the result of an Environmental Protection Agency
study, released last year, which found several species contained high
levels of contaminants, including PCBs, DDTs, dioxins and furans.
Allen Slickpoo Jr., CRITFC chairman, said he hopes Swain's swim, as
well as the fish contamination study, will convince dam operators
and other federal agencies to make a connection between the river's
health and the health of the fish, Indian people and tribal culture.
But he's not confident it won't happen anytime soon.
"Until these federal officials are willing to dip their cups
into the Columbia River and take a drink, I won't be assured that
that connection has been made," Slickpoo said. "For them
it's 'out of sight, out of mind.' Theirs is a culture of denial."
Said Swain: "Clean water is not just an environmental issue.
It's a basic human right."
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About CRITFC
The Portland-based Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission is
the technical support and coordinating agency for fishery management
policies of the Columbia River Basin's four treaty tribes: the Confederated
Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the Confederated Tribes
of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon, the Confederated Tribes
and Bands of the Yakama Nation and the Nez Perce Tribe.
CRITFC, formed in 1977, employs biologists, other scientists, public
information specialists, policy analysts and administrators who work
in fisheries research and analyses, advocacy, planning and coordination,
harvest control and law enforcement. |
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