The Columbia River is one of the most beautiful – and until the dam-building era began in the 1930’s, was one of the most biologically rich – rivers on earth. This changed with the constuction of fourteen dams that blocked the flow of waters and fisheries along the Columbia and its tributaries, extending into Montana and Canada. Four of these, including Libby Dam in Montana, are Columbia River Treaty dams. Dam building altered the cultural traditions, food sources, and economies of the Columbia River Basin tribes. The Grand Coulee Dam, completed in 1941, effectively blocked the Upper Columbia’s ancestral salmon runs.
Creation stories place with the Columbia Basin Tribes and First Nations a sacred responsibility to care for the land, water, and animals. Salmon were the most important to the diet and culture of indigenous peoples of the Northwest. According to tribal myth, when asked by Creator to help the People, Salmon was the first to gift its body to feed the humans. The second was Water, as home to the Salmon. But steelhead, sturgeon, trout and other fisheries, and animals, roots, berries, and medicinal plants, all are ‘First Foods’ that formed the foundation of the cultural diets and economies of the original inhabitants of the land.
In 1944 the U.S. and Canada assigned the International Joint Commission (IJC) to study development and management of the Columbia Basin. Initially, the study included navigation, hydropower, flood control, and irrigation, as well as ecosystem functions such as wetlands and conservation of fish and wildlife. However, in 1948 a record flood wiped out Vanport, a low-lying city along the lower Columbia developed to support industry for WW II. This event provided the impetus to limit focus of the Columbia River study to water storage for flood control and electrical generation, and the apportionment of the river between the two countries.
Columbia Basin Tribes and First Nations retain lands, rights, and responsibilities in the international Columbia Basin. Yet, negotiators for both nations failed to consult with indigenous people, and communities of the Basin as a whole. When ratified in 1964 the Columbia River Treaty contained only two purposes: hydropower and flood control. Ecosystem function and the welfare of the tribes were not considered. The Treaty undermined their sacred responsibility to care for the land, water, and animals.
Righting historic wrongs by including ecosystem function and traditional values in modernization of the Columbia River Treaty is a purpose of the Ethics and Treaty Project. The goals of the project are to promote principles of stewardship and justice in modernizing the Columbia River Treaty.
A series of conferences have been focusing on the past and future of the Columbia River and seek to acknowledge injustices inflicted upon Tribes and First Nations, as a result of the dam building. This series of water-ethics conferences on the past and future of the Columbia River seeks to acknowledge injustices inflicted upon Tribes and First Nations, as a result of the dam building. These conferences have two functional models: (1) the Columbia River Pastoral Letter written by the Roman Catholic Bishops of the international watershed, and (2) tools used by hospital ethics committees, as well as South Africa’s post-apartheid “Truth and Reconciliation” process. Given the history and present-day climate change, the Tribes, First Nations, and NGOs are advocating that ecosystem function (river stewardship) be added to the Treaty as a third purpose, equal to hydropower and flood risk.
The group continues to work to achieve these visionary goals, and we remain a supporter. Check back for updates and more information.