Pacific Northwest tribes: Remove Columbia River dams

[Judi Lynn]

Gillian Flaccus, Associated Press
Updated 5:40 pm CDT, Monday, October 14, 2019

THE DALLES, Ore. (AP) — Two Pacific Northwest tribes on Monday demanded the removal of three major hydroelectric dams on the Columbia River to save migrating salmon and starving orcas and restore fishing sites that were guaranteed to the tribes in a treaty more than 150 years ago.

The Yakama and Lummi nations made the demand of the U.S. government on Indigenous Peoples Day, a designation that's part of a trend to move away from a holiday honoring Christopher Columbus.

For decades, people have debated whether to remove four big dams on the Lower Snake River, a tributary of the Columbia, but breaching the Columbia dams, which are a much more significant source of power, has never been seriously discussed.

. . .

Tribal leaders said at a news conference along the Columbia River that the Treaty of 1855, in which 14 tribes and bands ceded 11.5 million acres to the United States, was based on the inaccurate belief that the U.S. had a right to take the land.

Under the treaty, the Yakama Tribe retained the right to fish at all their traditional sites. But construction of the massive concrete dams decades later along the lower Columbia River to generate power for the booming region destroyed critical fishing spots and made it impossible for salmon to complete their migration.

More:
https://www.chron.com/news/us/article/Pacific-Northwest-tribes-Remove-Columbia-River-14520816.php

[bluedye33139]

1. I live way upriver and I'm torn

I used to be opposed to breaching the dams, but more and more, the ecologic effects are terrible.