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- all land ceded in treaty is described by water resources (Water and fishing super important)
- reservation land "marked for their exclusive use" and no white people were allowed to live there without permission from agent and superintendent
- "Exclusive right of taking fish in the streams running through and bordering said reservation is hereby secured to said Indians...the privilege of hunting, gathering roots and berries and pasturing their stock on unclaimed lands in common with citizens, is also secured to them" (Art.1)
- Forced agriculture-- would not recieve money for ceded land if they did not use it "correctly" (determined by President) (Art.2)
- "United States agree to erect.. one saw-mill, and one flouring-mill" (Art.4)
- stipulation for transportation advancements, roads and railroads, on reservation land.

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Treaty with the Walla Walla, Cayuse, and Umatilla, 1855

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The Treaty with the Walla Walla, Cayuse, and Umatilla was signed by signed by Isaac Stevens (1818-1862), Governor of Washington Territory, and by Pio-pio-mox-mox, chief of the Walla Wallas, Weyatenatemany, chief of the Cayuse, and Wenap-snoot, chief of the Umatilla, on June 9, 1855. This file contai…

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Importance of gathering roots and berries, hunting, and fishing for CTUIR people.
-"There were no buffalo in this area"
- "This meant that the Indian people had to move from place to place from season to season to their food"
- Tells the exact food cycle traveled by the tribes pre-colonization and the resources they would gather along the way.

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Until the early 1900s, the culture of the Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla Indians was based on a yearly cycle of travel from hunting camps to fishing spots to celebration and trading camps and so on.

The three tribes spent most of their time in the area which is now northeastern Oregon and southeastern Washington. They had lived in the Columbia River Region for more than 10,000 years. There were no buffalo in this area. The most plentiful foods were salmon, roots, berries, deer and elk. Each of these foods could be found in different places and each was available in different seasons. This meant that the Indian people had to move from place to place from season to season to their food and prepare it to be eaten and to be saved for the winter. They followed the same course from year to year in a large circle from the lowlands along the Columbia River to the highlands in the Blue Mountains.

In the spring the tribes gathered along the Columbia River at places like Celilo Falls to fish for salmon and trade goods with other tribes. They dried the salmon and stored it for later use. In late spring and early summer they traveled from the Columbia to the foot hills of the Blue Mountains to dig for roots which they also dried. In late summer they traveled to the upper mountains to pick berries and to hunt for deer and elk. In the fall the tribe would return to the lower valleys and along the Columbia River again to catch the fall salmon run. All would stay in winter camps in the low regions until spring when the whole cycle would start all over again.

The earth provided all the food the Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla peoples needed:

"I wonder if the ground has anything to say? I wonder if the ground is listening to what is said? I wonder if the ground would come alive and what is on it? Though I hear what the ground says. The ground says, it is the great spirit that placed me here. The great spirit tells me to take care of the Indians, to feed them alright. The great spirit appointed the roots to feed the Indians on. The water says the same thing. The great spirit directs me, feed the Indians well. The ground, water and grass say, the great spirit has given us our names. We have these names and hold these names. The ground says, the great spirit has placed me here to produce all that grows on me, trees and fruit. The same way the ground says, it was from me man was made. The great spirit, in placing men on the earth, desired them to take good care of the ground and to do each other no harm...Young Chief
1855 Treaty Council

The salmon was the first food to appear in early spring. Family bands gathered along the Columbia River at their favorite or traditional fishing sites to catch and dry enough salmon to use for the year ahead. During the salmon runs, the fish traveled up every creek and river that emptied into the Columbia. There were so many that it was said that you could walk across a creek on the backs of salmon.

The men hooked, netted, trapped and speared huge quantities of fish. A very common net was the long handled dipnet which is still used today. Platforms made of wood were suspended from rocks or bluffs. Fishermen stood on these platforms and used their dipnets. The women cleaned the salmon and hung them on long racks to dry in the sun.

When enough salmon was dried and stored away in caches, the bands would prepare to move to the foothills of the Blue Mountains to dig roots.

The couse root (Kowsh, also known as biscuitroot) with its bright flowers turned the late spring and early summer hillsides of Eastern Oregon yellow. Women dug the roots with diggers made of hardwood or antlers. The roots were mashed together and shaped into small biscuits and dried in the sun. The biscuits were stored away for later use.

In the late summer, the Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla people would move to the upper mountains to pick huckleberries and hunt for game. The berries and meat were also dried. Chokecherries were pounded with dried meat or salmon to make pemmican. Black moss gathered from pine and fir trees was baked to make a cheese-like food. Camas bulbs were dried or baked.

Every food the Indian people needed was provided by the earth. Ceremonies were held in the spring to honor the new foods. One of those, the Root Feast, is still celebrated today on the Umatilla Reservation. Although salmon is not as plentiful as it was before the dams were built on the Columbia, many of the Indian people of the Umatilla Indian Reservation still eat traditional foods like roots, berries, deer, elk and salmon as part of their every day diet.

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Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation CTUIR

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Until the early 1900s, the culture of the Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla Indians was based on a yearly cycle of travel from hunting camps to fishing spots to celebration and trading camps and so on. The three tribes spent most of their time in the area which is now northeastern Oregon and southeastern Washington.

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Licensed Upland Hunting Areas

CTUIR hunting licenses are required for hunting on Tribal fee and trust lands and individual Indian allotments within the reservation. Property boundaries may not be marked and it is the responsibility of the hunter to be aware of the properties they are hunting on. It is the hunters responsibility to obtain land owner permission to access or cross properties for the purpose of hunting. Purchase of the license grants permission to hunt upland birds and waterfowl on Tribally owned lands but does not secure access to travel across private individual land or allotments.

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Licensed Upland Hunting Areas CTUIR hunting licenses are required for hunting on Tribal fee and trust lands and individual Indian allotments within the reservation. Property boundaries may not be marked and it is the responsibility of the hunter to be aware of the properties they are hunting on.

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Oregon's History From CTUIR Perspective 

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Oregon's History From CTUIR Perspective 

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Bobby Conner
"lived and traveled about 12 million acres"  (including part of what is now Yellowstone)
interconnectedness of nature and animals and our original homeland  ("reservation is not home")
Talks about how her grandmother during the early 1900s was still going in the seasonal round.
Overlapping of tribal lands with other tribes; contemporarily overlapping with other tribes as well as private and federal lands.
Tribal culture ("laws") "require that we cannot marry in our culture closer than a fourth or fifth cousin"-- intermarriage happening long before Lewis and Clark

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Tells about the history of Yellowhawk.
First tribally owned and run clinic- have an obligation to operate correctly since it sets a precedence for other tribes that followed and created their own clinics- centers "wellness" within the individual, environment, and community.
Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975 "gave tribes the ability to determine how to use healthcare funds provided by the U.S. government."

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In 1855 the United States Government and the heads of the Walla Walla, Cayuse and Umatilla tribes signed a legally binding contract that never expires. In the treaty, the tribes gave the United States more than 6.4 million acres in what is now northeastern Oregon and southeastern Washington. In exchange, the tribes were promised many things, including ongoing healthcare for their people. However, governmental policies varied significantly over the years and healthcare services were not consistently available to tribal members until the late 1930s.

Chief Carl Sampson of the Walla Walla Tribe tells the following story:

"When I was a child and when I raised my children, we would go to the basement of the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) building for healthcare. That building has been torn down. A doctor and nurse would come in from Pendleton once a month and offer basic shots and treat colds. I became very sick when I was five or six and no one was around to see me. I had to be taken to Pendleton, which was a big deal back then. I had contracted spinal meningitis, and I'm told that I could have died."

Since time immemorial, long before the invention of the word "wellness," CTUIR leaders have been concerned with the health of its people.

Despite political ups and downs, the CTUIR's philosophy on healthcare remained constant, particularly in three areas:

Lifestyle decisions are ultimately the responsibility of the individual,

Wellness is a dynamic relationship between the individual and the environment, and

The community should participate in determining its own healthcare needs.

It's also important to note that the CTUIR is a model community in terms of participating in its own healthcare decisions. It was the first tribal group to utilize the Community Health Representative Program (established in 1968), and the first to own their own clinic (construction completed in 1972).

The Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975 (Public Law 93-638) set the wheels in motion for the tribe to manage its own healthcare needs at a future date. Among other things, this law gave tribes the ability to determine how to use healthcare funds provided by the U.S. government. Around this same time, the American Academy of Pediatric Physicians recognized CTUIR as unique within the tribal healthcare system because of its emphasis placed on self-directed wellness and community-designed health initiatives. Case in point, in 1977, Yellowhawk sponsored its first Fun Run, when many people in the country considered the running of road races a trivial fad. Yellowhawk has always been forward thinking and innovative.

In 1996, CTUIR assumed ownership and leadership of its tribal healthcare from Indian Health Services. Today, many tribes (there are more than 550 tribes recognized by the U.S. government) still do not own or govern their healthcare organizations.

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Today and Yesterday - Yellowhawk Tribal Health Center

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In 1855 the United States Government and the heads of the Walla Walla, Cayuse and Umatilla tribes signed a legally binding contract that never expires. In the treaty, the tribes gave the United States more than 6.4 million acres in what is now northeastern Oregon and southeastern Washington.

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First Foods/ Natural Resource Management 

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First Foods/ Natural Resource Management 

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Cultural Sig:
"At ceremonial feasts, the CTUIR people honor the five First Foods by serving them formally and before any other foods "
"Four emblematic First Foods, fish, big game, roots, and berries, are served in the order in which these foods promised to care for the Indian people according to the CTUIR creation belief"
Creation belief: Creator said "who will take care of the people?" and the salmon responded "I will" and all the other salmon lined up behind him and swam up river. Next, the deer and so on. Highlights reciprocity between man and First Foods. First Foods will protect them only if they protect the First Foods.
"Water, the fifth First Food, is served before and after the four emblematic First Foods, in recognition of the fact that water is singularly essential, nourishing all other First Foods, people, and the landscape"
First Foods not replaced by non-Indigenous foods that have been introduced, such as wheat for roots. Instead, "nonindigenous foods are served at ceremonies and feasts only after the ritual serving of First Foods, and without ceremony or significance"
First Food rituals done at all ceremonies: naming, funerals, feasts, etc.

Diminishing of First Foods:
Fences, artificial barriers, and other industrial "advancements" limiting the movement of big game
During early settlement, "Resource use by the expanding non-native human population increasingly was dominated by extractive and intensive management approaches, rather than by a culture of reciprocity and support of resilient ecosystems."
"the physical, biological, and ecological processes that support First Foods have been impaired by many changes, such as dams, floodplain simplification, fire suppression, water extraction, pollution, grazing, deforestation, commercial and irrigated agriculture, crop introductions, and placer and gravel mining"
Salmon runs declining by about 50% in "1800s to the 1930s because of overharvest and habitat degradation, and then declined further to 1–2 million (a 90% loss) since the construction of the mainstem Columbia River dams "

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The following is the established format for referencing this article:
Quaempts, E. J., K. L. Jones, S. J. O'Daniel, T. J. Beechie, and G. C. Poole. 2018. Aligning environmental management with ecosystem resilience: a First Foods example from the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, Oregon, USA. Ecology and Society 23(2):29.
https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-10080-230229

¹Department of Natural Resources of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, Mission, OR, ²USGS Oregon Water Science Center, Portland, OR, ³Fish Ecology Division, Northwest Fisheries Science Center, National Marine Fisheries Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Seattle, WA, ⁴Department of Land Resources and Environmental Sciences, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, ⁵ Institute on Ecosystems, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT

ABSTRACT

The concept of "reciprocity" between humans and other biota arises from the creation belief of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR). The concept acknowledges a moral and practical obligation for humans and biota to care for and sustain one another, and arises from human gratitude and reverence for the contributions and sacrifices made by other biota to sustain human kind. Reciprocity has become a powerful organizing principle for the CTUIR Department of Natural Resources, fostering continuity across the actions and policies of environmental management programs at the CTUIR. Moreover, reciprocity is the foundation of the CTUIR "First Foods" management approach. We describe the cultural significance of First Foods, the First Foods management approach, a resulting management vision for resilient and functional river ecosystems, and subsequent shifts in management goals and planning among tribal environmental staff during the first decade of managing for First Foods. In presenting this management approach, we highlight how reciprocity has helped align human values and management goals with ecosystem resilience, yielding management decisions that benefit individuals and communities, indigenous and nonindigenous, as well as human and nonhuman. We further describe the broader applicability of reciprocity-based approaches to natural resource management.

Key words: Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation; ecosystem resilience; First Foods; reciprocity; resilient rivers; tribal environmental management

INTRODUCTION

Human communities depend on ecosystems for many services, such as drinking water, food, and building materials. One consequence of this dependence is ecosystem simplification as human actions tend to reduce the spatial and temporal complexity of ecosystems in order to maximize resource productivity and streamline management and harvesting actions. This simplification, in turn, can diminish ecosystem resilience. Resilience has many facets, including the capacity of an ecosystem to return to a reference state after a temporary disturbance (Grimm and Wissel 1997) and the amount of change that an ecosystem can absorb before governing processes shift, moving an ecosystem to an alternative stable state (Holling 1973). As resilience is diminished, ecosystems often lose their long-term viability and capacity to produce ecosystem services (Folke et al. 2010).

Environmental management strategies increasingly are focused on managing and restoring ecosystem resilience across landscapes where returning to predisturbance conditions is not a viable option (Folke et al. 2004, Chapin et al. 2010). Motivations include the ethical responsibilities of present-day generations to future generations and the need to manage for ecosystems that can withstand climate change (Waples et al. 2009, Anderson and Ferree 2010, Beier and Brost 2010, Chapin et al. 2011, Beechie et al. 2013). Managing for ecosystem resilience instead of short-term resource extraction involves a fundamental shift from managing ecosystems that are simple and static to managing ecosystems that are complex and dynamic in space and time (sensu Peipoch et al. 2015) as well as adaptive learning and management (Gunderson 2000). Substantive questions remain as this management shift evolves. For instance, how can environmental management support resilient ecosystems, which in turn support the individual and societal needs of humans? What are the management approaches for balancing resilient ecosystems and resource use? How do environmental managers communicate management and restoration actions related to ecosystem resilience to their constituents? How do agencies shift to managing for ecosystem resilience and natural processes within an interagency context?

We offer the "First Foods" management approach of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) as a case study providing viable responses to such questions. The CTUIR Department of Natural Resources's (DNR) First Foods approach has the following distinguishing components, which are described in detail below: (1) the explicit acknowledgement of reciprocity between humans and the environment as reinforced by the CTUIR's creation belief and ritual serving order for culturally significant foods; (2) a departmental mission and structure organized by the First Foods approach; (3) the recognition and emphasis on the ecological ordering of First Foods; (4) the recognition of the spatial distribution of foods as modeled in the serving order, and (5) the identification of linkages between the serving order and the Walla Walla Treaty of 1855, thereby informing and enriching intergovernmental relations and collaborative opportunities. We offer insights into how ecosystem resilience can be incorporated into environmental management strategies in ways that are meaningful to communities, helpful for interagency collaboration, and adaptable by other natural resource management entities. We describe the cultural basis of the First Foods, the CTUIR's use of resource visions to implement the First Foods management approach, and subsequent shifts in planning and goals among tribal environmental staff in their first decade of managing for First Foods. We also discuss how the First Foods approach may act as a lens for understanding natural resource stewardship in a way that resonates with people of diverse cultures and belief systems.

BACKGROUND

The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation

The CTUIR encompasses three tribal bands of confederacy, the Umatilla, Walla Walla, and Cayuse. The diminished Umatilla Indian Reservation (UIR) covers 6900 ha in northeastern Oregon (Fig. 1). The total CTUIR population was about 3075 members in 2016 (E. Lubrin, personal communication, CTUIR Enrollment Office, November 2016). About 4340 people, including CTUIR members, other tribal members, and nontribal members, resided on the UIR as of 2015-2016 (Umatilla-Morrow Counties Community Health Partnership 2016).

The CTUIR negotiated for the UIR and its ceded lands of 6.4 million acres (nearly 2,590,000 ha) in the Walla Walla Treaty of 1855 with the United States. On these ceded lands, the CTUIR retains rights to access and harvest treaty-reserved resources on open and unclaimed federal lands. Beyond these ceded lands is an extensive aboriginal use area that has been documented through oral histories and published literature (Hunn et al. 2015). The CTUIR manages for tribal natural resources and access to them on the UIR, ceded lands, and aboriginal use area through its own governance and intergovernmental relationships with local, state, and federal governments. The CTUIR actively collaborates with other natural resource agencies on lands outside the UIR because of tribal historical patterns of landscape use (Fig. 1), reserved Treaty rights, and the fact that lands within the diminished reservation boundary cannot provide the CTUIR with all First Foods (Fig. 2).

Cultural significance of First Foods

Food is integral to CTUIR ceremonies and traditions, as it is in other cultures, such as the feast of Thanksgiving in U.S. culture and the symbolic consumption of bread and wine in Christian ceremonies (The Holy Bible, Luke 22:19). At ceremonial feasts, the CTUIR people honor the five First Foods by serving them formally and before any other foods (Fig. 3). Four emblematic First Foods, fish, big game, roots, and berries, are served in the order in which these foods promised to care for the Indian people according to the CTUIR creation belief (Relander 1986, Karson 2006, Confederated Umatilla Journal 2008). In the creation belief, "the Creator asked [of the creatures of the Earth], "Who will take care of the people?" Salmon said "I will" and the other fish lined up behind him, then the deer made a promise, and so on" (Confederated Umatilla Journal 2008). Water, the fifth First Food, is served before and after the four emblematic First Foods, in recognition of the fact that water is singularly essential, nourishing all other First Foods, people, and the landscape. Without water, none of the other First Foods can exist. The community celebrates First Foods when harvesting foods for feasts, everyday use after feasts, and honoring a tribal member's first harvest of a First Food. They practice the serving order at funerals, memorials, naming of individuals, and weekly services of the Washat, the religion of the Columbia Plateau tribes (Relander 1986). For First Foods feasts and other ceremonial meals, men serve the water and harvest and serve the fish and big game, while women harvest and serve the roots and berries (Fig. 3). These harvest gender roles may or may not be strictly followed during other times of the year, such as when harvesting for familial and personal use. The CTUIR community does not include any nontraditional foods in the First Foods serving order and ritual despite the introduction and abundance of new foods. For example, Smallmouth Bass ( Micropterus dolomieu), a widespread introduced fish in the Pacific Northwest (Carey et al. 2011), is not used as a substitute for native fishes, nor wheat for roots. Instead, nonindigenous foods are served at ceremonies and feasts only after the ritual serving of First Foods, and without ceremony or significance. First Foods in these acts of ceremony and religion define and reinforce the identities of individuals, families, and the tribal community (sensu Holtzman 2006), and signify the enduring linkages between the CTUIR people and their food, values, and environment.

The CTUIR's creation belief also reinforces "reciprocity" between First Foods and the CTUIR people, meaning First Foods promised to care for the people and the people are responsible for the care and protection of First Foods. Since time immemorial, the CTUIR has benefited from First Foods used for subsistence, ceremony, and medicine. Tribal members benefit from the nutrition and exercise associated with traditional practices and access to traditional resources (Kuhnlein and Receveur 1996, Cochran and Geller 2002, Hess et al. 2008). Data on the proportion of First Foods in the CTUIR's diet are unavailable; however, steady participation at feasts, regular use of First Foods for subsistence by tribal members, and increasing awareness of the health benefits of a traditional diet reflect the dietary importance of First Foods to the CTUIR. In turn, the CTUIR people take care of First Foods through actions that support resilient ecosystems and First Foods. For instance, root-harvesting practices include leaving most roots to complete their life cycle at harvesting sites, replanting the flowering heads of harvested roots for continued production, or postponing harvest until seeds have dropped. Similarly, individuals leave some berries on huckleberry bushes for forage by bears and other animals and to encourage continued berry production. Such explicit, intentional, and enduring actions emphasize and prioritize ecosystem resiliency over short-term maximization of resource extraction. Moreover, these expressions of reciprocity reflect a recent shift in CTUIR individual and community actions from solely supporting concepts of western culture, such as "sustainability," toward reembracing the traditional concepts of supporting and sustaining First Foods and their cultural, religious, and subsistence significance in honor of the promises made by the First Foods to care for the CTUIR people.

Diminishment of First Foods

From time immemorial to Euro-American settlement and the Walla Walla Treaty of 1855, dynamic natural processes and tribal practices maintained plentiful First Foods (Fig. 4). Water from melting snow pack fed the rivers, connecting them seasonally with their floodplains. Fires ignited by thunderstorms reset terrestrial vegetation communities, and helped supply rivers with new spawning gravels for salmon and lamprey. Big game First Foods, such as mule deer ( Odocoileus hemionus), elk ( Cervus canadensis), and bighorn sheep ( Ovis canadensis; Fig. 3) migrated across the landscape unencumbered by fences and other artificial barriers. Meanwhile, the CTUIR, like other tribes in the Pacific Northwest, used fire to manage huckleberry fruit production (Minore 1972, Fisher 1997) and create foraging areas for big game. They harvested foods across the dynamic landscape in synchrony with plant phenology and food availability. The arrival of horses on tribal lands in 1770 increased tribal access to all First Foods because they helped the CTUIR tribal members expand their range for hunting and harvesting (Figs. 1, 4).

Accessibility and abundance of First Foods began to decline for the CTUIR with Euro-American settlement and later substantial reductions in the area of the UIR. The UIR was reduced from over 99,000 ha to about 64,000 ha over the course of four reductions from 1885 to 1888 (Fig. 4). Resource use by the expanding non-native human population increasingly was dominated by extractive and intensive management approaches, rather than by a culture of reciprocity and support of resilient ecosystems. For example, Euro-American management has included the extraction of mineral and water resources and intensive management of agricultural lands for single crops; such management focuses on the production of a limited number of resources at the expense of numerous others and on controlling natural processes that create habitat and biological diversity across the landscape. As a result, the physical, biological, and ecological processes that support First Foods have been impaired by many changes, such as dams, floodplain simplification, fire suppression, water extraction, pollution, grazing, deforestation, commercial and irrigated agriculture, crop introductions, and placer and gravel mining. These changes along with Euro-American suppression of CTUIR natural resource management, cultural expressions, and religious practices contributed to the simplification of native ecosystems and the eventual decline of many culturally important resources (Figs. 4-6).

In this modern landscape, many First Foods, such as salmon, lampreys, and mussels, have declined precipitously (Gresh et al. 2000). For example, over 10-16 million salmon and steelhead ( Oncorhynchus spp.) returned to the Columbia River historically; these runs declined to 5-8 million (a 50% loss) from the 1800s to the 1930s because of overharvest and habitat degradation, and then declined further to 1-2 million (a 90% loss) since the construction of the mainstem Columbia River dams (Montgomery 2003; Figs. 5-7). As early as 1926, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife found no Chinook ( Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) or Coho ( O. kisutch) salmon in the Umatilla River (Boyce 1986; Fig. 5). Multiple salmonid Evolutionary Species Units (ESUs) were listed as "Endangered" or "Threatened" under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) from 1991 to 1999 and Pacific Lamprey ( Entosphenus tridentatus) were petitioned for listing in 2003 (Figs. 7, 8). Today, the salmonids remain listed under the ESA (Fig. 9). In addition, Pacific lamprey numbers remain low in the Umatilla basin, requiring the CTUIR to travel more than 360 km to collect Pacific Lamprey at Willamette Falls near Portland, Oregon. Other First Foods, such as huckleberries ( Vaccinium spp.), are commercially harvested by nontribal individuals from federal lands in manners that threaten their availability to tribal members (Minore et al. 1979).

CTUIR NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Prior to the creation of the CTUIR's Department of Natural Resources, the abundance and availability of First Foods were conserved by Supreme Court rulings, the Clean Water Act, the ESA, and the collective scientific, habitat restoration, and policy actions of the CTUIR (Figs. 5-8). For example, the Supreme Court case U.S. v. Winans (1905) established that tribes retained sovereignty and reserved rights to continue their ways of life through the treaty negotiations and that the U.S. has federal trust responsibility to the tribes (Blumm and Swift 1998, Pevar 2012). This means that the CTUIR retained their rights to the access and use of usual and accustomed places and reservation lands as identified and negotiated in the Walla Walla Treaty of 1855 (Figs. 1, 4). The CTUIR also shares governance of natural resources with federal and state agencies, resulting from the treaty making process outlined in Article VI of the U.S. Constitution. For example, several federal departments, such as the Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, and Defense, are responsible for consulting with tribes on the management of federal actions that might affect tribal natural resources associated with the treaties between tribes and the U.S. Federal Government (Galanda 2011), and developing consultation policies focused on tribes (Executive Order No. 13175). The resulting government-to-government relationship enables tribes and the federal government to have discussions on issues of concern, including the management of resources important to tribal culture.

Within the CTUIR, governance for natural resources starts with the Board of Trustees (BOT). The BOT is a group of nine people elected by the General Council to protect the CTUIR rights as reserved in the Walla Walla Treaty of 1855, set policy, make final decisions on tribal affairs, and determine priority projects and issues on behalf of the CTUIR and residents of the UIR. The BOT formed the DNR in 1982 to manage resources on the reservation and, in collaboration with state and federal agencies, on ceded lands and in aboriginal use area (Fig. 1). The original mission of the DNR was to "... protect, enhance and restore the natural and cultural heritage of the CTUIR by ensuring the long-term health, availability, wise-use, and production of the tribe's natural and cultural resources in a manner consistent with Tribal values and scientifically sound resource management" (CTUIR 2005:2). In 2005, the DNR consisted of six programs: Administration, Cultural Resources Protection, Water Resources, Fisheries, Wildlife, and Environmental Planning and Rights Protection Programs. The DNR has grown substantially in terms of staff, number of projects, budgets, and number of cooperating agencies from 1995 to 2015 (Table 1).

CTUIR DNR efforts, 1982 to 2005

The DNR faced many challenges in its first 23 years of managing for natural resources. The main challenge, then and today, is securing CTUIR water rights for instream flows and consumptive uses to meet the needs of the UIR community and fulfill the purpose of the UIR as the CTUIR's homeland. As of 2018, these water rights have not been secured, and the CTUIR is actively working with a federal negotiation team to permanently protect water, for both instream and consumptive uses. The process of securing rights has been ongoing since the 1980s and the passage of the federal Umatilla Basin Project Act (U.S.C. Public Law 100-557) in 1988 (henceforth, UPB Act; Figs. 7-9).

A second challenge faced by the CTUIR DNR from 1982 to 2005 was the limited CTUIR governance capacity. This limited capacity restricted the scope of activities that the CTUIR was able to undertake and prevented them from pursuing multiple complex efforts simultaneously. This capacity has increased over time (Table 1; Figs. 7-8)

A third challenge faced by the CTUIR DNR from 1982 to 2005 was re-establishing extirpated salmon and lamprey in the mainstem Umatilla River through artificial propagation and fish supplementation programs (Figs. 7-8). The UPB Act helped provide some incremental progress toward improving base flows and fisheries in the Umatilla River because it allowed Umatilla Basin agricultural irrigators to use water instead from the Columbia River, leaving water in the Umatilla River during summer to support the artificial salmonid supplementation programs from 1993 to 1999 (Phillips et al. 2000, Shelley 2002). The UPB Act implementation required that the CTUIR DNR collaborate with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW), Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (BOR), Oregon Water Resources Department (OWRD), and the Hermiston, Stanfield, West Extension, and Westland Irrigation Districts. DNR staff operated fish supplementation facilities, and released spring and fall Chinook and Coho salmon (in 1982), Pacific lamprey (in 2000), and mussels (Bivalvia: Unionoida; in 2005) to initiate reintroduction in the Umatilla basin. Staff observed the first returns of reintroduced spring and fall Chinook and Coho salmon from 1984 to 1989, resulting in the CTUIR's Umatilla basin salmon return celebration in 1984 and the re-establishment of tribal salmon fishing in the Umatilla River in 1990 (Figs. 7-8). Positive outcomes of the UPB Act included the subsequent fishery and improved summer flows in the Umatilla River. The UPB Act also spurred the CTUIR to establish goals for salmon restoration, and enabled the CTUIR to take a coequal role in government-to-government dialogues concerning natural resource issues. Irrigators, state water managers, local governments, and other cooperators recognized that the restoration of salmon to the Umatilla River would have been unlikely without the involvement, initiative, and persistence of the CTUIR DNR (Shelley 2002). Today, much work remains to continue to build on these successes in the lower Umatilla River basin where water quality, fish productivity, and habitat continue to persist at greatly suppressed levels of ecological function (Miller et al. 2007).

CTUIR DNR's First Foods management approach and mission, 2006-ongoing

Addressing the complex and inter-related challenges faced by the CTUIR DNR from 1982 to 2005 and responding to the CTUIR community's calls for management of all First Foods required that the CTUIR DNR adopt a more holistic and coherent approach, make the argument for increased organizational capacity, and prioritize management actions to meet community needs. Thus, in 2006, the "First Foods Management Approach and Mission" were introduced to DNR staff as a means of organizing DNR work goals and efforts in response to community cultural values and practices. Staff then reviewed the draft mission quarterly and multiple times with commissions, committees, and the BOT. Later that year, DNR proposed that the mission serve as the guiding element of the DNR's annual work plan. The BOT approved the adoption of the mission and its implementation, starting 1 January 2007, as follows:

To protect, restore, and enhance the First Foods - water, salmon, deer, cous, and huckleberry - for the perpetual cultural, economic, and sovereign benefit of the CTUIR. We will accomplish this utilizing traditional ecological and cultural knowledge and science to inform: 1) population and habitat management goals and actions; and 2) natural resource policies and regulatory mechanisms. (CTUIR 2006:2)

This mission statement is a community-driven management response to the incapacity of the present-day local landscape and UIR to support the full table setting for ceremony and subsistence uses (Fig. 2).

In 2007, the DNR was reorganized into five programs that relate directly to the major divisions in the First Foods serving order (Fig.3): Water - Water Resources Program, Fish - Fisheries Program, Big Game - Wildlife Program, Roots - Range Program, and Berries - Forestry Program. Three other DNR programs (Cultural Resources Protection Program, Outreach and Educations Specialist, and First Foods Policy Program) supports all foods in their work. The DNR now has about 127 staff, reflecting the department's growing capacity (Table 1). The inclusion of the First Foods in the DNR's mission statement also provides guidance to tribal programs that assist in the planning and implementation of DNR efforts, such as the Geographic Information Systems program and Office of Legal Counsel. For the CTUIR DNR and other programs, the First Foods management approach and mission provide a coherent management and governance structure that is responsive to community requests for these resources and the order in which the First Foods are harvested and served.

In the first 10 years of implementing the First Foods management approach and mission, the DNR has emphasized the collective First Foods serving order over individual First Foods. The rationale is that doing so increases management responsiveness to the community, provides a direct connection with the promises made by all foods in the tribal creation belief, and reflects the phenology and geographic distribution of the foods in the serving order. For example, the seasonal progression of available foods follows an elevation gradient, beginning in the spring along the Columbia River, progressing into the mountains during the summer, and returning to the tributaries, like the Umatilla River, in the fall. The First Foods management approach has extended management efforts to encompass big game, roots, and berries and the full First Foods table setting more explicitly (Fig. 3). Big game efforts have included coordinating tribal harvest opportunities, such as the hunting of sensitive populations of bighorn sheep and mountain goats with ODFW and buffalo hunts with the Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks in 2009 because buffalo are unavailable for hunting on UIR (Figs. 8, 9). Root and berry efforts have included developing a traditional use report for huckleberry (Schumacher 2016) and mapping distributions of five root foods on 15,284 ha with United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service (USFS) in 2008 and another three root foods on an additional 52,768 ha with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in 2009. Root and berry efforts have also focused on coordinating tribal access for harvesting. For example, the DNR secured access through a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with a private energy developer for root digging access on isolated BLM parcels starting in 2007.

EMERGING INSIGHTS FROM THE CTUIR'S FIRST DECADE OF IMPLEMENTING THE FIRST FOODS MANAGEMENT APPROACH

Over the last 10 years, the DNR has gained insights into the First Foods approach and the ways in which it has benefited their management of culturally significant natural resources. Here, we provide examples of some benefits that may be meaningful to other tribal managers and, in some cases, nontribal managers.

"Visionary" management that integrates science to support natural resource management and ecosystem resiliency

The First Foods management approach and mission reflect an overarching management goal for the DNR that would help fulfill community requests for First Foods. However, they do not outline the scientific considerations and context necessary for restoring, protecting, and enhancing First Foods on and off the reservation. Thus, early in implementing the First Foods approach, the DNR identified the need for culturally consistent, management visions that were rooted in scientific knowledge to help "tribal and non-tribal managers in moving the First Foods mission from concept to application" (Jones et al. 2008 a:ii). Such visions can be helpful frameworks for planning management and restoration efforts, assessing success or failure, and considering specific management and restoration actions within the context of other actions (Jungwirth et al. 2002). To date, the CTUIR has developed the River Vision for water and salmon (Jones et al. 2008 a), and is developing a complementary vision for the uplands that will encompass big game, roots, and berries. Common elements of the River Vision and forthcoming Uplands Vision are overviews of the critical processes and interactions supporting functional ecosystems and First Foods, ecosystem impairments, and some key challenges and questions for the management and restoration of First Foods. Here, we discuss the River Vision in more detail to illustrate how it connects First Foods, ecological and physical processes, and habitat restoration, and aids the DNR in its mission to protect and restore riverine First Foods.

The River Vision was the first CTUIR management vision developed in 2008, owing to staff capacity, the agency's emphasis on water and fisheries to date, and available resources. It described the management vision for rivers, water, and associated First Foods, such as salmon, trout, lamprey, whitefish, suckers, and mussels (Fig. 3). It summarized the interactions between five components (or "touchstones"), hydrology, geomorphology, connectivity, riparian vegetation, and aquatic biota, that shape resilient and functional rivers. It synthesized research done on the Umatilla River by DNR staff in collaboration with university scientists. This research highlighted how interactions between streamflow and geomorphic processes influence water exchange between the river channel and its alluvial aquifer (termed "hyporheic exchange"), thereby helping to buffer stream temperatures (Arrigoni et al. 2008, Jones et al. 2008 b,c, Poole et al. 2008). Some outcomes of these hydrologic and geomorphic processes include thermal variability, habitat diversity, and upwelling hyporheic sites where salmon preferentially spawn (Baxter and Hauer 2000, Geist et al. 2002). The River Vision explains the scientific underpinning of these processes and their relationships with riverine First Foods so that the CTUIR DNR has a solid scientific foundation for implementing First Foods management.

The River Vision also identifies potential hurdles to the First Foods mission related to water and fishes. In particular, the River Vision emphasizes the need for process-based restoration to address the causes of river ecosystem degradation (Kondolf et al. 2006, Beechie et al. 2010). Process-based restoration focuses on allowing hydrologic and geomorphic regimes to shape river corridors at spatial scales that match the spatial scale of problems attempting to be addressed through restoration (Poff et al. 1997, Roni et al. 2002, Beechie et al. 2010). Accordingly, the CTUIR DNR Fisheries Habitat Program has shifted from implementing site-scale projects (involving 10s to 100s of m of stream channel) to reach-scale projects (1000s of m in length) to improve habitat for listed salmonids and other riverine First Foods. This shift reflects the new understanding, shaped by the First Foods approach and River Vision, that successful habitat restoration must address larger scale processes that create habitat features suitable for salmonids, other native fishes, and mussels.

DNR staff has applied the processes and science synthesized in the River Vision to their implementation and monitoring of habitat restoration projects (Figs. 10, 11). One example of this new approach is the DNR's restoration of 2.6 kilometers along Meacham Creek, Oregon (Fig. 10), with the goals of improving salmonid habitat and restoring geomorphic processes and hyporheic exchange. Prior to restoration, Meacham Creek had been repeatedly rerouted away from the Union Pacific Railroad from 1890 to 2000 with a series of dikes and channel-straightening efforts (Andrus and Middel 2003). As a result, Meacham Creek lacked complex instream habitats, and was too warm for spring Chinook salmon, bull trout ( Salvelinus confluentus), and summer steelhead (Richter and Kolmes 2005). The expressed purpose of the Meacham Creek restoration project was to restore hyporheic exchange in order to improve stream temperatures (CTUIR 2012). To accomplish this goal, the DNR, Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), and USFS did not rely on creating channel meanders (sensu Kondolf 2006), pools, or other structural habitat components. Instead, they moved the straightened channel, which had been dredged to bedrock, from the floodplain margin back to its historical position at the center of the floodplain, atop alluvial gravels. They also avoided the use of bank hardening structures that would prevent channel migration, and gave the channel room to move across its floodplain via active and dynamic geomorphic processes, such as avulsion, bank erosion, and sediment accretion, in response to high flow events over time. This restoration approach is consistent with the premises of process-based restoration, and allows the channel to be shaped by active hydrologic and geomorphic processes over time. Following restoration, surface waters in Meacham Creek now inundate the floodplain during flood events, and rework the floodplain and stream channel (Fig. 10). Re-establishing this interplay between hydrologic and geomorphic processes is a key part of restoring this gravel-bedded river and creating a geomorphic template that supports hyporheic exchange (Arrigoni et al. 2008, Poole et al. 2008, Hester and Gooseff 2010), improves water quality (Poole et al. 2004), and improves habitat conditions for salmonids and other riverine First Foods (Waples et al. 2009, Bellmore et al. 2013).

In sum, the River Vision provides a scientifically based, implementation road map for the First Foods management approach related to water and fishes. It acknowledges that First Foods themselves will be resilient to change when the touchstones and processes creating aquatic and floodplain habitats are intact (Jones et al. 2008 a). The River Vision's scientific framework has helped DNR managers and staff identify the necessary touchstones for resilient ecosystems, pinpoint any adverse changes in these components, and implement daily and long-term mitigation and restoration actions in support of First Foods as illustrated by the Meacham Creek restoration project. It also helped DNR staff working on different river conservation and restoration objectives, such as water quality or salmon spawning habitats, to coordinate their management actions and planning efforts. Without the scientific roadmap of the River Vision, DNR staff would not have an explicit way of linking First Foods with ecological and physical processes, science, and habitat restoration approaches, nor would they have the scientific foundation for communicating their goals and objectives to the tribal community as well as federal, state, and local collaborators.

Increased management of other natural resources

Another tangible outcome of the First Foods mission was that it helped the DNR extend their management efforts beyond water, salmon, and other fishes to encompass big game, roots, and berries (Fig. 3). This was a fundamental shift in the agency's management in response to community requests' to protect the women's foods, roots and berries, and access to them. Historically, the CTUIR did not have the management capacity to focus on these foods; as a result, the abundance of these foods and tribal access to them diminished over time. Since the adoption of the First Food approach and mission, the CTUIR governance and DNR have assessed the amount, distribution, and accessibility of these foods and developed responsive management actions. By explicitly addressing the entire First Foods serving order (Fig. 3), the DNR is being responsive to the values of all community food gatherers, helping to increase the community's understanding of the distribution and availability of foods, and focusing management attention and resources on the habitat needs of all foods and related tribal access. Proactive management of the full serving order increases the likelihood that food abundance and food access will meet community requirements and contribute to cultural continuity.

Building interagency collaboration for the comanagement of natural resources

The DNR actively works to manage natural resources on and off the reservation in collaboration with tribal, federal, state, and local agencies because the diminished reservation cannot provide the CTUIR community with an adequate supply of all First Foods (Fig. 2). In doing so, the DNR has found the First Foods approach and related management visions beneficial because they help communicate the cultural significance of First Foods to the CTUIR community, identify key processes supporting the First Foods, and assist DNR and nonindigenous agencies in identifying collaboration opportunities. The DNR's work on riverine First Foods with the River Vision provides the best illustrations of these points. The DNR works with at least seven federal agencies, five state agencies, and multiple local county and zoning agencies in their effort to improve and sustain water and fishes. These projects represent new and novel types of agreements between the CTUIR and cooperating agencies that are aided by the structure of the First Foods approach. In these collaborations, First Foods serve as focal points (or boundary objects, sensu Clark et al. 2011, Robinson and Wallington 2012), which enable the CTUIR to share the cultural significance of First Foods and have meaningful conversations with cooperating agencies. The scientific understanding of physical and ecological processes summarized in the River Vision has helped the DNR communicate the importance of critical ecological and physical processes that support First Foods, and helped other agencies to identify processes that are relevant to First Foods and within their mission areas. With this common ground, the DNR has built successful collaborations with other tribal and nontribal agencies to manage and restore resilient riverine ecosystems and First Foods.

The structure provided by the First Foods approach has also been helpful as the DNR establishes new state and federal cogovernance relationships to manage big game, roots, and berries. On the UIR, CTUIR DNR assumed the management responsibilities for the BIA Range and Agriculture Programs in 2008 and BIA Forestry Program in 2010. Since then, the CTUIR DNR has incorporated big game, roots, and berries into their management of grazing, farming, and forestry activities. The management directives for the prior BIA programs did not include or address First Foods, and focused on trust landowners receiving fair market value for extracted resources, such as timber harvest, grazing, and gravel. Further from the UIR, the CTUIR DNR successfully negotiated the re-establishment of tribal buffalo hunting in Montana with the Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks in 2009 (Fig. 8). This negotiation was supported by a CTUIR Cultural Resources Protection Program (2009) report, which documented the importance of buffalo as a traditional First Food to the CTUIR people using oral histories and outlined treaty protected rights for natural resource access and use within the context of the Walla Walla Treaty of 1855. The buffalo hunting agreement has significant implications for the CTUIR's treaty-protected rights to collect First Foods outside of previously defined areas and the UIR, because it provides a road map for CTUIR to use their research and First Foods management approach to help negotiate the re-establishment of traditional practices and harvesting opportunities.

Culturally meaningful reporting units

Adoption and implementation of the First Foods approach have given the DNR a culturally appropriate means of reporting the benefits associated with habitat restoration and other natural resource management actions to their community. This shifts the focus from reporting units that are disconnected from tribal culture to First Foods reporting units that reflect the values, traditions, and religion of the CTUIR community as well as dynamic and resilient ecosystem processes. In turn, the CTUIR community directly observes the diversity, regularity, and quality of First Foods that are available for feasts and everyday use. The CTUIR community can provide feedback on DNR efforts through community open houses, General Council meetings, and regulatory commission meetings. The DNR can then use the community-expressed needs and goals to inform work planning for research, assessments, and restoration plans that are reviewed and approved by tribal policy makers.

Transferability to other tribal and indigenous managers

The First Foods management approach is most directly transferable to other tribes and indigenous groups where community values and management goals are broadly shared and aligned with ecosystem resilience. Therefore, the DNR has helped convene workshops on traditional foods management, and presented and shared the First Foods with other indigenous groups (Fig. 9). Sharing successful strategies for indigenous and nonindigenous collaborations is important because some indigenous communities are reticent to share information on cultural significant resources because of fear of continued or increased exploitation of foods and resources that are sacred to them. For example, Pacific Northwest tribes have seen water overdeveloped and polluted, fish communities driven to extinction or endangered status, conflicts over big game harvest, and commercial exploitation of huckleberry and other First Foods. Understandably, some indigenous communities are reluctant to share data on the distributions of foods and resources with nonindigenous agencies and individuals. Nonetheless, an indigenous community's readiness and willingness to share information about its culturally significant foods and resources directly affects their ability to apply the First Foods management approach and collaborate with nonindigenous agencies.

Indigenous agencies can take steps to protect their resources when sharing sensitive information on culturally significant foods and resources and building collaborative relationships with nonindigenous agencies and individuals. In managing for First Foods with nontribal agencies and individuals, the DNR has used governance tools, such as policies, memoranda of understanding or agreement, and data sharing agreements that limit the specificity with which collaborating agencies can display or distribute information on culturally significant foods and resources. For example, the CTUIR has signed data sharing agreements with BLM and USFS for the women's food mapping projects and MOAs for access and harvesting on private properties. These types of governance tools and other guidelines have been shared with other indigenous communities by the Climate and Traditional Knowledges Workgroup to help protect ecological and traditional knowledge about species, harvesting locations, and traditional uses when sharing these types of data with nonindigenous partners (Climate and Traditional Knowledges Workgroup 2014). Other resources that discuss protecting traditional knowledge include Davis and Reid (1999), Lomawaima (2000) and Fisher and Ball (2003).

More broadly, because the First Foods approach as a strategy has assisted the CTUIR in maintaining and supporting its cultural values as expressed through the tribal creation belief, First Foods serving order (Fig. 3), and associated practices, we suggest the First Foods approach may offer similar benefits to other indigenous communities. The resurgence and re-expression of CTUIR tribal values through First Foods is evidence of the resilience and tenacity of tribal culture (sensu Rotarangi and Stephenson 2014). This adaptation strategy for tribal natural resource management aligns management goals with tribal community requests first and foremost, while also providing a path forward for building collaborations with nontribal agencies. Given that other indigenous communities have similarly experienced suppression of their natural resources, resource management, culture, and religious practices by Euro-American society, using a First Foods management approach, that is uniquely adapted to their culturally significant foods, ecosystems, and landscapes, may benefit their cultural resilience while also making their values and goals accessible to nonindigenous agencies and public.

Communication with the nontribal public

We end this overview of the CTUIR's First Foods approach with a reflection on communicating the cultural significance and management of First Foods with nontribal individuals. To date, staff from the CTUIR DNR has presented the First Foods approach over 100 times to other tribes and indigenous communities, state and federal agencies, local governments, universities, professional societies, and nongovernmental organizations. Staff has also shared the CTUIR's First Foods culture and management approach with over 18,200 K-12 public school students and over 12,000 adults at outreach and education events, primarily in northeastern Oregon and southeastern Washington, from 2008 to 2016. Informal feedback on these presentations received by the principal author, Eric Quaempts, indicates that three main messages resonate with the nontribal public. These messages may help nontribal individuals to consider First Foods, physical and ecological processes, and reciprocity in their own lives and to support the management, protection, and restoration of First Foods and ecosystem resilience.

The first message is that the First Foods approach aids people in making more personal and direct connections to the environment, through a shared understanding of the importance of food and food rituals, as it relates humans to functional and resilient ecosystems. This is probably because individuals from dissimilar backgrounds often share the collective human experience of certain foods symbolizing their family or community traditions (sensu Holtzman 2006). The second message is that the ecological groupings of foods (Fig. 3) and the spatial distribution of the serving order across the landscape (Fig. 2) underscore the importance of ecology and phenology and the need for functional landscapes encompassing rivers and floodplains up to the mountaintops. This is in alignment with our scientific understanding of ecosystems and the processes that sustain them. The third message is that individuals connect with the theme of reciprocity between the tribal community and First Foods. Reciprocity is an elegant connection between humans, foods, and landscapes that is an integral belief in many tribal and indigenous communities. Reciprocity counts human actions as an integral part of natural processes where a shared dependence is essential to the survival of both people and all other organisms. The importance of reciprocity may be reminiscent of the land ethic of Aldo Leopold (1970) to nonindigenous individuals with different belief systems, and may assist in making the cultural significance of managing and restoring First Foods more transferable to other individuals and communities. Further, unlike the concept of environmental sustainability where actions are summed to continental and global scales (Goodland 1995), the concept of reciprocity is inherently place based and bound by human harvest interactions across a landscape. Although a detailed discussion is outside the scope of this paper, we surmise that reciprocity may be a useful alternative to prevailing environmental concepts, such as sustainability, for connecting individuals with place, natural resource management, and habitat restoration. This is because reciprocity resonates on a personal level with individuals from different backgrounds and belief systems (sensu Ryan 2014). The applicability and effectiveness of reciprocity, as experienced by the CTUIR in the implementation of the First Foods approach, are worthy of more explicit consideration and inclusion by the environmental management and restoration community.

CONCLUSION

The CTUIR developed the First Foods management approach to be responsive to the community's requests for restored, sustainable, and accessible First Foods. Over the last 10 years, the First Foods approach has helped the DNR expand their efforts to include the entire First Foods serving order (Fig. 3). In applying this approach, the DNR emphasizes the reciprocal relationships between natural resources and humans. This is a deeply held and widely shared belief within the tribal community that means humans are responsible for taking care of the foods that provide sustenance to humans. This relationship is expressed in the concept of "reciprocity" between the community and the environment. Furthermore, the First Foods management approach provides the Tribal community with a means to "monitor" the performance of its government as the diversity, quality, and regularity of First Foods that can be harvested, served, and safely consumed are direct and meaningful indicators of the DNR's management effort and progress.

The First Foods management approach has improved intergovernmental and interagency understanding and collaboration for three reasons. First, through food, it relates humans to functional and resilient ecosystems, and assists people in making more personal and direct connections to the environment. Second, it provides cultural, ecological, and spatial frameworks for research and applied management and restoration. Third, it provides a means for communicating indigenous community values and goals to nonindigenous agencies and individuals. The transferability of the First Foods management to other indigenous managers is high where other indigenous communities are willing to safely share information about culturally significant foods and resources. Nonindigenous governments and management agencies can interact with First Foods management via the ecological and spatial relationships inherent in the First Foods serving order. They can also use this framework to improve their understanding of indigenous community goals, identify areas of management overlap and collaborative potential, and find ways to assist indigenous groups in caring for the foods and ecosystems that care for us all.
DEDICATION
This effort is dedicated to the past, present, and future community of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. The community's traditional practices, examples, and words have reinforced the absolute values of the First Foods. Their conviction, determination, and humor have been sources of encouragement in developing this work.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank the community of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation (CTUIR) and staff of the CTUIR Department of Natural Resources (DNR) for their inspiration and efforts related to celebrating, recovering, and managing First Foods. We thank Jim Webster for his insights into the connections between the River Vision touchstones, habitat restoration, and effectiveness monitoring actions for the CTUIR Fisheries Habitat Program. We also thank Heather Bervid, Mackenzie Keith, Joseph Mangano, and Jackie Olson from USGS for their help preparing the manuscript. The CTUIR DNR and the U.S. Geological Survey Cooperative Matching Funds program supported this effort. Support for GCP's participation in development of this paper provided by the Montana Agricultural Experiment Station.

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confederated tribes of the umatilla indian reservation; ecosystem resilience; first foods; reciprocity; resilient rivers; tribal environmental management

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Aligning environmental management with ecosystem resilience: a First Foods example from the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, Oregon, USA

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Quaempts, E. J., K. L. Jones, S. J. O'Daniel, T. J. Beechie, and G. C. Poole. 2018. Aligning environmental management with ecosystem resilience: a First Foods example from the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, Oregon, USA. Ecology and Society 23(2):29. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-10080-230229

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River mussel, a staple in Indigenous diet, declining in the John Day River located in eastern Oregon.
- "Climate change influences water quantity and temperature, dams and other projects affect habitat and life cycle, and urbanization and farming practices change stream flow and affect water quality; all these modern era changes affect the ability of this sensitive species to survive."

CTUIR tribe is the only agency concerned about this decline
- "CTUIR is the only agency with full-time staff dedicated to research and restoration of mussels"

CTUIR, in conjunction with Xerces Society, created the first database for classifying and counting freshwater mussels in the West. Made other agencies take interest and notice/ inspired petition to list a species of mussel as endangered

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"This is our mother, as if we drew our living from her," Cayuse Chief Stikus at the Walla Walla Council is quoted in As Days Go By, Our History, Our Land, Our People. The Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla.

It's mid-July, and the Pacific Northwest is experiencing an historic heat wave of such proportions that scientists conclude it to be ' virtually impossible' without human-caused climate change. In the hot and dry air, with the temperature exceeding 100 degrees Fahrenheit, scientists Alexa Maine and Christine O'Brien don full-length wet suits, masks, and snorkels. They lower themselves into the crystal-clear waters of the John Day River's upper reaches in eastern Oregon.

The water is too shallow for swimming, so Maine and O'Brien gently float upstream, pulling themselves along over rocks and gravel, being careful not to stir up bottom sediments that would impede visibility.

As they inch their way along, they are scanning the river bottom for one of the most endangered animals in North America. Freshwater mussels, historically a key part of riverine ecosystems and food source for Indigenous peoples, have been on the decline nationwide for several reasons, many of which began with colonization by European settlers.

The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation notes that, while the range of these animals in the west extended from northern Mexico to Alaska and from the Pacific Coast inland to Wyoming, Montana, and Arizona, research suggests they have disappeared from nearly one-fifth of the watersheds where they were once found.

It is difficult to pinpoint the cause of species decline in specific cases, but many modern era alterations to the natural landscape are implicated. Climate change influences water quantity and temperature, dams and other projects affect habitat and life cycle, and urbanization and farming practices change stream flow and affect water quality; all these modern era changes affect the ability of this sensitive species to survive.

CTUIR leads the way in the West

The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation-made up of the Cayuse, Walla Walla, and Umatilla tribes-are leading the way in efforts to study and promote conservation of freshwater mussels in the West. The tribes' mussel work is focused primarily in five river sub-basins: the Walla Walla, the Umatilla, the Grand Ronde, the Tucannon, and the John Day.

Prairie Creek near its confluence with the Wallowa River in eastern Oregon. The Sahaptian Place Names Atlas of the Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla lists this area as Seewiʔsnime, which is a Cayuse Nez Perce name meaning 'of mussels.' The town of Enterprise, Oregon is in the background. Image by Leanne Tippett Mosby. United States, 2021.

Maine is an employee of the CTUIR, and O'Brien is a CTUIR contractor who has spent nearly 30 years studying freshwater mussels. Maine notes the CTUIR is the only agency with full-time staff dedicated to research and restoration of mussels. In addition to Maine and O'Brien, Donna Nez is a tribal member and a freshwater mussel technician who has worked for the CTUIR since 2000. Nez is involved in field work and research and was instrumental in producing an educational book about freshwater mussels.

The CTUIR are federally-recognized and governed by a Board of Trustees, and as such are viewed by the U.S. Government as a "distinct, independent political community. " CTUIR natural resource management activities are carried out by their Department of Natural Resources.

"All of that research for all of the mussels in the West has come out of CTUIR," said Maine. She further notes CTUIR's ability and resources to undertake these efforts is due in part to their status as a recognized tribe. "But that doesn't mean that CTUIR is more important than [other tribes that have not been given] federal status for whatever reason, and therefore don't have the infrastructure [of the] CTUIR. Their first foods are the same and their needs are the same, even though they don't have the same...funding opportunities."

Maine laments the relative inattention to western species when compared to the greater number of scientists working with freshwater mussels in other areas of the country. She notes that, although a handful of people have come on board, the funding is still very limited.

Despite the somewhat lackluster efforts to date, Maine is encouraged by the steady increase in federal and state agencies' interest in western freshwater mussels she has seen during her tenure with the tribe, which began as a volunteer in 2011 and an employee in 2013.

For example, Maine is working with the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service to put together a survey protocol so these agencies can begin documenting freshwater mussels. She notes a large percentage of the West has not been surveyed for mussels, which is a significant problem.

Alexa Maine displays the nacre of a Margaritifera falcata, or Western Pearlshell mussel. Nacre is the natural substance secreted by the mussel and deposited in iridescent layers. It is also sometimes called mother of pearl. Native Americans used the shells to make beads for necklaces. Image by Leanne Tippett Mosby. United States, 2021.

A key part of the tribes' work is to help correct this deficiency of data with respect to the presence and diversity of species. The CTUIR is working with the Portland-based Xerces Society to document populations.

"The database that CTUIR created and co-manages with Xerces Society is a huge resource," said Maine. "Now we have a central place for people [to record mussel discoveries]. [This work] led to a paper in 2017 that looked at the extinction risk of our species in the West, [which] kind of helped jump start some of the state agencies to start looking at mussels a little bit more closely." It also provided a foundation to petition the U.S. Department of Interior to list the Western Ridged Mussel, Gonidea angulata, as an endangered species.

The CTUIR Department of Natural Resources has been documenting populations for the last two decades. They are finalizing a master plan which calls for artificially producing mussels and supplementing various life stages throughout tribal ceded lands in northeast Oregon and southeast Washington. The eventual goal is to restore sustained natural mussel populations. This unique effort has never been tried before and is expected to take many decades.

A First Foods approach

This work is formulated around the tribes First Foods philosophy for natural resource management, which is articulated in the CTUIR's publication The Umatilla River Vision. This document was first released in 2008 and updated by CTUIR department of natural resource director Eric Quaempts in 2011. The framework established by this document "seeks to reflect the unique tribal values associated with natural resources and to emphasize ecological processes and services that are undervalued by westernized Euro-American natural resource strategies."

The vision, developed by CTUIR for the Umatilla River basin but more broadly applicable to resource management, is for a "healthy river capable of providing First Foods that sustain the continuity of the Tribe's culture."

"This is where I think CTUIR has a really good stance, this River Vision," said Maine. The vision views everything as connected "so that the restoration is a full, holistic restoration of the entire river system so that it can provide First Foods... That's unique to the CTUIR."

Cultural traditions

The Plateau Indians have lived in the Pacific Northwest for 10,000 years. The traditional use areas of the Walla Walla, Cayuse, and Umatilla are concentrated most heavily in Eastern Oregon and Washington but encompass a large swath of territory reaching north to Canada, west to the coast, south to California and Nevada, and east to Wyoming and Montana.

The tribes moved around these areas in seasonal cycles to harvest the food sources that sustained them. The traditional gathering of roots and berries, fishing for salmon, collecting other aquatic species, and hunting game are an important aspect of tribal culture.

In 1855, the three tribes signed a treaty whereby the U.S. government distributed 6.4 million acres of tribal lands, known as the ceded territories, to mostly Euro-American settlers. As noted in in The Umatilla River Vision, this action resulted in a shift in land utilization philosophy from the tribal ways of communal and sustainable use of resources to one of extraction of resources for private use, resulting in profound impacts to the tribal way of life.

The Umatilla Indian Reservation is approximately 172,000 acres and is located east of Pendleton, Oregon. Under the Treaty of 1855, the tribes retained rights for hunting and gathering in their traditional use areas to engage in the cultural practices they have maintained for thousands of years. A primary goal of the First Foods approach is to restore the resources and make it feasible for tribal members to exercise these treaty rights.

The Creation story

Wenix Red Elk is the public outreach and education specialist for the CTUIR Department of Natural Resources, Cultural Resources Protection Program. Working with the department and the tribe, Red Elk oversees service learning in colleges and does public education in grade school through college. Much of her work revolves around salmon restoration and promoting the First Foods management approach.

Red Elk explains that the idea of First Foods is connected to the tribes' Creation story, whereby, starting with the salmon, the animals and plants gave of themselves to the people as sources of food, clothing, and tools in exchange for the care and protection by the people; in other words, a relationship of reciprocal care.

The order in which the animals and plants offered themselves to the people informs the order in which courses are served in a traditional meal. The meal begins and ends with a drink of water in recognition of the fact that it is water that sustains all life.

"When we're talking about the water and the foods and the relationship...our first law always goes back to that traditional teaching," said Red Elk. "From the time that we're little, when we're sitting in the house, you hear the adults talking about foods...'we're going to go out and we're going to go root digging at this time' or 'we're going to go fishing at this time'... so you hear your parents are talking about the importance of food [in ceremonies and feasts]."

The specific practices for obtaining these traditional foods are passed down through generations and are based on methods to ensure the collection is conducted in a responsible and sustainable manner. This includes minimizing waste and using all parts of what is harvested. With respect to mussels, this means eating the meat and using the shells to craft tools and beads.

"We are a food-associated culture," said Red Elk. "Every Native song that we have, the religious practice, everything we do relates back to the Creation and when those foods came forward and when we promised ourselves with them."

Due to the decline of Western freshwater mussel species, Red Elk notes it has been generations since tribal members have been able to collect mussels for their traditional uses. The shell necklaces in existence today are those made by earlier artisans, crafted when freshwater mussels were still abundant, and passed down through the generations as prized heirlooms.

No small task

Restoration of freshwater mussels is complicated by their complex life cycle. The male releases sperm into the water, which is siphoned up by the female to fertilize her eggs and then transformed into larvae known as glochidia. The female releases the microscopic glochidia into the water, where they attach to the gills or fins of a host fish to mature into juveniles before dropping off to begin life as an independent organism at the bottom of the stream. Different species of mussels require different species of host fish.

A freshwater mussel burrows into a streambed with a pseudopod, a portion of its body it extends like a foot outside of its shell. From the other end, the mussel extends a siphon to draw in water to filter feed; relying on water flowing over them to bring the nutrients to sustain them. Mussels remain largely stationary for their entire life.

Mussels filter as much as 10 to 15 gallons of water per day. In the process, they clean the water like a vertebrate animal's liver cleans its blood-which is how they have earned the nickname " liver of the river." This particular "ecosystem service" freshwater mussels perform also makes them especially sensitive to increased sediment or toxic chemicals in the water.

Because they are sedentary filter feeders, they require a stable stream channel and flowing water, meaning any geomorphologic changes to the stream can also affect their viability. Climate change and stream channel alterations can cause impacts not only to mussels, but also their host fish, which are sensitive to water temperature changes, stream flow declines caused by drought, and other stream disruptions. The numerous variables at play for freshwater mussels to survive and reproduce make restoration particularly challenging.

Declining numbers

Many freshwater mussel species have already been declared extinct. The West has fewer species than other parts of North America, but some of the species have historically had a very large range. For example, Maine notes the range of the Western Pearlshell, Margaritifera falcata, is from northern Alaska to southern California. They can form dense beds of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of mussels and live 80 to 100 years.

But this longevity can also lead to misinterpretations of the health of mussel populations by those who do not understand the life cycle of the mussel. "You can look at a Margaritifera bed and say, 'oh there's hundreds of thousands of them, they look fine," said Maine. "But if you look closer there is not a single individual under the age of 50... So for 50 years, ...there has been no reproduction." She adds, "Those are going to die someday, and then there's nothing left."

O'Brien points to several factors that have led to the decline of freshwater mussels, including water pollution, changes in water temperature and drying up of streams, and unnatural stream channelization from farming practices and urbanization, which in turn leads to increased erosion and sedimentation.

Climate change impacts represent a relatively recent phenomenon. "In the past 20 years, I'm thinking that global warming is also now rearing its ugly head," said O'Brien. She notes the freshwater mussels are very sensitive to water temperature changes, especially during breeding season.

"It's just death by a thousand cuts for mussels," said O'Brien. "It's...this really broad issue that people are trying to figure out." To further compound the problem, O'Brien notes there is potentially a novel virus affecting some species of mussels, but scientists still lack a complete understanding of this problem.

Building a program

Gary James was the first biologist hired by the CTUIR in 1982 to manage the fisheries program. After 39 years, he now oversees a staff of 70 people.

James reflects on the challenges of working with aquatic species in eastern and central Oregon. "I looked at those rivers. And there was not only no salmon, but there was no water at key times a year," said James. "I thought, hey, why would I want to work here? But there's always been a positive side and then I looked at it as so much to be gained."

Congress enacted the Northwest Power Act of 1980, which created a partnership between the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) and federal and state agencies. This included a requirement for BPA to provide funding to mitigate natural resource impacts from a series of hydroelectric dams in the Columbia River system. James notes these funds have "been the lifeblood of building [the CTUIR's] program."

Although James is not himself a tribal member, he is a true believer in the tribal way of approaching natural resource management in a holistic fashion, as evidenced by his long tenure with CTUIR. "It all connects to our First Foods/River Vision and mission," said James. "It's so deeply ingrained in the culture and science both... It's very powerful."

"I think we've had some good results," said James. "We've got a good relationship with Bonneville Power. It's kind of win-win. We're restoring aquatic First Foods and habitat, which addresses their mitigation requirements while creating opportunities to exercise a treaty fishing rights for CTUIR."

Emilie Blevins works with the Xerces Society on freshwater mussel research, policy, and advocacy. She is passionate about helping what she terms the more "unloved" species.

"We're dealing with such a complex species but also complex environment with so many things out of our control," said Blevins. "This year, we are in a historic drought. The effects of that on the mussel population are devastating."

Blevins echoes the concerns of other scientists when she notes the problems are not confined to drought, but also declines in water quality, habitat degradation, water use, and declines in host fish populations.

Aside from working toward restoration, Blevins notes the importance of monitoring existing populations. "One of the main challenges facing mussel populations in the western U.S. right now are these mass mortality events [where] we don't really know the causes," said Blevins. The ability to document such events was only possible because CTUIR and Xerces had collected data and documented the presences of mussel beds prior to the die off.

"Having [this] kind of approach to doing research and conservation, where you have these sites that are sort of sentinels to help us understand what's happening [is] so critical because some things are happening on a very short time scale," said Blevins. This helps justify work on the longer time scale. "That mussel bed is not going to come back in two years; it's not like a wildflower meadow that you can re-seed."

"In the Northwest, tribes have had this incredible effort to force important change in the natural resources world," said Blevins. "Tribes advocating for salmon and lamprey and mussels have all resulted in the state and federal government having to take notice and do the right thing."

Blevins stresses the importance of the tribe's work and long-term commitments to conservation efforts for freshwater mussels. "You have to agree to be in it for the long haul... [CTUIR has] really led the way and it's made space for other people to follow suit. It is really inspiring."

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First Foods: Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation Conserve and Restore Freshwater Mussels

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First Foods: Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation Conserve and Restore Freshwater Mussels. "This is our mother, as if we drew our living from her," Cayuse Chief Stikus at the Walla Walla Council is quoted in As Days Go By, Our History, Our Land, Our People. The Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla...

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Lecture with guest speakers from the CTUIR reservation (Cheryl Shippentower).
- 53:00 Cheryl begins with Women's first foods and climate change
- A lot of crops grown in specific environments. There is a widespread distribution of habitats, elevation, and soils within reservation lands and on ceded lands.
- Tribal women collect first foods in the order that it was given to them by the creator with the promise that of the food takes care of them they will take care of the food
- do gather on reservation lands, but the majority is done on private and Federally owned lands
- Increase in temperature (greatest in summer), alteration in precipitation (increased during winter months and decreased during summer months), precipitation in the form of rain instead of snow, and change in snowpack (vary geographically) are all impacting the growth of these First Foods.

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CTUIR CAP Webinar Five Climate and Women's Foods

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Another talk by Cheryl Shippentower about how climate change has affected First Foods. She also discusses how climate change has affected other species that are critical to the survival of certain First Foods, such as a pollinator for Huckleberries. Habitats in on ceded CTUIR land are highly variable and there are specific plants and animals that are associated with those different habitats. Some of the plants are "long lived perennial forbs and shrubs" (some over 100 yrs). She also states that they "thrive on disturbance" both natural (flooding, fires) and human disturbance (gathers). Due to issues discussed in other video, there have been shifts in timing of flowering and species of have begun to move poleward or to a higher elevation. "uncoupling of plant pollinator interactions"

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Climate and Women's Foods with Cheryl Shippentower - CTUIR Shapatunxwit Community Curriculum W5B

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- Have the booklet annotated on Ipad (ENVS. week 12)
- Discusses the how climate change is affecting planet, the ways in which it affect Natives more seriously,  and the ways in which Native communities are fighting back against climate change.

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Could use the legal cases to end paper (what to do next)
Pg. 13 discusses legal cases conducted and ongoing in 2020. Case about Bison hunting at Yellowstone; won hunting rights with stipulation that Fed. Gov. going to release a environmental impact statement.
Another was case that would assume National Commerce Act supersedes Scenic Act (meant to protect Columbia River)
USE IN PAPER:
Herrera v. Wyoming-- Very important case-- involved treaty rights having precedence over state establishment "nor did establishment of a National Forest render those lands as inconsistent with the exercise of off reservation treaty hunting rights."
pg 18
discusses an ongoing case that will quantify and recognize CTUIR water rights-- "to provide instream flows for fish and the consumptive use needs of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, including domestic (homes), municipal, industrial, and commercial uses"-- used and governed by tribal law
pg 19 (brief blurb ab First Foods and Huckleberries)
The Range, Ag & Forestry Program collecting data about First Foods so that way they can "provide information to Tribal members practicing traditional food and medicine collection"

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Confederated Tribes of Umatilla Indian Res. v. Maison, 262 F. Supp. 871 (D. Or. 1966)

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Confederated Tribes of Umatilla Indian Res. v. Maison, 262 F. Supp. 871 (D. Or. 1966) case opinion from the US District Court for the District of Oregon

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- "Today the Umatilla Reservation totals 172,882 acres. Of that total, 90,315.54 are trust acres (52%) and in Individual Indian/Tribal ownership, including trust and fee. 48% is owned by non-Indians"
- Resolution #08-028 (2008) "The CTUIR declares its intent to exercise its rights to prevent the transfer of trust lands within the Umatilla Indian Reservation to a person named in a will who is not an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes"

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Today the Umatilla Reservation totals 172,882 acres. Of that total, 90,315.54 are trust acres (52%) and in Individual Indian/Tribal ownership, including trust and fee. 48% is owned by non-Indians.

The CTUIR Inheritance Code approved Board of Trustees Resolution #08-028 on April 7, 2008 and approved by the BIA on May 16, 2008. The CTUIR declares its intent to exercise its rights to prevent the transfer of trust lands within the Umatilla Indian Reservation to a person named in a will who is not an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes. Please reference CTUIR Inheritance Code at: Click here to download the Inheritance Code pdf.

The Land Program staff consists of a manager, coordinator, specialist, 3 probate staff, conveyance supervisor and specialist, leasing supervisor Specialist and a land laborer. The land program encompasses the BIA functions compacted by the CTUIR of leasing, conveyance, appraisals and probate.

The CTUIR's Land Acquisition Committee meets twice a month on the first and third Tuesday. All land sale offers to the Tribe maybe presented and reviewed. If they receive favorable review and the funds are available, it may be presented to the Board of Trustees, the Tribe's governing body, for final approval via resolution.

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Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation CTUIR

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Today the Umatilla Reservation totals 172,882 acres. Of that total, 90,315.54 are trust acres (52%) and in Individual Indian/Tribal ownership, including trust and fee. 48% is owned by non-Indians. The CTUIR Inheritance Code approved Board of Trustees Resolution #08-028 on April 7, 2008 and approved by the BIA on May 16, 2008.

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OR State's Dept. Survey Ab Native Drug Use 

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OR State's Dept. Survey Ab Native Drug Use 

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This made me so angry to look at. This is a 58 slide presentation given by the State Department in which only 10 of the slides contain information, 5 of which are actually important. The rest of the slides simply say the title "Mental Illness and Substance Use Disorders in America in the Past Year: Among AI/AN Adults Aged 18+" or "Heroin Use Disorder in Past Year: Among AI/AN People Aged 12+" followed by large text that reads "Data not shown- low precision." Why even have the slides in? obviously there was information that was shared to some group, but that information could not be disseminated to the public.
Summary:
Found that in 2020 ~7% American Indians or Alaskan Natives used Marijuana on a daily or almost daily basis. In 2018, ~6.5% AI/AN aged 12+ misused pain relievers.

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Graph From OR Survey ab Drug Use (AI/AN)

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Graph From OR Survey ab Drug Use (AI/AN)

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Decreased since 2000. Majority males who commit, but majority females who attempt. Out of those who attempted suicide 77% were white, 5% African American, 2% Native and 1% other, the rest did not indicate race. (pg 11). Goes into details about weapon use, sex and age, race, weather or not they informed others, possible explanations (breakup, health issues, recent trauma), etc.

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Data collected from 2015-2019-- shared as annual average
"Illicit drug use among people aged 12 or older were highest for people reporting two or more races and for American Indian or Alaska Native people (28.5 and 25.9 percent, respectively) compared with the estimates for people in all other racial/ethnic groups."
Yearly, alcohol use for American Indians and Alaskan Natives was ~ 53.2%
Little side blurb: they had a group called "two or more races" which was included for people who indicated they were more than one race. Think this is kinda messed up because my dad is white so when I was younger I would fill in that box even though I am Indigenous. Feel like it's another assimilation tactic. There are very few full blooded Natives left. Just Strange to me!
Posted one chart from this collection in the Padlet but there are several more that break the data down further into differences between male and female and differences between age groups for alcohol, illicit drugs, and marijuana.

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Chart from "Data about AI/AN Substance Use"

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Chart from "Data about AI/AN Substance Use"

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Notice the "Two or More Races"-- again just find it strange and a bit like manipulation of data. I feel like other races not pressured the same as Indigenous peoples to claim multiple races.

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Pg 28:
Yellowhawk earned the grants for drug and alcohol prevention (Opioid, SAMHSA Launch, and tobacco) with the total amounting to total $549,610. Received the most funding for prevention of alcohol and drug abuse and the wellbeing of Behavioral Health.

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Salmon changes and adaptability to climate change. Some species more adaptable than others, but the Sockeye Salmon, most commonly hunted and consumed by CTUIR, are the most vulnerable and have a low adaptability.

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We assessed Pacific salmon's vulnerability to changing climate and ocean conditions to better understand these changes and their impact on different population groups of Pacific salmon. The report, the second in a series of planned NOAA Fisheries' vulnerability assessments, focuses on the 33 threatened and endangered Pacific salmon and steelhead population groups (technically defined as distinct population segments and evolutionarily significant units) of greatest concern.

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West Coast Salmon Vulnerable to Climate Change, but Some Show Resilience to Shifting Environment

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We assessed Pacific salmon's vulnerability to changing climate and ocean conditions to better understand these changes and their impact on different population groups of Pacific salmon. The report, the second in a series of planned NOAA Fisheries' vulnerability assessments, focuses on the 33 threatened and endangered Pacific salmon and steelhead population groups (technically defined as distinct population segments and evolutionarily significant units) of greatest concern.

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Removal of 4 key dams: Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose, and Lower Granite could save the salmon population. Removal of these dams, all located along the Snake River, would allow salmon free access to the Columbia River passage that leads to the Pacific Ocean. Says there was supposed to be a White House hearing, in collaboration with Northwest Tribal members, in July of 2022.

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Hang around salmon advocates long enough and sooner or later you'll hear someone describe the fish as "magical."

This may sound hyperbolic, especially for a fish most people associate with dinner, but consider the remarkable ability of salmon.

After completing the long journey from freshwater streams to the ocean, salmon must survive several years in a perilous saltwater habitat, dodging killer whales and other predators.

When it's time to return to their spawning grounds, they migrate upstream along fast-moving mountain rivers, often for hundreds of miles and climbing thousands of feet in elevation to the precise location of their birth.

The fish have completed this migratory cycle for millennia, demonstrating resilience through forest fires, volcanic eruptions and ice ages. Yet the biggest threat to their survival is not an act of nature. It's man-made dams - which create barriers to salmon migration to and from the ocean.

The Pacific Northwest's Columbia River basin was once one of the greatest salmon-producing river systems in the world. Now it is among the most heavily dammed river systems.

Four dams on the lower Snake River - Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose, and Lower Granite - are especially harmful, impeding salmon's passage through an essential migration corridor that joins with the Columbia River and the Pacific Ocean downstream and flows out of millions of acres of wilderness in Idaho, Washington, and Oregon upstream.

As long as these dams remain in place, salmon and steelhead migrating along this route will languish on the brink of extinction.

Dismantling those dams would set in motion one of the greatest river restorations ever, opening free-flowing access to some 5,500 miles of pristine salmon-spawning habitat, the best remaining salmon incubator in the lower 48 states and one that will remain relatively cool and productive even as the climate warms.

In 2016 and 2017, more than a quarter million people sent comments to federal agencies that oversee hydropower operations calling for their removal. Following an Earthjustice lawsuit, a court mandated that the agencies draft a new plan for operations to aid the endangered fish.

Unfortunately, on Feb. 28, 2020, the agencies produced a draft plan that delivered little in the way of substantive solutions to prevent salmon extinction. But there is new reason to be hopeful. By July 2022, Washington's Senator Patty Murray and Governor Jay Inslee are expected to release an actionable plan for removing the dams and replacing their services. And last fall, White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair Brenda Mallory, Interior Secretary Haaland, and other administration leaders announced a multi-agency commitment to identify a path forward that honors longstanding commitments to Tribes while supporting economic growth, restoring ecosystem health, and ensuring a clean energy future. In March, as part of their consultation with Northwest Tribes, these leaders reaffirmed their commitment to bold, new action to restore wild salmon in a joint White House press statement. Tribes, communities, and families across the region are ready to be a part of this effort and are counting on leadership from the Biden administration.

"We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to restore the lower Snake River and bring back salmon," says Todd True, an Earthjustice attorney who has been working to protect wild salmon for more than two decades.

Inside The Legal Case Earthjustice attorney Todd True explains why the removal of four Snake River dams is a necessary and feasible action to save wild salmon.

He adds that now is the ideal time to make the push to replace the dams with carbon-free, clean energy.

"The real question is how long we will put up with wasting tax dollars on increasingly irrelevant dams.

"We have an opportunity here to do right not just for salmon and taxpayers, but also for the Pacific Northwest, for everyone with an interest in the river, and for Native American Tribes for whom salmon are so culturally important."

Salmon in the Columbia and Snake rivers were once so plentiful that locals looked to them as a free, dependable food source. Rebecca Miles, a Nez Perce Tribe member, grew up catching salmon and has spent years fighting to restore endangered stocks in the rivers where her family fished for generations.

"We were poor, and the only way we were able to sustain our way of life was to hunt and fish," she explains.

But as dams were built throughout the Pacific Northwest - all told, more than 400 dams span the Columbia River Basin - wild stocks fell into steep decline and many disappeared altogether.

Today, 13 of the surviving salmon and steelhead species in the basin have landed on the federal endangered species list, including all four of the remaining species of Snake River salmon and steelhead.

The four dams on the lower Snake River have proven to be especially destructive for these four species.

When a Canoe is More than a Canoe For thousands of years, the Nimiipuu people piloted their canoes along the tumbling waters of the Snake River. But after dams were built and the river choked off, a tradition was lost for over 100 years. Until now.

For the Nez Perce, disappearing salmon runs translated into reduced dietary options and an erosion of cultural practices, such as preparing salmon for traditional meals. Native American tribes such as the Nez Perce were guaranteed permanent access to customary hunting and fishing grounds in treaties signed by the U.S. government more than 150 years ago. Without the fish, such promises are rendered meaningless.

"Salmon are the lifeblood of our people. We cannot be who we are without fish," Miles says.

Steve Pettit Retired biologist

Before the lower Snake River dams were built, Steve Pettit, a now-retired Idaho Department of Fish and Game biologist, had a lunchtime ritual of fishing for steelhead near the confluence of the Snake and Clearwater rivers in downtown Lewiston. Stocks were so plentiful that it took little time to hook one among the rapids.

But Lower Granite Dam, the last of the four to be completed just across the border in neighboring Washington, brought a permanent change to the river. As the reservoir filled behind the dam in 1975, Pettit watched as his babbling fishing spot transformed into a flat, glassy pool.

"In the saddest day of my life, I watched it go under," he says, remembering that he was out on a jet boat that day. "The river got silent."

In the decades that followed, Pettit - whose job entailed tracking fish health - watched salmon and steelhead populations plummet. Asked what will become of the fish if the dams remain, he shakes his head.

"It's only going to take two or three years of catastrophic summer conditions to put many types of [endangered] fish in Idaho in a precarious situation," he says. "Some of them are barely holding on now."

For decades, biologists like Pettit have pointed to removing the lower Snake River dams as the most effective protection measure for wild salmon. The outcome of recent dam removals on the Elwha River in Washington state's Olympic Peninsula is proof that dam removal works - salmon there have rebounded even faster than scientists initially predicted.

But federal agencies have been as inflexible about the Snake River dams as the concrete that impedes the endangered species' passage.

Despite multiple federal judges rejecting agencies' past measures to revive wild salmon because the plans were inadequate, the feds have yet to take seriously the option of dam removal. Nevertheless, a broad coalition is working together to push for the one solution that could actually bring back wild salmon.

"The fish don't have much time left for us to do something," says Sam Mace, Inland Northwest Director of the Save Our Wild Salmon coalition, a wide-ranging partnership of fishing groups, conservation organizations and clean energy advocates, many of whom are represented by Earthjustice. "And the agencies have already taken too long."

The tide is turning. Following the 2016 court victory that compelled the federal agencies to begin working on a new plan, a number of efforts have been underway to protect dwindling wild salmon in the Columbia and Snake rivers.

Annual rallies - dubbed the "Free the Snake Flotilla" - were held in the fall of 2015, 2016 and 2017, featuring hundreds of fishermen, kayakers and members of Pacific Northwest tribes paddling in traditional canoes.

An April 2018 report, meanwhile, outlined a detailed scenario that would offer Pacific Northwesterners affordable, reliable clean energy and healthy wild salmon populations. Energy Strategies, a company serving power producers and governments throughout North America, conducted the study on behalf of a coalition of conservation and consumer advocacy organizations called the NorthWest Energy Coalition.

The study found that the four dams aren't necessary to power the region, since the electricity they generate could just as easily be supplied by a mix of renewable energy, efficiency and demand management. This transition would come with a monthly cost increase of just $1.25 per household - mere pennies a day.

Another legal victory on April 2, 2018, helped juvenile salmon gain at least some temporary protection while federal agencies contemplate long-term measures such as dam removal.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit - siding with almost a dozen conservation and fishing organizations, the Nez Perce Tribe, and the State of Oregon - upheld a U.S. District Court ruling that federal dam managers must allow more river water to flow over the dams in the spring months, to facilitate safe passage for young salmon migrating to the ocean.

Now leaders in the region are taking up the mantle. Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington created a task force to issue recommendations about how to save the endangered orcas. These orcas are starving and they depend on Chinook salmon from the Snake River at critical times of the year. But today there are too few salmon for them to eat. As part of Inslee's orca task force, tribes, fishing communities, farmers, utilities, and other river users have gathered to discuss what they would need in order to make dam removal feasible.

Gov. Kate Brown of Oregon recently came out in support of this collaborative approach to solving the issue. Leaders in Idaho are trying to confront the extinction crisis as well.

Expanding these new conversations is the way forward for both salmon and orcas. Working together and with effective political leadership, we can solve the problems of salmon, clean energy, and prosperous rural communities.

The stakes are high. The impact of climate change has made river restoration all the more urgent. Salmon need cold water to survive, but dams have transformed ice-cold rushing rivers into slack-water reservoirs that bake in the sun. This stagnant environment is more likely to reach lethally hot temperatures due to global average temperature increases.

"After more than 20 years of federal failure, salmon are in desperate need of help now," said Todd True, the Earthjustice attorney.

"It is time for all of us to work together to forge a comprehensive solution that restores abundant salmon, invests in communities, and ensures clean, affordable power into the future."
This article was originally published in July 2018. It was updated in April 2022.
The science is clear. Removing the four Lower Snake River dams could bring back million-strong salmon runs, benefitting sport, commercial, and Tribal fishing communities, and helping starving orcas who depend on the salmon.

Tell your senators that we need their leadership in D.C. to push for real solutions for our struggling salmon and vanishing orcas.

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Removing Four Dams Could Save These Wild Salmon from Extinction

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The Pacific Northwest was home to one of the greatest salmon runs in the world - until four massive dams began restricting passage from the ocean to freshwater streams. Now, it's up to communities in the region to work together, and to local elected leaders to join them.