Salmon and the Yakama
Discussion | Summary
Salmon play a crucial role in the Yakama Tribe's well-being, providing significant daily caloric intake and cultural value. The Yakama Tribe has engaged with the U.S. Geological Survey to mitigate climate change effects on fishing and sustainability. Historically, contact with Europeans in 1805 led to devastating outcomes for the Yakama, but they continue to set examples of environmental and cultural stewardship.
Daily Caloric Intake: Salmon provides up to 40% of the Yakama Tribe members' daily calories.
Cultural Value: Salmon harvests impart cultural knowledge, traditions, and ceremonies.
USGS Study: Aims to build a model to assess climate change impact on tribes' environment and heritage.
Historical Context: Contact with Europeans in 1805 and the 1855 Treaty greatly affected the Yakama.
Environmental Stewardship: The Yakama Tribe continues to engage with the environment, emphasizing the connection between salmon and their broader well-being.
Discussion | Full Text |
Spring 2016
Salmon are intricately linked to the well-being of the Yakama Tribe. Salmon can provide up to 40% of the tribes’ members’ daily caloric intake (Montag 2012:391). More importantly though is the cultural value of the salmon and harvest, which imports cultural knowledge to the members, assists in carrying on the traditions of ceremony and language, and of course is a ‘first food’ like the berries and water that are essential to the Yakama lifeway (388). The Yakama have engaged the U.S. Geological Survey in a groundbreaking study to mitigate the effects of climate change on fishing and sustainability within their tribal lands. The approach by the USGS is to build a model that can be applied to tribes across the nation to assess the impact of climate change not just on the environment but also on the cultural and heritage of individual tribes.
The Yakama made contact with Europeans in 1805, around the same time that Lewis and Clark made contact with the Nez Perce documented in the film How the West was Lost: Nez Perce - I Will Fight No More Forever (Yakama). The outcome was devastating for the Yakama like other tribes in the Plateau region. Spread over 10.8 million acres of land, the Yakama people were closely related to other Columbia Basin Plateau Tribes including the Palouse and Klickitat. Today, approximately 11,000 members survive on 1.3 million acres set aside by the Treaty with the Yakama of 1855. This was precipitated by the Yakima War of the same year, determinedly prosecuted by Washington Governor Isaac Stevens and involving a number of bands along the White and Columbia Rivers. Before contact the Yakama and other peoples in the Columbia Basin fished in the traditional manner along the river, and the salmon have been an integral part of their communion with the land for thousands of years. Engaging with the environment vis-à-vis the salmon and connecting it to the Tribes broader well-being is just one of the many ways this enduring people continues to set examples for us all today.
Yakama Coho Reintroduction Project, 2012 http://www.salmonrecovery.gov/home/Partners/FishAccords/YakamaNation.aspx
References
Montag, J. M., K. Swan, K. Jenni, T. Nieman, J. Hatten, M. Mesa, D. Graves, F. Voss, M. Mastin, J. Hardiman, and A. Maule. "Climate Change and Yakama Nation Tribal Well-being." Climatic Change 124.1-2 (2014): 385-98. JSTOR. Web. 24 Feb. 2016.
I Will Fight No More Forever. Dir. Wheeler. Questar Video, 1993.
Yakama Nation Museum. "YN CHC :: Yakama History." Yakama Nation, n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2016. <http://www.yakamamuseum.com/home-history.php>.