Last week Sarah posted a message on OlyBlog shedding light on the travails that the Native American tribe faces as it fishes in the Nisqually River. I would highly recommend exploring some of the links that Sarah posted, but I’ll return to that later. While I am hesitant to put too much thought into what was perhaps simply a moronic and isolated occurrence, I do think there are some interesting issues that deserve a bit of attention.
OLYMPIA – There’s a new bug that’s been going around for the last couple years. State and federal elected officials and bureaucrats seem to be coming down with it more than anyone else.
It’s called “salmon fatigue” and from what I can tell, it’s a brain infection that makes you tired of trying to save the salmon.
If we cried about fatigue every time we came up against a difficult problem in this country, where would we be? I don’t understand how you can get tired of trying to save the salmon.
What those infected with salmon fatigue are really saying is “stop coming to me and talking about salmon.” (more…)
Introduction Indian people have always relied on the natural resources of this land. Their personal, cultural and spiritual survival depended on the ability to fish, hunt and gather the bountiful…
OLYMPIA (September 29, 2006) ― There is a traditional Indian belief that we do not actually own the land. We are part of it, and it is part of us. We are all temporary tenants and we’re responsible for its care. It’s a concept that is as valid today as it has ever been. If people can begin to understand their connection to the earth, they will treat it with much greater sensitivity than they have over the past century. These are the thoughts that come to me when I think about the so-called property rights initiative, I-933, which will be on your general election ballot in November. To say I believe you should vote no on I-933 would be an understatement. You should vote “hell, no!” I-933 is far more dangerous and damaging than you might think.
OLYMPIA (May 20, 2005) — Governor Gregoire says the state and the tribes have far to go in their government-to-government relationship. We couldn’t agree more.
She recently followed the examples of her predecessors in officially endorsing the Centennial Accord, a 1989 state/tribal commitment to work together, as governments, to find mutual solutions to the many challenges we share. The tribes appreciate her words of support because the Accord provides good guidance toward worthwhile achievement.
Still, she would be the first to admit words alone can ring hollow, however inspiring they may be. It will be action, and promises kept, that will measure the success of her administration.
OLYMPIA (January 12, 2004) - Governor Locke committed to work with tribes to develop a government-to-government process to improve water management in a state/tribal meeting here Friday evening, after being…
OLYMPIA (Aug. 18, 2003) – The United States government is weeks away from defaulting on a key element of the Pacific Salmon Treaty for lack of money. This crisis could compromise the full implementation of the treaty, first signed by the two countries in 1985 and substantially revamped in 1999. This situation could undo nearly 20 years of bilateral cooperation to rebuild depressed salmon runs and severely impact recreational, commercial and tribal salmon fisheries from Alaska to Oregon.
SKOKOMISH (June 19, 2003) — Sunk in mud and nearly hip-deep in water, Eric Sparkman pulls a large oyster shell from a saltwater pond and begins to take measurements. It’s not the dimensions of the shell Sparkman is looking to note, it’s the size of what’s living on the shell he’s after.
“There’s several Olympia oysters living on this one, five or six, and they’re all pretty small,” said Sparkman, shellfish biologist for the Skokomish Tribe. “But they are alive and they are slowly growing, and that’s really what counts.”