A Northwest coalition has formed to find federal money for members of the Columbia River fishing tribes this year. Senators from Washington and Oregon said they are on board with Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley and Rep. Earl Blumenauer’s call to finally make good on the government’s promise to house tribal members who were displaced by three dams.
On Tuesday, Merkley and Blumenauer met with about 30 members — including chiefs and officials — of the Warm Springs, Yakama, Umatilla and Nez Perce tribes whose families have lived and fished on the Columbia for about 10,000 years. Those families were scattered when Bonneville, The Dalles and John Day dams were built. The lawmakers listened as the tribal members talked about the economic, social and cultural pain that nearly 80 years of being evicted from their homelands has caused.
Since then, many have crammed on to fishing sites that are not equipped to handle hundreds of tribal fishing crews. The Oregonian/Oregonlive traveled to all 31 sites and detailed how the tribal members lack ready access to electricity, running water or sanitation services. Many sites are unclean and unsafe.
Sen. Ron Wyden’s office said he is working with Merkley on a request to the Senate for money to build houses in the long-term, and improve conditions at the sites in the short-term.
“Sen. Wyden believes the tribal housing situation in the Gorge is unacceptable,” said spokesman Hank Stern.
The Washington side of the Columbia River has even more sites than Oregon, and politicians there are also pushing Senate committees to come forward with money and authority to make construction happen soon.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, a Democrat, led the Senate Indian Affairs Committee in 2013 and advocated for better living conditions on the river in that capacity.
Earlier this year, she and Sen. Patty Murray, also a Washington Democrat, pushed for progress from Senate committees that could authorize the kind of construction project need to build possibly hundreds of homes — the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, led by Jim Inhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma.
The other is the Appropriations Committee, led by Thad Cochran, a Mississippi Republican.
The four senators and Blumenauer sent a letter in November 2015 to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the agency that broke the promise of housing to the tribes, saying that people live in deplorable conditions and need help now.
So far, the Army Corps has maintained that the agency would require more study and several more years before deciding whether and how to provide houses. However, if Congress passes a bill that demands action sooner and allocates money to the project, that would speed up the timeline.
