This area has a major reputation for being conservative. There are many complex environmental struggles. Not only have the dams on the Columbia River lessened the salmon population by 75%, but also the Hanford Nuclear facility has made an immense mess in this area. It is the biggest nuclear mess in the whole country. Hanford is in the process of being decommissioned, but it's going very slowly and is not very thorough so far. The clean up has been caught in a battle between state and federal regulations.

Today, we were picked up at the Ellensburg Comfort Inn and driven to the Yakama Reservation. The trip took us through a river valley surrounded by mountains, it was stunning. Our driver, Tracey, is a non-Indian, tribal employee doing wetland/habitat restoration. He is working from the bottom up, first trying to restore the hydrology of the wetlands. He also has had the regional wind plan initiative dropped in his lap. The Yakama have mostly been opposed to the wind development that has come to their region. They are tired of big companies and entrepreneurs coming in and developing anything without heed to their sacred sited or habitat issues. This has happened with wind development a few times and made them scared to get involved. They don't want big wind towers on top of their sacred hills where they go to pray. They want to create guide lines around any development on their reservation and the land they ceded to the government where they still have fishing, gathering, spiritual practice, and hunting rights.

I challenged Tracey on the wind energy issue because I figured if the tribe is going to fight the dams then they need to support an alternative. But then I thought, is it really up to the tribe to create this alternative? Most of the power would end up being sold somewhere else, just like the hydropower that ends up in other states. It should be the tribe's choice of how they want the land to be used. Tracey informed me that they are trying to get Bonneville Power to earmark more money towards wind development and salmon restoration. This made me think that if they could have control over how and where wind is developed, they would be all for it.

I had many challenges today. When Tracey mentioned the new tribal apple farming projects, it was apparently not organic. It's hard for me to understand. When they are battling the effects of pesticide runoff in their waterways, why are they not organic? Even the land leased to the fruit growers in this region should be under strict regulations. But I also am aware that I am new here and don't have a complete picture of what is going on, so I will keep asking questions.

We visited a college on the Yakama Reservation-Heritage College. It was not a Yakama college but a small private school founded by women. They work with the community and provide education for young as well as old. At this stop we got to hear Russell Jim. He is an elder and a famous for his work against Hanford. Things are getting very complex for me at this point. Russell is so intent on getting Hanford cleaned up that he mentioned possibly taking it to the depository at Yucca Mountain - as if it wasn't another tribe's home. He then mentioned that the site at Yucca was not big enough to handle all the waste from Hanford and that another tribe in Utah would be willing to take some. I got all confused by this, because he never said that it wasn't right to dump all the mess onto another Indian community. I got the sense that it didn't matter because his fight against Hanford had been so long and intense, he just wanted it out of there-you can't really blame him. I tried to get him to answer my questions. He said that the tribes in Nevada had not shown enough interest in fighting this dump early on when they should have. He had tried hard to get them (the Western Shoshones and Paiutes) to come to the table and felt that they weren't willing to help when he had been working for years to shut down the operations that created the mess. I see tribes that don't have the kind of leadership or infrastructure that the Yakamas have and I understand why these other tribes can't always get it together in time. I asked Russell Jim if he would stand in solidarity with the tribes opposed to nuclear waste dumping but he again referred to his past frustrations.

Russell also addressed the issues around wind power - he just doesn't trust that anything good can come of it for his tribe. All of this was hard to hear, but important for me and I have to respect him, an elder, who has dedicated his whole life to fighting the nuclear industry and has had experiences that I will never understand. I tried hard to stay in a good place with all of this but it seemed that we had come all this way, 3 tours fighting against dumping nuclear waste at Yucca and Skull Valley and working for wind energy, only to have it all turned upside down. Now I have many questions and things to think about.

The Yakamas are one of the few tribes that successfully opposed the Indian Reorganization Act in the 1930's. Russell told a story about how this was done and his dad was the one that led the successful opposition. What a legacy, this tribe obviously has a history of good leadership.

We visited a salmon hatchery project. We learned about the issues around hatchery fish vs.wild fish, and factory farming of salmon vs. salmon that have been hatched but released back into the river. These released fish become part of the wild river system if they survive. The tribe is developing all sorts of acclamation techniques, so the fish will learn before they are released how to cope with the wild. (i.e. not casting a shadow when feeding the fish so the fish won't associate a person or predator's shadow with food). Factory farmed salmon is threatening the salmon income of these communities.

The ticket sales for this show were slow and it really reflected the conservative nature of the area. But the crowd that was there, just like Idaho, seemed hungry for a chance to gather. We had some student protesters holding up signs in support of SUV's, logging, capitalism, and general consumption. Who knew?

Jim Boyd was our guest musician for the show. He has helped out so much over the years. The crowd loved him and we had a good time catching up backstage.

The questions were really challenging. Once again, people were feeling their hands tied. One woman actually worked at Hanford and reminded us that the scientists there are good people and really wanted to make this cleanup happen, but couldn't get through the bureaucracy. This validated what we had heard about the fight between state and federal regulators and budget concerns. Russell Jim was there to answer questions, but none of us could really address the frustrations of the audience the way we wanted to. Russell did have some great ideas about new technologies around containment of the waste.

Action Cards
Senator Cantwell Action Card (Microsoft Word Format)
Duwamish River Action Card (Microsoft Word Format)

Amy Ray's Tour Diary Continues:
April 15th, University of Washington, Seattle, WA