Newland announces $10 million for fishing sites at Cascade Locks groundbreaking

Federal money from the bipartisan infrastructure law will be used to improve Indian fishing sites on both sides of the Columbia River between Bonneville and Mcnary dams - a 147-mile stretch.

A tour of fishing sites and platforms along the Washington side of the Columbia River from the Bridge of the Gods west to Bonneville dam were part of the program last week as tribal leaders announced the money was allocated for improving fishing sites between Mcnary and Bonneville dams.

By Tom Peterson

Bryan Newland

Cascade Locks, Oct. 7, 2024 —  Local Indian Tribes will see big changes to their fishing ground sites between Cascade Locks and Umatilla as more than $16 million in federal dollars are being invested into showers, fish cleaning stations, clean drinking water, and sanitary sewer systems. 

The announcement came last week at Cascade Locks as local and federal Indian leaders congregated around a ceremonial groundbreaking for new facilities just west of the Historical Museum at Cascade Locks Marine Park. 

“It fills my heart to be on the water and on your homeland in the Pacific Northwest,” Bryan Newland told the crowd of some 70 people that attended. 

A native fisherman on a platform upriver of Bonneville Dam waives to our passing boat.

Newland is the Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs, and he was teased for catching a carp earlier that morning. 

He shook it off with a laugh and a smile.

“I know it is hard work to take care of the land… We work hard to fulfill all the obligations of the 574 tribes… our job is to make life better a little bit at a time for Indian People.”

Newland described the progress since 2022 where a $500,000 assessment was used to gauge the size of the project and then another $6.6 million was allocated to do some of the improvements. 

“I’m excited to be here for a third time making another announcement,” he said. “Another $10 million has been awarded.”

The $10-million investment from President Biden’s Investing in America agenda will provide critical rehabilitation at Tribal fishing sites along the Columbia River through his office.

That’s a big deal, said Miguel Lopez who is the Fishing Site Maintenance Manager for Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission.

Lopez said he has a 13-person crew to maintain 32 fishing sites between N. Bonneville and McNary dams.

Miguel Lopez, Fishing Site Maintenance Manager for Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission.

“It’s necessary for health and sanitation,” he said. “It’s important to keep our generational fishers safe and able to use these sites. It’s key for instilling our traditional values for the next generation.”

This project represents the culmination of decades of advocacy and a renewed commitment from the federal government to fulfill promises made to the Columbia River Tribes over 80 years ago, said Jeremy FiveCrows with Inter-Tribal..

Since the construction of the Bonneville, The Dalles and John Day dams, Indian fishing sites have been submerged, and in 1988, Congress authorized the US Army Corp of Engineers to mitigate the impact. 

Once, fishing sites were constructed, they had higher than anticipated use - sometimes up to 500 percent, which was exacerbated When COVID-19 hit in 2020, and Indian families used the sites even more. 

New showers, bathrooms and a fish cleaning station will be constructed at the Cascade Locks fishing site just west of the museum in Marine Park. Here officials Aja Decoteau, Bryan Newland, Bryan Mercer, Jeremy Takala, and Gary Burke break ground on the project on Oct. 8, 2024.

“This is a pivotal move to honor fishing rights,” Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission Executive Director Aja DeCoteau said. “It's about honoring promises made to our ancestors and ensuring that our treaty rights are respected for generations to come.”

DeCoteau decried the importance of cooperation on both sides of the river between the Army Corp of Engineers, Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs, Bureau of Indian Affairs and US Senators Ron Wyden, Jeff Merkley and Patty Murray as well as U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer to continue to advocate for the Inter-Tribal Fish Commission which represents Yakama, Umatilla, Warm Springs and Nez Perce people. 

“Our river and our fish don’t know districts or boundaries,” she said.

A native fisherman, who did not identify himself, then took the podium and spoke to what he had seen during his life, noting that the very site they were at was home to popular salmon feeds with people lined up down the street. He said that changed for the worse when the “water and power were torn out.”

“It is time we step forward, not back like the gentlemen says,” Umatilla Chief Gary I. Burke said.