Empty Nets:Indians, Dams, and the Columbia River

Description

Empty Nets is a disturbing history of broken promises and justice delayed.
It chronicles a native peoples fight to maintain their livelihood and culture in the face of an indifferent federal bureaucracy and hostile state governments.
In 1939| the U.S. Government promised to provide Columbia River Indians with replacements for traditional fishing sites flooded in the backwater of the Bonneville Dam.
Roberta Ulrich recounts the Indians sixtyyear struggle| in the courts and on the river| to persuade the government to keep its promise.
From the beginning| the battle was intertwined with the tribes larger effort to assert treatyguaranteed fishing rights.
Ulrich deftly examines a host of other issuesincluding declining salmon runs| industrial development| tribal selfgovernment| and recreationthat became enmeshed in the tribes pursuit of justice.
Her broad and incisive account ranges from descriptions of the dams disastrous effec ts on a salmondependent culture to portraits of the plights of individual Indian families.
Descendants of those to whom the promise was made and ac tivists who have s pent their lives working to acquire the sites reveal the remarkable patience and resilience of the Columbia River Indians.
In a new epilogue| Ulrich updates the story of the treaty fishing sites now all nearly completedand describes political and cultural developments since 1999| including a major new component: the planned reconstruc tion of the Celilo Indian Village.
And yet des pite the everchanging circumstances surrounding the treaty sites| the tribes objec tive remains the same.
In the words of Donald Sampson| former executive direc tor of the Columbia River InterTribal Fish Commission| Our peoplesdesire is simpleto preserve the fish| to preserve our way of life| now and for future generations.