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The common denominator of all development activities that affect the salmon is the impact on 

 water. Perhaps nowhere are the differences in the Indian and non-Indian ways of looking at 

 nature more evident than in the treatment of water. The tribes have always treated water as 

 sacred because it nourishes the life of the earth. The non-Indians, on the other hand, have used 

 water without fully understanding that it must be treated with respect to remain powerful. There 

 has been significant historical degradation of the waters of the Columbia Basin and the habitat 

 that the salmon need to survive. Much of the degradation has occurred in the upper basin, 

 above Bonneville Dam, where most of the tribal usual and accustomed fisheries are located. 



The tribes are not being impatient when we demand more sensitive and effective management 

 of the salmon's habitat. The impact of development activities on salmon habitat and other 

 natural resources have been well-documented for over fifty years. The historic loss and 

 continuing degradation of spawning, rearing and nursery lake habitat has drastically reduced fish 

 production in the upper basin and has seriously diminished tribal fishing opportunities. Thus, 

 we arc very concerned that further delays in implementing needed management changes would 

 cause further, irreversible loss of the salmon and our fisheries. 



As the salmon disappeared from traditional tribal fishing areas due to non-Indian development 

 activities, the tribes were promised some degree of mitigation through federally funded hatchery 

 programs. However, most of these hatcheries were placed where tribal fisheries did not benefit. 

 Now, after fifty years of assurances from the federal government that mitigation was just around 

 the comer, Indians are being told that hatcheries were a cruel hoax. 



