12 



problems must not be allowed to prevent progress on cooperative 

 salmon conservation and management programs. Solutions are pos- 

 sible. They are known. 



I would offer the following as three possibilities. First, I think we 

 need to implement a habitat restoration and associated salmonid 

 enhancement initiative within the Pacific Salmon Treaty area. Sec- 

 ond, we need more effective and efficient Pacific Salmon Commis- 

 sion processes, separating north and south negotiations with Can- 

 ada to the extent possible. And third, I think we need to take a 

 prudent businessman approach to solving the equity problem. This 

 will clearly be in the best interest of the Pacific salmon resource 

 and the fishing communities which share these resources. 



Thank you very much. 



[The statement of Mr. Meacham can be found at the end of the 

 hearing.] 



Mrs. Unsoeld. Thank you. Mr. James. 



STATEMENT OF GERALD I. JAMES, POLICY DIRECTOR, LUMMI 



TRIBE 



Mr. James. Good afternoon. Madam Chairman. My name is Ger- 

 ald James. I am a member of the Lummi Indian Nation and one 

 of three voting commissioners on the U.S. side of the Pacific Salm- 

 on Commission. In that capacity, I represent 24 sovereign treaty 

 Indian tribes located in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. On their 

 behalf, let me express our appreciation to you for this opportunity 

 to address the Committee. 



The treaty tribes in the Pacific Northwest have a special role in 

 the fishery and in fisheries management. This role stems from our 

 treaties with the U.S. Government. 



In these treaties, which repeatedly have been interpreted and 

 upheld by the highest courts in the land, the tribes granted vast 

 areas of land in the Pacific Northwest to the United States, but re- 

 served forever their rights to fish in their usual and accustomed 

 areas. For those of you not lucky enough to be from the Pacific 

 Northwest or familiar with fisheries management in that part of 

 the world, let me sum up our role by saying that you cannot talk 

 about fisheries policy in the Northwest unless you are also talking 

 with the tribes. As governments and co-managers of the resource, 

 we must be involved in all facets of the fisheries management in 

 the Pacific Northwest. 



Before I address the specific questions you presented to me in 

 your invitation to this hearing, let me first point out that there are 

 many reasons the salmon are in so much trouble today. As many 

 of you are learning, a lot needs to be done to fix the problems. Not 

 surprisingly, the fixes must be related to the causes. 



In particular, we have serious habitat problems caused by hydro- 

 electric development, urban growth, forestry practices, runoff, pol- 

 lution, and water withdrawals, just to name a few. It is unrealistic 

 and unfair to try to address the symptom of these problems, the 

 decline of the salmon, with harvest management alone. That ap- 

 proach will fail. 



The tribes stand ready to contribute to solving these problems, 

 but we will not allow our fisheries and our cultures to be sacrificed 

 as a substitute to addressing the real causes of the salmon di- 



