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Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission 



FTS #434-9476 



6730 Martin Way E., Olympia, Washington 98506 

 Phone (206) 438-1 180 Phone (206) 753-9010 



FAX #753-8659 



Testunony of G«rald L James, TMbal Commissioner 



U.S. Secrion of Pacific Salmon CommissJon 



to the 



U.S. House of Rqjrescntativcs 



Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries 



Subcommittees on Fisheries Management and Enviromnent and Natural Resources 



August 2, 1994 



Int i Toducdon 



Good afternoon Mr. Chairman and members of the Committes. I am Gerald James, a 

 member of the Lummi Indian Nation, and one of the three voting Commissioners on the 

 U.S. side of the Pacific Salmon Commission. In that capacity, I represent twenty four 

 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 om 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 Nortb\».-est to the United States, 

 but reserved 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 talking also to the tribes. As 

 governments and co-managers of the resource, we must be involved in all facets of fisheries 

 management in the Pacific Northwest 



The scop e r»f the <;alTn on problem and its solution 



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 "fises" must be related to the causes- In particular, we have serious 

 habitat problems, caused by hydroelectric development, urban growth, forestry practices, 

 run-off, pollution, and water withdrawals, to name a few. It is unrealistic and unfair to try 

 to address the synqjtom of these problems - the dcdine of the salmon - with harvest 

 management alone. That approach will faiL The tribes stand ready to contribute to 

 solving all these problems, but we wiU not allow our fisheries and our cultures to be 

 sacrificed as a substimtc to addressing the real causes of the salmon dflemma. 



A comprehensive, long-term approach is absolutely essential to get us out of the mess 

 we are in. Together with our co-managers from state resource agencies, we are working on 

 just such an approach. SpedficaJly, we are developing a comprehensive fiamcwork, which 

 we call Tor the Sake of the Salmon," that we will be discussing with many of you and other 

 public officials here and in the region over the next several days and weeks, to solicit advice 

 and suppon. While I do not want in any way to dinrinish the importance of today's topic - 



Testimony of Gerald I. James, Tribal PSC Commissioner 

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