A Changing River

A Changing River. . , Crow Butte is considered by tribal people to be a traditional cultural property due to its use as a winter village, a fishing area, and a place of other traditional practices from pre-contact to contemporary times. Mostly Umatilla people populated the area although other tribes also lived here. At the time of the signing of the Treaty of 1855, the Umatilla, along with the Walla Walla and the Cayuse, became known as The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation., When the Treaty reservation was established in the 1860s, tribal populations were ushered off the Columbia River and the many tributaries that had sustained them for millennia. However, the Tribes retained inherent rights to hunt, fish, graze, and gather within their original lands. These Treaty rights continue to be exercised today., When the dams were built, traditional use areas were flooded. In a settlement with the Tribes, the U.S. government promised to create access to fishing locations through the use of "in-lieu" sites. Today, Crow Butte hosts one of 32 "in-lieu" Treaty Fishing Access Sites managed by the United States Army Corps of Engineers along the mid-Columbia River. This helps continue the right to tribal subsistence fishing., The Confederated Tribes hope to protect this area for the future and minimize further impacts to the water and the land. Ancient lessons teach responsibility for people, the land, and everything that lives here. Despite changing policies on a changed river, Tribal people persist in applying cultural knowledge and practices. The Tribes' government works with individual citizens as well as local, state, and federal agencies to protect natural and cultural resources here and elsewhere throughout the vast Tribal homeland., To learn more, visit Tamástslikt Cultural Institute or www.tamastslikt.org and www.ctuir.org, (Photo captions) , Crow Butte and the surrounding landscape before construction of the John Day Dam (photo courtesy U.S. Army Corps of Engineers)., Crow Butte today with a Treaty Fishing Access Site (photo courtesy Google Earth)., 1906 topographical map of the Columbia River and Crow Butte (Blalock Island, OR-WA Quadrangle Map, courtesy U.S. Geological Survey)., The CTUIR Fisheries program ensures that many species of river foods will continue to thrive for future generations (courtesy Tamástslikt Cultural Institute)., Traditional fishing techniques such as the dipnet are still used today (courtesy Tamástslikt Cultural Institute)., View of Crow Butte from the opposite shore (courtesy Tamástslikt Cultural Institute).