The Yakama Nation and Nez Perce Tribe have expressed strong opposition to the Trump Administration’s decision to terminate the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement (RCBA).
The agreement, established in December 2023, involved the Yakama, Umatilla, Warm Springs and Nez Perce tribes, along with the states of Washington and Oregon. It was designed to support salmon restoration, energy development and transportation infrastructure in the Columbia Basin, according to the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation.
“The Administration’s abrupt termination of the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement jeopardizes not only tribal Treaty-reserved resources but also the stability of energy, transportation, and water resources essential to the region’s businesses, farms, and families,” Yakama Tribal Council Chairman Gerald Lewis stated.
A crucial focus of the agreement concerned the vitality of Columbia Basin fisheries, but more broadly, the support of salmon and steelhead populations, which are reportedly seeing a significant decline throughout the region due to dam operations, including the lower Snake River dams.
“The economic and ecological well-being of our region depends on healthy salmon populations by our Treaty rights. We reserved the right to actually catch fish, not merely the right to dip our nets into barren waters,” Yakama Fish & Wildlife Committee Chair Jeremy Takala stated.
According to the Yakama Nation, Columbia Basin salmon and steelhead fisheries support a multi-billion dollar sportfishing economy, in addition to significant commercial and subsistence fisheries throughout the Pacific Northwest.
These salmon populations supply fishing not only in the Columbia River Basin, but in ocean fisheries ranging from Oregon to Alaska as well.
The Nez Perce Tribe also expressed their frustrations regarding the Trump Administration’s withdrawal from the RCBA.
“This action tries to hide from the truth. The Nez Perce Tribe holds a duty to speak the truth for the salmon, and the truth is that extinction of salmon populations is happening now,” Shannon Wheeler, Chairman of the Nez Perce Tribe, stated. “People across the nation have supported us in a vision for preventing salmon extinction that would at the same time create a stronger and better future for the Northwest.”
“It is a vision underlaid by the treaties of our Northwest tribes, by the U.S. Constitution that protects those treaties, and by the federal statutes enacted by Congress to protect salmon and other species from extinction,” Wheeler added.
