“There is an ancient covenant there that is between the salmon, the animals and us, as humans,” said tribal chairman Shannon Wheeler. They traveled extensively, hunting bison in Montana and fishing for salmon on the main stem of the Columbia River. For generations, the Nez Perce lived throughout central Idaho, parts of southeast Washington and northeast Oregon. That investment is essential for a people – the Nimiipúu – for whom fish, particularly chinook salmon, have played a keystone spiritual, cultural and economic role for more than 16,000 years. The tribe grows 10 million fish a year and spends around $22 million yearly trying to preserve ocean-going species like salmon and steelhead. It’s just another Monday for the Nez Perce Tribe’s fisheries program.Ī sprawling operation that employs upward of 180 people depending on the season, it runs projects in Idaho, Montana and Oregon. It’s a hypnotic dance under harsh industrial lights and spread among 38 large green tubs, each holding more than 30,000 of the small fish. ![]() LEWISTON – In a cavernous warehouse above the Clearwater River east of Lewiston, 1.14 million spring chinook swam, swirling together into evanescent balls of silver, breaking into smaller configurations and then returning.
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