9th in a series of annual conferences on ethics, and the past and future of the Columbia River

Videos of OREM-9

• • • • • Welcome
    • (1) Rivers of our Moment (Ethics & Water)
    • (2) Rivers through our Memory
      • • Welcome Day 2
    • (3) Rivers of our Vision
    • (4) Rivers as our Responsibility
      • • Close

Media Stories:

• • • ‘One River, Ethics Matter’ speakers tell of salmon returning
    • While DNA carries traumas, traditions give resilience
    • Lutheran pastor lends spiritual, ethical perspectives
    • ‘Tribal people are forgiving people‘
    • Daughter continues efforts for uranium cleanup and health clinic

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Sept 27-28, 2022

View:  Conference Overview

View short film of OREM-8:  Restoring ntytyix (salmon) to the Okanagan and Upper Columbia Rivers

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OREM-9: Restoring Salmon to the Spokane and Upper Columbia Rivers

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The One River, Ethics Matter (OREM) conference series focuses on the history of the Columbia River Treaty and the treaty review process now underway and does so within a framework that emphasizes social and environmental justice, collaboration towards the common good, and the need for truth as well as reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. Some conference themes are treaty-specific while others focus on broader related topics such as the history of Indian residential schools, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, and the calls to action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.

The conference is held in a different location each year, alternating between the United States and Canada. Indigenous hosts for the 2022 conference are the Spokane Tribe of Indians and Coeur d’Alene Tribe with support from the Upper Columbia United Tribes.  Our academic host is Eastern Washington University (Small Urban Rural and Tribal Center on Mobility – SURTCOM).  OREM is facilitated by the Ethics and Treaty Project with support from Sierra Club and The Columbia Institute for Water Policy. The four panels of this two-day conference are based on the four sections of the Columbia River Pastoral Letter.

Conference moderator:  Margo Hill

Sept 27. Tuesday morning.

09:00 WELCOME.   (30 minutes) – VIDEO

• Opening song: Empero Corral-Bourgeau
• Indigenous welcome:
  • Spokane Tribe – Chairwoman Carol Evans
  • Coeur d’Alene Tribe – Ralph Allan, Jr., Fish & Wildlife Program Manager
• Academic welcome:  Shari McMahan, PhD, EWU President
• OREM overview:  John Osborn, Ethics & Treaty Project

09:30 Panel 1.  Rivers of our Moment   (60 minutes)  –  VIDEO

Water is life. The Spokane River flows to the Columbia River whose watershed covers an area the size of Alberta or Texas. At the time of “first contact,” the Columbia River was perhaps the greatest salmon river on earth. Today, Tribes in the U.S. and Indigenous Nations in Canada are leading efforts to restore salmon. Water is life:  what are our foundational ethical relationships and responsibilities between humans and water — within an Indigenous worldview and within Christian teachings and practice?

• Indigenous perspective: Bill Matt, Sr.
• Judeo-Christian perspective:  Rev. Martin Wells
• Moderator: Laurie Arnold, PhD, Director of Native American Studies, Gonzaga University

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – 10:30  Break: 10 minutes

10:40 Panel 2.  Rivers through our Memory (110 minutes)  –  VIDEO

The Columbia River is a river of life. From time immemorial it provided the world’s greatest salmon runs at the center of indigenous peoples’ lives. In just two centuries the forces of Manifest Destiny – including the dam-building era and pervasive systemic racism – have devastated this living system.  The dam-building era transformed the river into a stair-stepping series of slack-water pools: river as lucrative machine plugged into an electric grid. Upstream dams and reservoirs enabled floodplain real estate development in the Portland-Vancouver metropolitan and other areas.  Many benefited and continue to do so, but not everyone.  The dams came with wrenching costs for some, especially for salmon and Indigenous people for whom salmon was the center of their lives.

• Warren Seyler, overview on destroying salmon runs as part of the history of genocide
• Martina Whelshula, Boarding Schools and Tribal Youth
• Twa-le Abrahamson Swan, from salmon abundance to toxic river plumes and uranium pits
• Bill Youngs, Expo ’74, and rethinking the river.
• Moderator:  Shelly Boyd

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –12:30  Adjourn

Sept 28. Wednesday morning.

09:00 WELCOME  (10 minutes)  –  VIDEO

• Opening song: Empero Corral-Bourgeau
• Welcome, background from day #1, John Rosenberg, Ethics & Treaty Project

09:10  Panel 3. Rivers through our Vision (80 minutes)  –  VIDEO

What do we want for the future of the Columbia River and its tributary waters? Unless we alter course, what is our likely future?  In this 8th ethics conference with special attention to restoring salmon to the Okangan and upper Columbia Rivers — what is our vision for the spiritual, community, and ecological realities, and how we hope to get there?

• Jim Heffernan – Policy Analyst, Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. Update on the Columbia River Treaty negotiations.
• Rachael Paschal Osborn – Water right adjudications.
• Patricia Whitefoot – Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women
• Moderator: Barbara Cosens – University of Idaho, Professor of Law, Emeritus.  The climate crisis, Columbia River, and rising to the challenge of river governance.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – 10:30   10 minute break

10:40   Panel 4.  Rivers as our Responsibility  (80 minutes)  – VIDEO

The closing of the gates at Grand Coulee Dam blocked salmon from returning to the Spokane and Upper Columbia Rivers with devastating impacts on Indigenous people. Now, an Indigenous-led collaboration is working to return salmon to the upper Columbia River, including the Spokane River.

Salmon and tribes face challenges include habitat loss, overfishing, pollution, politics, climate change, and of course the dams. But, for Indigenous people, restoring salmon to the Upper Columbia River is not only a possibility—it is a sacred responsibility. 

• Ryan Benson – Okanagan Nation Alliance: lessons from restoring salmon to the Okanagan River.
• Jerry White – Spokane Riverkeeper: clean, flowing water for the return of salmon.
• Jade Stensgar-Mokry – Climate Change Intern, Coeur d’Alene Tribe:  the importance of youth involvement given a genocidal past and climate crisis future.
• Tom Biladeau – Anadromous Project Lead for the Coeur d’Alene Tribe – working to restore salmon to the Spokane River.
• Moderator: Casey Flanagan, Water and Fish Project Manager for the Spokane Tribe.

12:00  Restoring Salmon to the Spokane and Upper Columbia Rivers – VIDEO

• DR Michel, Upper Columbia United Tribes Executive Director

12:15  Adjourn