An ethics consultation for a critically-ill transboundary river

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

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videoconference on 2 mornings:

• November 17 – 09:00 AM
• November 18 – 09:00 AM

to Register

Conference Overview

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— Indigenous-led work of kł cp̓əlk̓ stim̓ —

Restoring ntytyix (salmon) to the Okanagan and Upper Columbia Rivers

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The One River, Ethics Matter 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. The 2021 conference is co-hosted by the Okanagan Nation Alliance and the University of British Columbia Okanagan campus. One River, Ethics Matter is an annual conference facilitated by the Ethics and Treaty Project. The four panels of this two-day conference are based on the four sections of the Columbia River Pastoral Letter.

NOVEMBER 17. Wednesday morning.

Watch:  Video of Day 1

09:00 WELCOME.   (30 minutes)

• opening prayer
• Indigenous welcome:  Chief Chris Derickson
• Academic welcome:  Dr. Lesley Cormack
• OREM overview:  John Osborn, Ethics & Treaty Project

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

Water is life. The Columbia River watershed, an area the size of Alberta or Texas, is one of the most remarkable river systems on earth. What are our foundational ethical relationships and responsibilities between humans and water — within an Indigenous worldview and within Judeo-Christian teachings and practice?

• Dr. Jeanette Armstrong – Syilx Scholar: on Syilx Cultural Perspectives
• Bishop Greg Bittman – Nelson Diocese, Roman Catholic Church
• Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, on Truth & Reconciliation
• Moderator:  Dr. Ananya Mukherjee Reed

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – 10:30  Break: 15 minutes

10:45 Panel 2.  Rivers through our Memory (1 hour 45 minutes)

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.

For more than 80 years, salmon have been blocked from returning to the Canadian portion of the upper Columbia River. The Syilx Okanagan Nation has spearheaded a 20+ year effort to revitalize salmon in the Okanagan River, the last major tributary of the Columbia River that salmon can access below the dams that stopped all salmon migration upstream in the 1940s.

• Chief Byron Louis – Syilx Leader, historian on fisheries and colonization
• Nathan Matthew – Sewepemc Leader, educator
• John Sirois, Colville Confederated Tribes, Upper Columbia United Tribes, historian
• Karilyn Alex , and Ryan Benson – The Story of the Syilx Skaha Salmon Reintroduction: a model of success
• Moderator:  Dr. William (Bill) Cohen, Syilx scholar

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

NOVEMBER 18. Thursday morning.

Watch:  Video of Day 2

09:00 WELCOME

• opening prayer
• Welcome, background from day #1. Tom Soeldner, Ethics & Treaty Project

09:10  Panel 3. Rivers through our Vision (1 hour, 45 minutes) 

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?

• Barbara Cosens – University of Idaho, Professor of Law, Emeritus
• Jennifer Lewis – Syilx Perspective on Colonization and Wellness today
• Jay Johnson – CEC Chief Negotiator – on the CRT experience
• Jim Heffernan – Policy Analyst, Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. Climate change, Regional Recommendations, and the U.S. negotiating position on the Columbia River Treaty
• Moderator:  Rosalie Wilson-Yazzie
  

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – 10:55   15 minute break

11:10   Panel 4.  Rivers as our Responsibility  (60 minutes)

For more than 80 years, salmon have been blocked from returning to the Canadian portion of the upper Columbia River with devastating impacts on Indigenous people. Now, an Indigenous-led collaboration of the Syilx Okanagan Nation, Ktunaxa Nation, and Secwépemc Nation, together with the governments of Canada and British Columbia, is working to return salmon stocks to the full length of the Columbia River.

On the U.S. side of the border major efforts also led by tribes are underway to restore salmon above Grand Coulee dam. We face challenges include habitat loss, overfishing, pollution, politics, climate change, and of course the dams. But, for Indigenous Nations, this work is not only a possibility—it is a sacred responsibility. We must take these opportunities now to move us forward, together, into a future that will sustain the people-to-be.

• Kim Montgomery – A Syilx Nation response to ongoing crisis – ONRT
• Mark Thomas – Columbia River salmon reintroduction initiative (Executive chair, working group)
• Sarah Alexis – Syilx Leaderhip:  on water and youth empowerment
• DR Michel – Executive Director, Upper Columbia United Tribes (UCUT):  American side, transboundary coordination of salmon reintroduction
• Moderator: Pauline Terbasket – Executive Director, Okanagan Nation Alliance

12:10  What have we learned? What must we do? (20 minutes)

12:30  Adjourn