Near Missoula, over 200 years ago, the Lewis & Clark expedition walked up to Lolo Pass with guidance and support of Native American tribes. Earlier, on August 12 1805, at Lemhi Pass, the American explorers sent by President Jefferson had stepped out of the United States, into the Columbia Basin, and traveled down a river of life we now call the “Columbia River.”

Here was a place where tens of millions of wild salmon returned each year to spawn in forest and desert streams renewing a great cycle of life, a river where people’s existence and culture from time immemorial depended on these returning salmon.

At the time of first contact between indigenous people and Lewis & Clark, and then later British explorer David Thompson, the Columbia River was perhaps the richest salmon river on earth.

What happened?

In a few centuries – the blink of an eye – the forces of Manifest Destiny brought catastrophic change upon the indigenous peoples of the Americas.  The dam-building era in the Columbia Basin was a part of colonial settlement and escalated resource extractions.

Dams, while bringing benefits for many, wrought massive environmental destruction and wrenching change for life that depends on the river.   Without consulting tribes and First Nations, the federal governments of the U.S. and Canada along with the Provincial B.C. government negotiated the Columbia River Treaty and ratified it in 1964.

Not surprisingly for an international river treaty negotiated during the 1950s (and without including indigenous people in treaty decisions) the Columbia River Treaty has only two purposes: generating hydropower and flood risk management.

Given this history and unfolding climate change, tribes, First Nations, faith leaders, and NGOs are advocating that Ecosystem-based Function – river stewardship – be added to the Treaty as a third treaty purpose equal to hydropower and flood risk management.

Ecosystem-based Function includes passage for fish blocked by dams, reconnecting rivers to their floodplains, and stabilizing reservoir levels. Also central to the future of the Columbia River: who decides river management? To right historic wrongs requires that Canada and the United States expand river governance to include tribes and First Nations in multinational river governance.

One River – Ethics Matter

“We invite people to explore with us the implications of the . . . idea of human stewardship of creation, and to effect a spiritual, social, and ecological transformation of the watershed.”

– The Columbia River Watershed: Caring for Creation and the Common Good.
Roman Catholic Bishops of the international watershed, 2001

Ethics Conference SeriesRevelstoke 2017 – Overview | film Boise 2016 – Overview | Agenda Portland 2015 – Film | Overview | Agenda Spokane 2014 – Film | AgendaThe “One River, Ethics Matter” conference series focuses on the dam-building era’s impacts on the Columbia River, modeled on South Africa’s “Truth & Reconciliation Process” in response to another great injustice, apartheid.

These water-ethics conferences have two foundations: (1) the Columbia River Pastoral Letter by the Roman Catholic Bishops of the international watershed, and (2) tools used by hospital ethics committees. These conferences are interdisciplinary. They bring together tribal elders, historians, scientists, ethicists, faith leaders, and others to understand rivers through our history and as our responsibility.

Join us in Missoula on April 11

The Missoula conference on April 11, 2018, will focus on the consequences of the dam-building era in western Montana, including:

• Libby dam and international impacts to the Kootenai River and Kootenay Lake;
• Hungry Horse dam, and efforts to protect resident fisheries; and
• The Séliš Ksanka Qlispé Project on the Flathead River, a federal license now held by the Confederate Salish and Kootenai Tribes, the first in the nation to own and operate a major hydropower facility.

The ethics conference will discuss ecosystem-friendly measures known as “Montana Operations” (including “VarQ” flood risk management) as possible models for future management of the dam system throughout the Columbia Basin to advance ethical principles of justice and stewardship.

The One River, Ethics Matter conference is free and open to the public. Lunch is provided to participants.

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Hosted by

University of Montana Center for Natural Resources & Environmental Policy, Department of Geography

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Sponsored by

Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes  *  Upper Columbia United Tribes  *  Canadian Water Research Society  *  University Consortium on Columbia River Governance *  UM Native American Studies Dept.  *  Montana Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America  * Flathead Lake Biological Station  *  WaterWatch of Oregon  *  Sierra Club – Montana – Idaho – Washington Chapters * Backcountry Hunters & Anglers  *   Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission  *  Montana Association of Christians *  UM Geography Dept.  *  Columbia Institute for Water Policy  *  Center for Environmental Law & Policy  *  Rachael & John Osborn

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Planning Committee

Sophia Cinnamon (conference Coordinator), Richard Janssen, Claudia Narcisco, John Osborn, The Rev. Dr. Todd Scranton, David Shively PhD, The Rev. W. Thomas Soeldner

 Advisory Committee

Bishop Jessica Crist, Bill Green, Jim Heffernan, Mathew McKinney, PhD, D.R. Michel, Bishop Emeritus William Skylstad, Pat Smith, David Strohmaier, Pauline Terbasket, The Rev. Martin Wells