December 14, 2023 โ For all the impacts of other endangered species on the human communities they coexist with โ owls and timber harvesting, wolves and ranching โ there are few species that have affected more people than the decline of Pacific salmon.
And the people who have arguably been hit the hardest: the tribes of the Pacific Northwest.
โSalmon is really the heart of our culture. Weโre salmon people,โ said Donella Miller, a citizen of Yakama Nation. โWhen weโre born, we drink our motherโs milk, but salmon was always our first food. That was the first solid food that I ate.โ
Miller is also the fisheries science manager for the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. She helps evaluate hatchery programs, oversees the commissionโs genetics lab in Idaho and manages their river ecology projects.
The threats facing salmon arenโt any one thing โ and thatโs what makes them so vexing.
โItโs a complex issue and you canโt pinpoint one specific thing,โ Miller said. โI refer to it as death by a thousand cuts.โ