2018 People Of Big River

July 20 th Today with met with Rob Mallory, Clint Desautel and Lance they all work with Colville Forestry. We visited several logging sites, treatment sites and beautiful Twin Lake on the Colville reservation. Lance discussed how a treatment can take up to 2 months for 35 acres but that it varies also. Clint discussed the importance of fires and how pre-settlement that native peoples were using fire and that it was always apart of the ecosystem here on the Colville Reservation. Clint said something that I thought was profound and he said – ‘You can go as far as you want and long as you’re constantly learning.’ Lance also shared with us that the Colville tribe only allows for tribal members to gather traditional foods and that there are natural resource officers who monitor these locations of gathering and they can issue fines and confiscate berries, roots etc. from trespassers. They also shared that there is 3000+ Elk on the Colville Reservation. Clint and Lance both shared that t...

July 19 th Today we met with Lucy an Arcehologist for the Colville Tribe. She took us to view the Omak Stampede Grounds, Okanogan Interpritive Center and the Colville Museum that is located near Grand Coulee Dam. I really enjoyed all the beadwork and photos at the Colville Museum. After touring the museums we packed up from our campground in Nespelem and drove to Keller Lake. Everyone was a lot happier here with trees and a big lake to swim in. 

July 18 th    Today we traveled from Wellpinit, WA to Nespelem, WA. This day was a bit more relaxed in the morning as we prepared to travel. Later when we showed up to the campground that the Archealogy Dept. suggest we didn’t care for all the heat and that there were no tree’s around. It was so hot during our stay here that I didn’t need the cover on my tent and I was able to star gaze until I went to sleep. 

July 17 th Today we met with Ray Entz, Director of Wildlife and Terrestrial Resources for the Kalispel Tribe. We met him at the beautiful Camas Wellness Center in Cusick, WA. Ray shared a little bit about his educational pathway and he has a BA and MBA in Biology. Ray believes that environmental justice is the biggest problem that he see’s the Kalispel Tribe facing today. Polluters are not being held accountable for the consequences of their actions. The Kalispel tribe is about 4700 acres. Later we met with Jason, Fish Program Manager for the Kalispel Tribe. He shared that the Kalispel Tribe is working on a study attractins of fish to fish ladders. He said that so far they have noticed that fish have been attracted to certain cool temperature and that they want to go into more research to develop a method to alter the water temperature to attract fish. We viewed  Cut throat trout and some of the fully grown adults were only 7 inches long. And again Norther Pike were dis...

July 16 h Today we met with BJ Keiffer, DNR Director. He shared a lot with us about the Spokane Tribe and how Timber was the driving force for the tribe, but that timber production has decreased from what it once was. He talked about how Grand Coulee Dam stops salmon from returning. And that reintroducing fish is their greatest natural resource problem. He mentioned that the Spokane tribe is so far removed from the river that other tribes here in Washington that often times people have to relearn that the Spokane tribe were once river people. Other challenges the Spokane face is the aftermath of a few fires that burned a 3 rd of the reservation in 2015 and 2016. Uranium mines are also currently being reclamated on the Spokane Reservation. Something that really helped me that BJ said was – ‘Of all the things people can take from you an education is one of the things they can’t take.’ Later we met with Vernon Stearns Jr., Fuels Manager for the Spokane Tribe. He explained prescribe...

Day 8 This morning we slept in a little later than usual just after 8am and my group was up to cook a full breakfast with pancakes, hash browns, eggs, and bacon. Then we were able to take it a little slower today and I tiptoed off to enjoy another shower. After showering and resting for a bit we were visited by Warren and he brought a few other Spokane tribal members with him and they sang for us and we did a few round dances and enjoyed the shade. Warren then took us to the watch tower in Wellpinit and we climbed to the very top and took photos and took in the great view from up top. But I think the best part of the day was when we went swimming. It was such a hot day and swimming was a lot of fun and refreshing. The night is slowly winding down and I have a tummy full of sloppy joes and I’m ready for another shower to wash off the river water and to rest up for the week.   

Day 7 Today we left Deschutes National park at around 7:30am and started on our journey to Wellpinit, WA. We made a stop in the Tri-Cities to do our laundry, refuel and pick up more groceries. We arrived in Wellpinit around 9:15 and we started to set up camp and shower. The showers were warm and amazing! I had been bathing in the cold Deschutes River so a warm shower was exactly what I needed. We all lucked out and Jacob cooked a noodle dish with chicken and I went to bed happy to be resting. 

Day 6  Our morning started off with an full breakfast of potatoes, bacon and eggs and it was delicious but I have to admit that it made me want a cup of Foldgers even more. Afterwards we were off to meet with Tom Walker a Fish Biologist who then prepared us for our next activity planting along a new culvert that is next to Soda Creek, it was recently replaced in Deschutes National Forest. I really liked that they were trying to help along the environment with planting along Soda Creek and I was happy to be a part of this project. Tom was nice enough to help us throughout the duration of our service work and I really appreciated that. Afterwards we broke for lunch - sandwiches again. Then we were off to our next destination which was Lava Butte. Lava Butte was very picturesque. Lava Butte is a volcano that hasn’t erupted in 7000 years and there is still to this day a layout of where the lava flowed out of Lava Butte. After Lava Butte we took a small hike to Benham Falls and it ...

Day 5 My morning started off with a nice 6am dip into the Deschutes River, I was definitely refreshed. Jessie Larson Forest Technician lead us for the day into Lava Lakes trail where we assisted in clearing lodge pole pine and various other debri from the side of Lava Lakes Trail. Jessie first had us go over a few safety precautions and then we individually chose our own hard hats, safety glasses, gloves and I chose loppers to work with for the day. Jessie than walked with us and explained how to properly clear a trail, she showed us where to cut branches and what to do with the branches after they have been cut. Different tools required different instructions a lot of the males had bigger tools and Jessie showed them how to properly use those. The sun was out but we were provided a lot of shade from the trees and that made the physical work we were doing a little better. After a few miles of clearing trail we ran into Little Lava Lake and then we kept going onto Lava Lake where M...

Day 4 Today we started off with meeting Annie Wittenberg, Aaron Olmos and Mike Gomez with the fire service and BIA. Something interesting that I learned today was what a hotshot crew is and a type 2 IA crew is. A hotshots crew is a crew that works together all the time and a Type 2 IA crew do not always work together they are moved around where needed. And a camp crew is pretty much what the name entails, it is a crew that works on logistics and other tasks at a fire camp. And then we met Doug and Sam who are both Redmond Smokejumpers. Smokejumpers are men that basically jump out of planes to fight fire and they are often the first crew at certain types of fires. Smokejumper’s can work on average 16 hour days for most of the fire season. We got to tour a 330 Sherpa and this is the type of plane that smokejumper’s jump out of. A 330 Sherpa plane that is dispatched for a fire will contain 10 smokejumpers, 2 spotters who direct the smokejumpers on when to exit the plane and 2 pilots wh...

Day 3 Today we visited Lyle Falls Fish way which has the 2 nd largest fish lift in the U.S. and were given tours by Shawn Bechtol a Fisheries Biologist, John Washines a Fisheries Technician and Scott Spino a Fisheries Technician. The tour started off with Shawn guiding us through how a fish lift is operated. After the fish lift collected fish Shawn was able to use low voltage electric narcosis to sedate the fish making them more manageable to work with and take measurements from and tag a few of the fish for us, specifically spring chinook and steelhead. During the data collection Shawn also shared with us how to tell the difference between a native fish and a hatchery fish, a native fish will have an upper back fin intact and hatchery fish will have the upper back fin cut off. Later John Washines took us through the Klickitat Falls Tribal fishing site and explained some of the history and common practices of Yakama tribal fishermen. John Washines said something that made a small gr...

Day 2 Today our morning started with breakfast and my group had dishes duty. We also packed our lunches and started preparing our backpacks for the day. We left the Chaparral campsite and headed out and unfortunately we ended up getting a little lost but 2 hours later we made it to  Jeanette Burkhardt – Watershed Planner for YN Fisheries. Jeanette mentioned many different topics but I was mainly interested in Fish Accords. Fish accords are agreements that tribes go into that provides funding for their fisheries programs, in return tribes agree to not sue the state or the federal government for a certain period of time. These Fish Accords expire and are addressed every 10-5 years. Jeanette also mentioned that Husum falls is a German name and we laughed about how that was typical of settlers to come to Native homelands and give traditional sites European names. Jeanette than led us to Husum Falls and we took photos and hoped rafters would give us a show but they didn’t go past us...

Day 1 Today I arrived at Heritage University somewhat packed and ready to go. Eventually I would run home two different times having forgot a few things. Later I was issued a water bladder, backpack, sleeping bag, and a head lamp. The texture of the sleeping bag should have been a sign for me to bring my own sleeping bag and a few more blankets, I froze. We later went through a classroom session with Jonalee Squeochs. She discussed the effects of climate change and had a power point displaying research conducted on or near the Yakama Reservation. After a while we started to make our trek to the Yakama Nation closed area. We gathered logs and kindling on the way up. Finally, we arrived at Potato Hill and started to setup camp, we were also assigned groups at this time. My group for the duration of this course is group 1 and we stated by being assigned to cooking spaghetti. Jacob Billy and I kind of took charge of this meal and afterward Jacob let me know that I was a good cook! O...