Day 9

July 17, 2017

Today we went to the Tshimikain Creek, where we met with Kasey Flamagar, the Water & Fish Manager. We also met Nick aka Bubba who spoke about the water program with the Spokane Tribe. I never know just how important the creeks are to the tribes. Warren has spoken, just like many other that we have met, about the salmon and how much the tribal community was impacted when there was no more salmon. Our job today was to help them catch fish so that they can get genetic samples, weight, length, and tag the fish. To prevent interbreeding the hatchery will change the temperatures to make them sterile. They gave us our things and we suited up. The first one I tried on was really big so I ended up trading with someone else. But now the boots were really big and heavy. Why did I have to be so short and little? It was kind of scary just getting in the water and walking against the current because it felt like it was pushing you back. I tried to catch the fish but I was just not getting it. Maybe it was just the fact that I was scared to get shocked. Once I got the hang of walking against the current I decided to give it another try. I caught one! I was so excited. It felt good to catch the fish and see it get measured and tagged. After that I did not want to let go of the net it felt so good walking against the current catching the fish. I wasn’t even aware that there is a fishery program in Yakima county. I will definitely be looking more into.

The more I learn about the tribes’ culture and everything that they are trying to do makes has made me double thing about my major. I have had amazing jobs but not all them were trying to make our environment better or were passionate about what they were trying to do. I think that is what I am liking the most about this culture that everything they do is to better the environment and better their lives. It makes me ask myself do I want to go my whole working for a company that is probably messing up our environment or try to help people that are fighting for their lands, their rights, their future generations.

As we were just getting out of the shower, getting ready to watch a movie on Jessica’s’ trailer Warren showed up. He wanted to take us to the Pit House. At first I was not excited about going because I just wanted to rest. But when we got there it was cool to see the Pit House. To see what these people had made about 15 years ago and see how amazing it still is was crazy. As soon as you walk in you feel a sense of something that I just cannot describe. Everyone could say what they were thankful except me. I am just so used to holding everything in I could not open. I felt like it was unfair for everyone to be so open and me be so reserved. My story is just kind of locked, put in a vault, thrown in the middle of the ocean that it is hard for me to bring to shore. It’s hard to hear everyone’s story because I wish I could make everyone’s lives better but I know can’t. All I can do is pray for them and hope their lives get better. Maybe I can also try to get to know them better and check on them every occasionally.