Tribes have assessed many of the damages wrought their fisheries by the Columbia Basin Dams. Rock Island Dam is a case in point. In the two years before the dam was built Indians caught 1000 and 1500 salmon. The dam was completed in 1932. In 1933, Indians recorded catching 267 salmon.
Harvest for the Nez Perce, Shoshone Bannock, Yakama, Umatilla, and Warm Spring from pre-contact to the present.
Lower Snake River Juvenile Salmon Migration Feasibility Study: Tribal Circumstances and Perspective Analysis of Impacts of the Lower Snake River Project on the Nez Perce, Yakama, Umatilla, Warm Springs, and Shoshone Bannock Tribes. Prepared for the Department of the Army Corps of Engineers, 1999.
Harvest lost to Grand Coulee Dam
“Compilation of Information on Salmon and Steelhead Total Run Size, Catch and Hydropower Related Losses in the Upper Columbia River Basin, above Grand Coulee,” Upper Columbia United Tribes Fisheries Center and Eastern Washington University, Department of Biology, 1985.
Total counts since 1866.
“Compilation of Information on Salmon and Steelhead Total Run Size,” 1985.
