KUOW interviewed Lummi fisherman and tribal council member Cliff Cultee for a story about fishing for Fraser River sockeye:
Cultee: “My grandfather and uncles, they all had their own purse seiners, like 58–foot boats. The routine was, after school, we’d get up, go to the web locker in Bellingham, we’d put the nets together with all the uncles and grandfather and crews, do all the nets
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Treaty tribes in western Washington are having a bountiful Fraser River sockeye fishery this season, with at least three times the number of fish returning as expected. More than 30 million sockeye are estimated to return to the Fraser River in British Columbia this year – the highest run size recorded since 1913.
View photos of the fishery in the San Juan Islands on NWIFC’s Flickr…
Swinomish elder and longtime tribal senator Chester Cayou passed away Friday. A prayer service will be held tonight at 7 p.m. in the Swinomish gymnasium. The funeral is Tuesday at 10 a.m. in the same location: 17275 Reservation Road, La Conner, Wash.
Mr. Cayou, who was of Lummi, Mitchell Bay and Saanich ancestry, died Friday at his Swinomish home. He was in
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The biggest sockeye run in nearly a century — 25 million fish — is headed back to British Columbia’s Fraser River and its tributaries. It’s a bonanza for American and Canadian fishermen, who are more used to squabbling over how to divide up a declining resource.
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In 40 years of dropping nets into Washington waters, Ray Forsman has never experienced fishing like
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Last year, several members of the Tulalip Tribes fisheries enforcement department completed an intensive Coast Guard certification course in boat handling.
The training paid off this week when a 30-foot tribal fishing boat sank.
From a blog by their trainer, Capt. Richard J. Rodriguez:
This morning I shared a cup of coffee with the survivors and two friends (Zenith Maritime graduates;) Lt. Robert Myers and Bernie
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About 170 wild turkeys were released into a meadow on the Tulalip Tribes reservation in August with the hope they will sustain a harvestable population.
“Tribal hunters don’t have the same access to nutritious protein that they once had,” said Ray Fryberg Sr., fish and wildlife director for the Tulalip Tribes. “Populations of deer and elk have declined and they’re running out of decent habitat.”
A…
Kitsap Sun reporter Christopher Dunagan writes about the Fraser sockeye returns on his Watching Our Water Ways blog:
When it comes to Fraser River sockeye, a single year can make all the difference in the world.
Last year at this time, I commented in Water Ways about the mystery of the missing Fraser River sockeye and the economic disaster wrought by the abysmally poor runs.
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The Stillaguamish Tribe will celebrate the Festival of the River this weekend beginning at 10 a.m. Saturday and Sunday at River Meadows County Park, 20416 Jordan Road, east of Arlington.
The Stillaguamish Festival of the River is a fun way to celebrate summer and the Pacific Northwest environment. Regional citizens and visitors share their experiences and learn from others about water quality, salmon habitat, and
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In June 2010, the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community and Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission bought Kiket Island to co-manage as a state park. On July 30, 2010, representatives from the tribe and state gathered for a dedication ceremony.
Read the story here, and see Billy Frank Jr.’s column here.
You can watch a video of the celebration after the jump:
Lummi Nation master carver Felix Solomon has been studying traditional canoes for several years. When a 300-year-old cedar tree, buried for the last 100 years, was uncovered in the Stillaguamish watershed, the Stillaguamish Tribe asked him to carve a shovel-nose river canoe for them.
During the 6-month, 6-day process, Solomon taught Stillaguamish tribal members, including Chairman Shawn Yanity and assistant fisheries manager Jeff Tatro, the…
