US government, for the 1st time, details how Northwest dams devastated the region’s Native tribes

By GENE JOHNSON
Associated Press

SEATTLE (AP) — The U.S. government has acknowledged for the first time the harms that the construction and operation of dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers in the Pacific Northwest have caused Native American tribes. It issued a report Tuesday that details how the unprecedented structures devastated salmon runs, inundated villages and burial grounds, and continue to severely curtail the tribes’ ability to exercise their treaty fishing rights. The Biden administration’s report comes amid a $1 billion effort announced earlier this year to restore the region’s salmon runs before more become extinct — and to better partner with the tribes on the actions necessary to make that happen.