Columbia River In-Lieu and Treaty Fishing Access Sites Improvement Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman's courtesy in yielding to me and the presentation that he made outlining the situation, along with Ranking Member Bishop, under whose leadership this legislation moved forward in the last Congress.

It is long overdue. It is jarring to visit these in-lieu treaty sites. The notion that it is unsanitary and unsafe really understates the case.

Along the Columbia River, I have passed one of these sites for years, never knowing that what may be a Tiger Woods three-iron shot off the freeway revealed these conditions.

These are sites that have been used by the Tribes for millennia, and sadly, they were a casualty of the Columbia River dam construction. Those dams have produced significant economic prosperity in our region with jobs and agricultural activities, but the Native people have been left behind.

There was a pledge that we would be able to accommodate their sites that were flooded, but that has been observed mainly in the breach. It has reached the point now where we have on each of these sites people who naturally want to gravitate to what is part of their tradition. There is, as was referenced, a need for Tribal housing, but the fishing experience, the proximity to the river, and this being part of their historic heritage draws them there.

In many cases, they do have sites where people are living on a year- round basis in conditions that really should not exist anywhere in America.

It is interesting, when we started this saga two centuries ago, Native people had almost 2 billion acres that was theirs to hunt, to fish, to live, and there was some cultivation. The Federal Government, over a series of years and a series of treaties, narrowed that range. In fact, the Federal Government started giving away Native American people's land before there was even a treaty to White settlers.

The history is checkered and disturbing. There have been acts that can only be described as genocide--disease, attacks on Native people, forced marches. We had our own Trail of Tears in the Pacific Northwest. And, consistently, we have not met our obligations to more recent treaties.

I am pleased that the committee has brought this forward on a bipartisan basis. I am pleased that the administration is aligned with us in, it looks like, being able to move forward to deal with what needs to happen with some of these sites.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased that we have a partnership in the Senate with my friend and colleague, Senator Jeff Merkley, and Senator Patty Murray, who has been deeply involved with this, so that we are positioned to take action that is long overdue, keeping faith with the Tribal people, keeping faith with our commitment through history, being able to make sure that the progress that we have been working on here for 4 years is poised to move forward.

Mr. Speaker, I deeply appreciate the work that has been done with the committee on a bipartisan basis to get us to this position. I look forward to its passage in the House and the Senate and being executed by the executive.

It is going to make a big difference to people who are worthy and deserving of our best efforts.

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