Tuesday, August 12, 2025

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Photo: Kettle River. (AndrewEnns / Wikimedia)

Colville Tribal officials are hailing the discovery of a Chinook salmon in British Columbia’s Kettle River as another sign of success of their salmon reintroduction program.

Spokane Public Radio’s Steve Jackson reports.

It has been decades since a Chinook was last seen upstream from Coulee Dam in the Kettle River.

“It’s significant because Grand Coulee Dam cut off salmon from going to the ocean and back since 1941, so for over 80 years, salmon haven’t been in the Kettle river.”

That’s Casey Baldwin, a salmon reintroduction manager for the Colville Tribes.

He says the program has released more than 160,000 juvenile fish per year since 2017, including about 25,000 at Kettle Falls.

These fish have been tracked making their way down the Columbia River system to the ocean – and many have managed to survive passing through the Grand Coulee Dam turbines.

While this Chinook salmon was not examined specifically by fish biologists, Baldwin says it’s very likely the result of the release program.

Baldwin says his agency is also currently tracking one wild adult fish with a special ID tag that’s returning up the Columbia from the sea.

If the fish can make it as far as Chief Joseph Dam, the hope is that it can be captured and trucked upstream to a tributary above Grand Coulee.

In recent months, the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe, N.M. was one of many tribal colleges facing federal funding cuts.

KUNM’s Jeanette DeDios (Jicarilla Apache and Diné) spoke with IAIA’s new president, Shelly Lowe, to get an update on where the prominent Indigenous art school stands.

President Donald Trump’s budget proposal threatens to reduce the school’s federal allocation from around $13 million to $0 beginning October 1.

President Lowe says there have been threats to federal funding all across the country, but she’s thankful that she continues to see support from the school’s appropriators and Congress.

“They are on board to support us. You know, we’re still out there trying to make sure that their constituencies, our own constituencies, know very well what we are doing and the importance of it.”

Lowe says she’s planning for a normal fall semester and has no intention of changing anything.

“We’re going to keep talking to our appropriators and ensuring that we have enough funding, and we’re going to be out there really looking for donors and looking for individuals who are interested in supporting the institution, but we’re moving forward as normal for the next year, and we’ll just keep working hard.”

According to the Santa Fe New Mexican, the Interior Department’s appropriation bill passed both the Senate and House Appropriations Committee, which includes a $12 million appropriation for IAIA. 

This bill now advances to the full House and Senate for consideration.

The Medicine Wheel Ride, an Indigenous led fundraiser during the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota, recently completed its sixth year.

SDPB’s C.J. Keene has more.

This year, an estimated 230 rode from Bear Butte State Park across the Black Hills to raise awareness for missing and murdered Indigenous people (MMIP).

The setting of Sturgis is particularly pertinent as Native Hope, a South Dakota nonprofit, considers the rally a major driver of human trafficking.

This year’s ride was sponsored by Harley-Davidson and registered riders paid an entry fee dedicated to MMIP justice efforts.

 

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), chair of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, will host a roundtable Thursday in Anchorage, Alaska, on a draft legislative package addressing recommendations from a Native children commission, which was issued last year.

According to Sen. Murkowski’s office, discussions are aimed at advancing the well-being and future opportunities for Native children.

The event is open to the public with seating on a first-come, first-serve basis, and it will be livestreamed.

 

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