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Listen to the Tribes by Dale Graden Moscow-Pullman Daily News, June 10, 2021

For five centuries, native folk across the Americas have faced genocide, marginalization, discrimination and humiliation.

Here on the Palouse, named after the Palus Band of the Nez Perce Tribe, immigrant settlers followed soon after the visits of Lewis and Clark in 1805 and 1806. This invasion contributed to the demise of the Palus and near destruction of the 100 tribes of the Pacific Northwest.

According to a recent article in The New York Times ("The Promise and Pressures of Deb Haaland, the first Native American Cabinet Secretary," June 2), most North Americans’ knowledge of native history ends with the Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890. Ninety percent of states’ history standards do not mention Native American history after 1900. Incredibly, against all odds, native histories and cultures have survived.

In the words of Fawn R. Sharp, president of the National Congress of American Indians, "Our ancestors have long foretold of a day of reckoning, when our values and the values of those who came to this country would collide. We are at that day of reckoning." The debate over the breaching of the four dams on the Lower Snake is part of that collision.

Fifty-seven Northwest tribal governments are asking representatives and all concerned citizens to recognize the critical importance of preserving salmon, whales, and natural environments, and the need to transition to alternative energies as fast as possible. In a recent resolution, they called for "urgent, nonpartisan, action to save the Snake River salmon and regional ecosystems that depend on them."

Based on more than four decades of teaching histories and herstories, I have no confidence that politicians, technocrats and scientists have the capacity to listen to native voices. I can only hope that powerful indigenous spirits, closely linked to Mother Earth and Mother Rivers, might influence strategic decisions in the near future.