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Yakama Nation Aligns with Plaintiffs in Columbia Basin Salmon Case by Staff The Goldendale Sentinel, November 5, 2025

The Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation announced this week that it has filed in National Wildlife Federation v. National Marine Fisheries Service to continue its participation as amicus curiae, now aligning with plaintiffs in a principled response to the federal government's recent withdrawal from two key partnership agreements -- the Columbia Basin Fish Accords and the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement (RCBA).

Over the past two decades, Yakama Nation championed both agreements in and out of the courtroom as constructive, science-based alternatives to litigation -- frameworks intended to secure increased habitat restoration actions and to align hydrosystem operations with salmon recovery and with the United States' Treaty and trust obligations to Columbia Basin tribes. But the Bonneville Power Administration's unilateral decision to let the Fish Accords expire on September 30, 2025, without a successor, together with the June 2025 federal withdrawal from the RCBA, has left those commitments void.

"The federal government walked away from the partnerships it promised would deliver restoration and accountability," said Yakama Tribal Council Chairman Gerald Lewis. "Without those agreements, the 2020 Biological Opinion for Columbia Basin hydrosystem operations stands alone -- and it fails to prevent jeopardy to endangered Columbia Basin salmon."

The Yakama Nation's filing underscores that its Treaty-reserved fishing rights, secured in the Treaty of 1855 and recognized as the supreme law of the land, depend on actually having fish available to harvest. Federal dam operations and other non-Tribal development have devastated fish populations, while harvest restrictions -- necessary to allow endangered Snake River stocks to pass safely through the mainstem Columbia -- further constrain the Tribe's exercise of its rights.

In the absence of collaborative commitments, Yakama Nation supports targeted, court-ordered protections for Endangered Species Act-listed salmon and steelhead, including increased spill, improved reservoir operations, and strengthened predator-control measures.

"Extinction is not an option," said Yakama Fish and Wildlife Committee Chair Jeremy Takala. "The law is clear, the science is clear, and the federal government's obligations under the ESA and the Treaty of 1855 are clear. Protecting these fish now is essential to keeping faith with the Yakama people and with the laws of the United States."

The National Wildlife Federation, et al. v. National Marine Fisheries Service, et al,. Case No. 3:01-cv-0640-SI (D. Or.) ("NWF v. NMFS"), is federal litigation that challenges the adequacy of federal biological opinions governing operations of the Columbia River hydropower system under the Endangered Species Act. The Yakama Nation has participated in NWF v. NMFS as amicus curiae since 2001, providing technical and cultural expertise and information to the Court. With the recent expiration of the Columbia Basin Fish Accords and federal withdrawal from the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement ("RCBA"), Yakama Nation has shifted from an unaligned amicus status to being aligned with plaintiffs. Yakama Nation's participation in this case remains focused on its longstanding goal: to prevent extinction, ensure federal accountability, and restore healthy and abundant salmon and steelhead throughout the Columbia Basin.

The United States' December 14, 2023 Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement with the Yakama, Umatilla, Warm Springs, and Nez Perce tribes, and the states of Washington and Oregon (commonly, the "Six Sovereigns" for ease of reference) was negotiated in a confidential federal mediation arising from the proceedings in NWF v. NMFS

The RCBA provided a package of initial federal commitments (the "USG Commitments") in support of the Columbia Basin Restoration Initiative[3] ("CBRI") developed by the Six Sovereigns during the mediation to address fundamental issues underlying the decades-long litigation. (More information on the CBRI is available at: critfc.org/cbri/)

Yakama Nation is a sovereign, federally recognized Native Nation whose Treaty of 1855 with the United States guarantees the Tribe's reserved right to fish at all usual and accustomed places in the Columbia River Basin. Yakama Nation remains committed to honoring, and protecting Columbia Basin salmon and other native fish and advancing the Columbia Basin Restoration Initiative together with tribal, state, federal, local, and community partners.