Terry Williams is blunt when he describes the environmental crisis tribes in the Pacific Northwest are facing: "We’ve lost 90 percent of the salmon population."
As the Tulalip Tribe’s Fisheries and Natural Resources Commissioner, Williams has witnessed the decline of salmon and its impacts on tribal members. For the Tulalip and other tribes in the region, the population crash of salmon is much more than an assault on their economic lifeblood—it is a cultural and spiritual threat to their identity as a people.
The annual springtime Salmon Ceremony puts tribal members in direct touch with their ancestors, and other ceremonies and practices center on the fish through the year. Losing the fish is a strike to the core of the Tulalip people, but they have a long-term vision to restore wild salmon populations to levels that will support their fishing needs.
- Subject:
- Applied Science
- Environmental Science
- Material Type:
- Case Study
- Provider:
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- Provider Set:
- U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit
- Date Added:
- 08/09/2016