FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: (6/20/97)

TULALIP SPRING CHINOOK RUN BOOSTS CULTURAL PRIDE

TULALIP BAY -- The irony was as glaring as it was heartbreaking to Tulalip Tribal Chairman Stanley Jones, Sr. Imagine having to purchase Alaskan chinook salmon for the Tulalip FirstSalmon Ceremony -- a vital tribal cultural and spiritual celebration that honors the return of the year's first salmon runs to Tulalip Bay and nearby rivers. "Something is very wrong if we have to buy our fish for the First Salmon Ceremony," said Jones.

Until this year, Tulalip was forced to buy its fish because the Snohomish River, just south of Tulalip Bay, no longer supports the native spring chinook runs that supplied Tulalip ceremonies for centuries. The tribe has acquired spring chinook from other sources, like Alaska or the Columbia River, since Jones helped revive the First Salmon Ceremony in 1978.

No longer.

This year -- if only on a small hatchery run -- the tribe was able to catch its own spring chinook once again in Tulalip Bay and use it in the 1997 First Salmon Ceremony, June 14. The newly-returning salmon run has helped boost pride immeasurably within the Tulalip membership. "It's wonderful. We really take a lot of cultural and spiritual pride in using our own salmon," Jones said.

The tribe began acquiring spring chinook salmon eggs four years ago from the state Department of Fish and Wildlife's Marblemount Hatchery on the Skagit River. This year marks the first return of four-year-old adult fish since the agreement with the state began. An average of about 40,000 yearlings have been released from the Tulalip Hatchery for the last three years, including 42,000 initially.

The tribe expects a return of just a few hundred fish per year to the bay, but the program is designed only to provide fish for tribal ceremonial purposes. Jones fondly recalls fishing Snohomish native spring chinook as a youngster when the big fish returned in great numbers to the river. But the spring run, popular with Indian and non-Indian fishers, began to diminish in the 1950s. As the situation grew worse, and more and more habitat was lost to development and logging, the Tulalip Tribes quit fishing on Snohomish springs more than 30 years ago and pressed for conservation measures on other fisheries. Restrictions were never imposed until it was too late.

"It was really heartbreaking spiritually for our people," said Jones. "It was just like losing a family member, you know. We tried to preserve the natural run and help them build back up, but they never did. They just faded right out."

The Tulalip Tribes annually invite the community to the First Salmon Ceremony, which involves a series of songs and dances to honor the returning salmon and those who fish them. Tribal members greet a large cedar canoe carrying "the first salmon" at Tulalip Bay beach. The salmon is then carried to the community dining hall, where a salmon dinner is prepared for tribal andcommunity members. After the meal, the bones of the symbolic salmon are returned by canoe to Tulalip Bay.

The federal government banned this and all tribal cultural ceremonies more than 100 years ago after treaties were signed with the Tulalip Tribes. The tribes were placed on a reservation at Tulalip Bay where tribal songs, dances and language were forbidden. Eventually, tribes began to reclaim their rich culture and heritage. The Tulalip struggle included reviving the First Salmon Ceremony, an effort in which Jones was instrumental. "This is very important to our people. We are trying to follow our ancestors and do things the way they used to do," Jones said.

# # # FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: Stanley G. Jones, Sr., Tulalip Tribal Chairman, (360) 651-4000; Logan Harris, North Sound Information Officer, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, (360) 424-8226.