Celebrating Lamprey Harvest
As summer winds to a close, we are reflecting on a season marked by gathering, learning and sharing of First Foods.
On the weekend of July 30th, the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation and the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs hosted a Lamprey Celebration and Salmon Bake at Meldrum Bar Park in Gladstone, OR.
Tribes harvested close to 800 lamprey from Willamette Falls for the celebration, to which all communities were invited. The lamprey provided for the feast were caught by Tribal fishermen, who exercise their Usual and Accustomed Rights to hunt at Willamette Falls.
What are Usual and Accustomed Rights?
This term refers to the assurances on behalf of the U.S. government, through reserved treaty rights, that Tribal rights to use land would be exercised in wide-ranging traditional and accustomed geographic areas. These protected rights exceed reservation boundaries, and can protect cultural practices spanning hundreds of miles. Treaties are akin to the constitution as the supreme law of the land and will be respected in perpetuity.
“For millennia, Willamette Falls has provided sustenance to the Yakama Nation and is an important site for us to gather and exercise our treaty rights to fish and harvest lamprey."
- Davis “Yellowash” Washines Yakama Nation Tribal member and Government Relations Liaison, and Willamette Falls Trust Board Member
Image: Elaine Harvey, Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation member, demonstrating how to filet a lamprey.
LAMPREY ARE FIRST FOODS FOR NATIVE COMMUNITIES
Native communities have fished for lamprey since Time Immemorial. Although lamprey resemble eels, with a slender and silvery body, they are not related.
The state of Oregon is home to several types of lamprey, including the Pacific lamprey, that return from the ocean in the summer months to Willamette Falls. Lamprey are culturally important to Native communities for food, medicine and ceremony and the Falls are the only remaining site in Oregon to harvest the fish.
As the designated liaison for our four partner Tribes, the Trust believes it is important to share and promote Native Lifeways to our community.
