Columbia Riverkeeper’s board president seeks to use her position to continue to honor the first treaty of the Yakama Nation with the land itself.
By Jacqueline Keeler (Navajo/Yankton Dakota Sioux), Guest Author
Originally published in Columbia Riverkeeper “Currents” Issue 1, 2024.
Emily Washines, a Yakama Nation tribal member, historian, and founder of Native Friends, has worn many hats in her life. A graduate and former trustee of Central Washington University, she has been a board member of Columbia Riverkeeper since 2018 and board president since 2022. She is the first Yakama woman to serve in this position, bringing a unique perspective and relationship to the river her people have known from time immemorial.
Jacqueline Keeler (JK): Before being on the board, tell us a little about your relationship with Columbia Riverkeeper.
Emily Washines (EW): I worked with Columbia Riverkeeper when I was at Yakama Nation Fisheries. I witnessed how they would work with us on different events and even extend help, yet still allow us to be in the spotlight.
That balance really impressed me. With the coal export proposal that was proposed at Boardman, Columbia Riverkeeper was by our side on the banks and on the social media accounts we didn’t have, making sure they were highlighting and commenting and tagging us in those. It resulted in wider coverage and awareness, and the coal export ended up not going through.
JK: I know that a lot of your work, particularly with your Native Friends project, looks at bridging that relationship with non-Native folks to build healing from historical and ongoing trauma. How did you first come up with the idea for Native Friends, and how does this approach impact your
work with Columbia Riverkeeper?
EW: Yeah, it’s really in the foundation of one of our teachings that we have as children: to speak for the resources that can’t speak for themselves. Do we speak up for our plants? Do we speak up for the resources? I wanted to have a more optimistic view of that just at the heart, even if others didn’t always understand it. One of the plants and resources I continue to speak out for is the wapato, a wetland potato that returned to the Tribe after a 70-year absence. And, of course, different fish.
I thought it blended nicely with my other project to connect with descendants of the military militia that fought against my relatives in the 1850s Yakima War. When you’re reaching out to people that don’t know you, maybe if they had a site called Native Friends, they would know I’m not coming from some intense argumentative space, but I want to come from a space of learning and curiosity.
JK: With the salmon and the first foods you mentioned, how is that taught to Yakama women through your mother and your grandmothers? How is that expressed culturally?
EW: Well, there are a couple of different ways. For example, when I danced and wore my regalia, I wasn’t allowed to carry a knife case until I could prove I could cut fish, deer, and elk. So when I have that knife case on my belt, I’m so proud of it because I passed all of my mom’s tests. It wasn’t just that you could filet it, you needed to be able to filet it well. [laughs] That speaks to the importance and connection to these milestone moments regarding fish.
We are taught that when humans were going to come, the animals, fish, plants, and berries were told, ‘Hey, you’re currently walking around and speaking for yourself, but there’s going to be humans, and you’re no longer going to have a voice. But they will always agree to speak for you.’
That was technically our first treaty. As Yakama, it is with the resources. And that’s why we always say we promise to protect the resources for those not yet born. We promise to speak for those that cannot speak for themselves. Who’s going to step forward to sacrifice their life for others? Salmon was the first to step forward. So we honor that and continue to honor it in different ceremonies. In our first food ceremonies that we have with salmon, we recognize that we’ve taken that life in order to make ours stronger. Our lives are intertwined with salmon.
JK: How does that inform your work, activism, and fulfilling that first treaty?
EW: The ceremonies are very intense for people unfamiliar with it. Not giving too much detail, but just enough for people to understand, but you stand these little kids before people, and you tell them you’ve taken a life. And now you’re going to explain to the people, either fellow Tribal members or your family, what you did and how you did it. And from a Western society, it could look very much like a court proceeding or something, being asked to say that.
But if you recognize the elements that are going into this, part of it is ensuring that’s the teaching and the way that we want them to treat the fish. Is there something that they could have done better? Or is there something that could have been more helpful if they had had a certain tool? How is the community going to respond or support that? I think having this checks-and-balances process with our first food ceremonies helps our community have a voice and ensures that we’re carrying out the teachings in the way that our ancestors wanted us to.
JK: What was it like representing Columbia Riverkeeper in DC when the Biden administration held the ceremonial signing of the Columbia Basin Restoration agreement? What was the sense from Tribal leaders at that event? Was this a surprise, or was it the result of consultation?
EW: It was a very celebratory moment.
In 2022, the Biden administration promised to look at a better strategy to restore salmon. The administration acknowledged that a dam removal study is essential to that goal. In late 2023, they agreed to this Columbia River Basin agreement.
Being able to go to a White House signing, seeing four Tribes have a seat at the table, witnessing that, and supporting that was key. I mean, there were so many years when Tribes weren’t allowed a seat at the table regarding our own salmon recovery.
We’re on the 50th anniversary of basically being reaffirmed as co-managers of our own fishery resources—the Boldt decision. And then, of course, you have the Belloni decision prior to that, so it’s a long time to some people, but it’s a very short time frame in terms of this decades-long fight for our resources.
JK: Can you discuss the Hanford nuclear waste legacy and its impact on Yakama Nation and other Tribes’ homelands? You talked about that initial treaty and the relationships based on respect for all other life and with the land and water. But is there anything in your tradition to speak to monitoring something so toxic for tens of thousands of years?
EW: Well, I think the overall perspective is to try to protect the resources the best we can. I wasn’t around in the 1940s, and even the people who were around in the 1940s had very limited options to protect the land. We were living on that land and forcibly removed. The choice was taken away from us.
But in each generation, we continue to assert our voice about cleanup, whether from Tribes specifically or environmental groups that are basically watch-dogging the federal government’s steps and actions. And ensuring all the T’s are crossed and I’s are dotted so that we can have the best plan within the timeframe available and we’re not cutting corners or trying to make it a nuclear repository. Just throwing up our hands and saying, ‘Oh, you know what, just bring all the nuclear waste here.’ Which was something proposed, and [the late Yakama leader] Russell Jim was very adamant about not having that.
With programs like the Hanford Journey, we’re ensuring we continue his work. That it wasn’t in vain or done for nothing, that we’re continuing along this path to protect or work on cleanup of Hanford and ensure that, you know, others are aware of this area and can revisit this area.
It’s really great when you can go beyond a written document to talk about the importance of a place, do a tour, and look at the area. When we did this a few years ago, the boat tours were a newer element, and everybody loved them, so we made sure to continue them.
This year, they’re going to launch at White Bluffs. Each year, we launch at a different spot so people can see different elements of it. We partner with Yakama Nation Environmental Restoration Waste Management, which was run by Russell Jim, who wanted to ensure that Tribes always had a seat at the table regarding what’s happening in our backyard.
Jacqueline Keeler’s most recent book is “Standoff: Standing Rock, the Bundy Movement, and the American Story of Sacred Lands” from Birchbark Books. She has contributed to The Nation, Salon.com, The Daily Beast, the San Francisco Chronicle and many other publications. She has been interviewed on PRI’s The World, BBC, MSNBC and Democracy Now. She is the editor of “Edge of Morning: Native Voices Speak for the Bears