GRAND COULEE!

July 25th, 2013- Evening

After being unsuccessful finding fossils in Republic we ventured to Grant, Washington to visit the famous Grand Coulee Dam. I have never visited it before so I am excited! My great grandfather actually worked on it when President Roosevelt first issued it to be built! 

Once we arrived after an amazing dinner at the local pizza place I was amazed by how big the dam was! It was twice the size as I had pictured in my head! We took pictures and waited until the laser show started it was very cool. The laser show was very educational and told a story about the Columbia River and how it benefited from the dam. 

I would like to go back one day with my family.

Bye Bye Spokane, Hello Republic

July 25th, 2013

The Spokane Tribe has been so giving and nice. They provided us dinner at Arby's which we were all grateful for. They are very giving people. They have a lot of knowledge of the past and the futre, that they are willing to share. I hope to use this knowledge to try and solve the problems that are happening in all reservations. 

We are now heading to Stonerose in Republic, Washington to look for fossils. Fossils are carbon compressed with minerals are stained by water. Fossils in this area date back to 48 to 50 years old. There once was a lake but to present day has dried up. Typically people have found fossils with leafs, insects, ginkgo, fish at Stonerose. In that site there are currently 12 researchers studying fossils. 

Some students found fossils with pine needles, and lake debris. My partner Briana and I found nothing :(

On the tenth day...

July 24th, 2013

It is now day 10, I can't believe it! This trip is going by way too fast. We got an early start today because we have a lot planned with the Spokane-ians. Spokane reservation employees, Billy Joe: Natural Resource director, Warren Sayler: Coordinator, John Matt: Heritage Coordinator, Bill Matt: tribal elder, Brain Crossley: project coordinator, Brent Nicholas: Program manager, Candace Bennett: wild life biologist. They spoke about their reservation. It is only 157,000 acres, which is the smallest that we have visited so far. They explained the impacts that the dams have had on their water systems. They have actually not had any salmon in their reservation waters in years! I found this to be very upsetting especially coming from a Tribe that has plenty. After our talk about water restoration projects and other important issues.The Spokane-ians took us out in the field to set up track plates with Candace Bennett who is a Wild Life Biologist. She spoke to us about setting up track plates to detect carnivores. She taught us how to set up the plates and we helped camouflage it with tree limbs, dried grass and leafs. After our lunch break w got the wonderful opportunity to Shock fish! We did this to collect them for sampling. I volunteered to be a netter (caught zapped fish in my net). We got a little under 10 fish, but overall it was such a great experience and almost had me change my major. (I want to be a teacher) haha

In the evening we spent time listening to the tribe and Havier sang a beautiful song while we watching the sunset on Lake Roosevelt. 

I am very grateful that Jessica Black, and The Spokane Tribe gave us the opportunity to do some hands on type work!!!

 

Day 9~ Keep it "Traditional!"

July 23rd, 2013

Today was all about all things traditional. We used soil to make our own paint. We mixed it with weird things like soy milk and lime. We had to grind the soil down to a powder. We did this by using rocks. my paint was a very brown color that was actually quite watery (Guess I won't be a professional paint maker). 

After we each got to paint something, we then made a portrait to give to our wonderful host Wenix. We all used the paints to place our hand prints :)

We learned again about the traditional food. this time we actually got to all try some of it! Each food item is honored by tribes with its own feast. I personally have only been to a huckleberry feast and did not know there were others like it.    water, salmon, deer, roots, and berries are the most important foods to all tribes. They are part of the culture and they deserve their own ceremonies and we need to do all that we can to protect them. 

We are now on our way to the Spokane Reservation! We are staying at the Wellpinit Fairgrounds, lets cross our fingers for some electricity hopefully! 

Day 8...

July 22nd, 2013

Umatillia Indian Reservation- Department of Natural Resources

First Foods Management 

Wenix Red Elk, DNR Education & Outreach specialist 

We learned that the goal of this tribe is to restore its first food. These are water, salmon, deer, roots, and berries for culture and economic benefits. They want to focus on helping populations and habitats  of these foods. They think culture is the law and what they live by. All types of laws come along with trying to preserve these foods. Water rights, fishing rights, hunting rights, and gathering and grazing rights. 

Wenix's job is to represent everyone and all rights and to educate others about them.

I really liked this presentation and I believe that BY COMBINING SCIENCE AND CULTURE OF TRIBES WE CAN SAVE ALL RESOURCES! 

Tires Tires Tires ohhh my!

On our way to visit a restoration project that the Umatillia Tribe is working on we had some problems...

On our way to the site we had to go on a very trechorous road right next to some train tracks. On our way there we had two vans get a flat tire. (White swans and Heritage's) >:[

After Giovanni changed them we headed to the site. After some great information and group pictures we headed back. Headed back to the Tribes agency on the scary road.. White Swans van in front of us received two more flats!!! So we traveled on in desperation to find tires :(

Day 7 Afternoon Adventures :)

July 21st, 2013

Woke up really early :(

Headed over to meet with Jim Harbeck who is the field office supervisor for the Nez Perce Tribe. We checked out the Lostine River where the tribe is working to restore and track fish. Spring Chinook swim in this river but are on the endangered species list so they are working to help save those...

They are doing this through supplementation which means they are taking hatchery fish and trying to bring the original species back. They have made a lot of progress, in 1999 they caught 13 fish and as of 2011 they have increased that number to 3,000! That increase is a huge jump. 

They showed us the radio tags that they insert into the fish. They insert diversions into the river and track how long it takes the fish to get past them. They track their spawning distribution and their overall travel rates. The have a total of 18 tags out and a 99% recover rate of those tags. 

The Nez Perce tribe is probably one if the nicest tribes that we have in countered along the way. They are organized and very friendly. I recommend anyone to come check out their reservation!

Day 7- Wallowa

After we visited the Nez Perce Fisheries we went back to our camp and got to hang out at the Pow Wow. I bought some beaded earrings and ate and ate at the friendship dinner that they provided yum yum yum!!!!

We watched the finals for dancing and got to see who placed, there was a lot more people than the previous night so the excitement and energy was louder.

After we hung out at the Pow Wow for most of the day we got to meet with a Nez Perce elder. His name was Elmer Crow. He told us about his time, and all of his memories about his family and land. He is currently working on trying to restore the Lampreys, which are a native species and has been around for 500 million years. He explained how everything is so much different after Lewis and Clark came...

There were about 5,000 Umatillas and now there are only 7 families left.

He also showed us all of the jewelry he makes in his spare times. Also all the bowing arrows, and nets used to catch food. I feel like Elmer was a very intelligent relatable guy who had a sense of humor! He was pretty hilarious but really passionate about what he was telling us.

Day 6

Today was not really a learning day. Spent many many hours on the road! I took about 4 naps on our way to Wallowa. We took about 2 gas stops/food/potty breaks :)
In total it took about 12 hours until we reached the Pow Wow. We blasted so much music on the way my vocal cords were sore. Once we got to the Pow Wow we set up our camp and headed to check things out. The dancers that were dancing were pretty good. I was more impressed with the girls fancy dancers overall. They were all fit and had a lot of energy. (I'm all about health and fitness)
They had some of the most amazing dresses that I have ever seen. Each dress estimated cost is about $2,000! Winner takes $300 so I'm guessing they just use the money to buy more dresses haha.
Overall the trip from Warm Springs to Wallowa, and then being at the Pow Wow was a very fun time. I also got to share part of my culture (even though I'm Yakama) with my friends :)

Day 5!

Forestry 

July 19th, 2013

Joe Welke works for the Nez Perce Tribe. He works in the trail program working as a trails volunteer coordinator. He does and monitors most of the trail work that is done in the forest. Another guy we worked with was Jason Fisher. Jason is the recreational developer. 

We got to put up a sign in front of the trail. We then painted the sign, which will later be used to give people some information about the trail and it's rules. 

After the sign was done being put up, we then had to make trenches about every 20 feet to help water drain off the trail. We also had to take out trees and branches that were possibly in the way. This part of the day was awesome! It was so hot outside, but I was cutting down some trees like trail work was my passion! We used saws and loppers in order to cut down the trees and branches. Overall this experience made me interested in forestry ahhhh!

We stopped for lunch at the Blue Lagoon and many of the kids went swimming. 

Bats, friend or foe??

Barbara Webb is a wildlife biologist who works for Deschute National Forest. She told us about the importance of bats! She told us that bats use caves for hibernation. They are very important in ecosystem, if they are removed the amount of bugs would increase rapidly! Bats have been in danger for the past couple of years. A disease called white nose has been traveling from Europe through the Americas. There is no known cure yet for the disease but research in being done. This virus is spread rapidly and by people who regularly visit caves especially from other countries. They are trying to stop the spread by closing most public caves. The virus has not passed thought the Rocky Mountains yet but probably will. We have lost over 6 million bats since 2007!

I did not know anything about this problem with bats. I personally thought they were ugly creatures but now I know their importance in the ecosystem and I would like to help their species from going extinct :(

Day 4!!!!

Visited the Deschutes National Forest. It is actually 1.6 million acres! We talked to a couple of people, including Bart Mills who is a Geologist for the forest. He introduced us to the Lava River Cave that formed over 80,000 years ago from a volcano. The Lava River Cave happens to be Oregon's longest cave. There are no living animals in the cave besides bats who like to use it as a place to hibernate. The temperature of the cave is a constant 40 degrees no matter what season it is. This was pretty noticeable once inside. I was immediately able to see my breath! The air was so moist! We only went about a half a mile in before we turned around and came back. You could see lines on the cave's sides which showed where the levels that lava actually flowed millions and millions years ago!!!!!!! Many moons ago...

Museum

Warm Springs Museum was very educational.  I learned many things about the three tribes in the Warm Springs area. I learned how to say some simple words in Sahaptian (warms springs language). I enjoyed the art work especially the paintings. I visited the gift shop and was not surprised about the prices of the Pendleton items.

After the museum we had a lunch provided by Areline Stiyer who actual ly was a business professor at Heritage! She told us the story of when she got to meet President Barack Obama!!! :)
She then took us on the Twanat Trail where we observed the Shitike Creek (once again) and talked about the importance of Lamprey to native people. 
At the end of tge trail, Areline told a inspiring story of when she was stranded in the mountains for 2 days :o

Day 3

Yeeee Haaawwwwww

 

Got to go horseback riding at Kah-nee-ta early in the morning! 

Whiteswan group got to go first, so Heritage waited around and took pictures and funny videos. When it was finally our turn after thirty minutes of agonizing anticipation it was our groups turn. I got stuck with the oldest horse, but he was competitive so I was behind the leader. Got to see the beautiful area in its natural setting.

Riding the horse was so peaceful and I felt so stress free!

Thanks to Jessica for letting us ride :)

First Night Of "Real" Camping

Arrived last night in Deschutes Bridge Campsite. Quick drive from our long blogging hours in Mcdonalds. Think I'm not going to have a cheeseburger for a while.
Started to set up camp, realized only one person out of my group of three actually knew how to set up a tent.
Wandered around for a bit and when it finally got dark, noticed how far the away our tent was from everyone else :(
Put my big girl pants on and had a good night of sleep!

Day 2 still...

Last night we had a rope making lesson. We were provided with all the materials.  We used Dog Bane and stripped the bark. We combed it out, wet it and then twisted it into an actual rope. It took 2 hours to make a tiny piece..I was can't imagine a 50 foot rope!

Day 2!

Rehabilitation Projects

Today, we met a couple of people who work for Warm Springs Natural Resources. Jason was a fish biologist who informed us on the problems with fish in the Shitike Creek. Austin was a wildlife technician who monitors mule deer in the area. He told us about the decrease in different animal populations especially deer. 

Shitike Creek

The Shitike is very popular on the Warms Springs Reservation. The purpose of this project is to try to prevent the creek from flooding. The restoration took about 6 weeks total. The project finished in 2009 and as a result this stream now has access to a flood plane (place to flood). Overall it cost $545,000 to make this happen!!! That's a crazy amount of money but I think the outcome is and will stay positive in the future. 

Day 1 continued...

Horse Thief Lake State Park

Petroglyphs! 

We went on a 2 mile hike, burned many many calories (I like to track my calories haha). We were told to look out for rattlesnakes! :(

We observed many petroglyphs which are "rock carvings". Most of these rocks were very high up. The actual carvings themselves are reddish and whitish in color. All drawings were well preserved, this is because scientists put something on them to protect them. Most of the petroglyphs were environmental drawings of things like the sun, rainbows, and there was even a lightning bolt. There was one animal which was an owl which I know means bad luck...

Overall seeing the petroglyphs were a "snapchat"into the past and a glance at my ancestors :)

Day 1!

Celilo Falls

First stop on our adventure we stopped to view the valley where Celilo Falls used to flow..notice I said used to! These falls were important to not only the area but to the people that lived there. These waters used to flow in the middle of the Columbia River. Dams put in to generate power for World War II depleted animals and water from being able to flow and live freely. This was actually an emotional site, we took a moment of silence and tried to picture the falls where they should have been :/