Stillaguamish Tribe plans first salmon ceremony in 20 years

ARLINGTON — The Stillaguamish Indian Tribe plans to host its own Salmon Ceremony this year, after about 20 years of skipping the traditional event.

The tribe stopped hosting the ceremony because the Chinook runs on the North Fork Stillaguamish River were struggling, Stillaguamish tribal Chairman Shawn Yanity said.

Since then, he said, the tribe has worked to revive the run, which now holds steady at 1,000 or more fish each year.

“We’ve done everything we can to recover the fish, but we haven’t done the cultural piece,” Yanity said.

The tribe has waited long enough to host its own ceremony, he said, which has been a mainstay of traditional life for the region’s American Indians since before settlers came to the area.

“We have to honor this gift, and carry on these traditions,” he said.

The tribe early this year told other state and tribal wildlife experts that it plans to catch 20 Chinook, through beach seining, to use in the ceremony. That announcement signaled a season flush with fish. When state and tribal leaders met this week to set season dates and other regulations for commercial and recreational fishermen, they agreed to allow longer fishing periods in broader ­areas than they have in past years.

While salmon runs are still fragile, many Washington fish runs are in better shape than those in Southern California and Oregon, where poor runs have forced fisheries to close.

In fact, runs in Puget Sound region could be the strongest in years. The Snohomish River, for example, is expected to see a return of 1.9 million pink salmon. Coho and Chinook runs, however, are likely to be down slightly from previous years.

Fish run projections are provided by state and tribal experts, said Pat Pattillo, a policy coordinator with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Regulations based on those projections are still in draft form, but they’ll likely be available online next week, he said.

People who catch fish should be happy with the regulations, which are expected to be released next week, said Craig Bowhay, a policy analyst with the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, which represents many Western Washington tribes. They should expect more opportunities to fish in the areas around Deception Pass, Port Susan and Port Gardner, he said.

The plan, hammered out in California after months of meetings held throughout the region, is part of a process known as North of Falcon, which refers to standards set for all fishing activities north of Cape Falcon on Oregon’s northern coast. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the process, which was created in the years after a 1974 federal court ruling that a group of Western Washington tribes have a treaty right to up to half of the region’s fish harvest.

Despite the legal claim tribes have to half the harvest, leaders of many tribes work closely with state officials through agreements to develop plans to breathe life back into many fish runs that have been plagued by polluted runoff, unnatural water temperatures and other problems.

That cooperation has saved fish runs from the fate they face in California, Bowhay said.

“In California, there are areas that have run totally dry,” he said. “That hasn’t been allowed in this area because of tribal treaty rights. From the resource perspective, that’s the difference between the two areas.”

Krista J. Kapralos: 425-339-3422, kkapralos@heraldnet.com.