Story by Rodger Nichols for Gorge Country Media
The Yakama Nation stepped up the opposition to the Goldendale Pumped Storage project with a daylong protest Friday, drawing an estimated 200 people to the event on the windy bluff overlooking the Columbia east of Goldendale. The event was cosponsored by Columbia Riverkeeper and the Columbia River Intertribal Fish Commission, known as CRITFIC.
To the Yakama, the site of the proposed construction is known as Pushpum, and is considered a sacred site. The tribe says they cannot reveal why it is a sacred site.
Simone Anter, senior staff attorney for Columbia Riverkeeper, says there is a reason for that:
05 11 26 looting :06 “There is a history of cultural resource desecration, and there’s a history of grave robbing, of looting.”
It is also an area where tribal members have gathered various roots and plants both for medicine and as part of their First Foods. Elaine Harvey, CRITIFIC watershed manager, put it this way:
05 11 26 under threat :21 “I can tell you today every one of our traditional foods are under threat, our salmon, our suckers, our sturgeon, our lamprey, our deer and elk and all the different roots that we gather and our berries. Every one of them are under threat.”
The Yakama were joined by other tribes, including the Klamath. Tribal Council member Les Anderson, whose tribe faces a similar southern Oregon proposal, had a question relevance:
05 11 26 where :15 “Where is the power gonna go when you steamroll us ? Where? It’s going to go outside south central Oregon where we’re from, so it’s not going to even benefit any of the low income, or the people that are living on the edge.
Elaine Harvey had her own answer
05 11 26 data centers :05 “We’re not going green for Washington and Oregon mandates. We’re going green for data centers.”
Those who spoke said this was just the latest in a long line of injustices, and Columbia Riverkeeper said that they plan to appeal the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s approval of the project to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco as soon as they are eligible on May 26.
The issue promises to continue contentious, and not finally settled for some time to come.