DISRUPTING THE LIFEBLOOD OF THE RIVER: AN EXAMINATION OF THE COLUMBIA RIVER DAMS’ IMPACT ON NATIVE AMERICAN COMMUNITIES, SALMON POPULATIONS, AND INDIGENOUS LIVELIHOODS

Abstract

This thesis examines the Columbia River dams as instruments of settler colonialism that transformed the ecological, cultural, and political landscape of the Pacific Northwest. Through historical analysis, legal review, ecological documentation, and Indigenous-centered methodologies, the study demonstrates how dam construction disrupted salmon migrations, submerged sacred sites, and undermined the sovereignty of Indigenous nations whose lifeways depended on the river. Drawing on oral histories from the Colville, Okanagan, Yakama, Nez Perce, Umatilla, Warm Springs, and Wasco peoples, the research highlights how the loss of núsux (salmon) constituted not only an environmental catastrophe but a profound spiritual and cultural rupture. The thesis further analyzes treaty violations, the Doctrine of Discovery, and the exclusion of Indigenous nations from the 1964 Columbia River Treaty, revealing how colonial legal frameworks justified environmental dispossession. Yet amid these histories of loss, the work foregrounds Indigenous resistance and resurgence, from mid-century fish-ins and the Boldt Decision to contemporary salmon reintroduction and co-management initiatives led by CRITFC and tribal governments. Ultimately, this thesis argues that ecological restoration, Indigenous rights, and river justice are inseparable, and that sustainable futures require centering Indigenous governance and relationships to siwik", the life-giving water.