By treaty, Indians were given the right to use fish resources, but the right is meaningless without the existence of the resource. The redress of Indian treaty fish rights was the impetus to reestablish salmon runs in the Umatilla River. However, since many of the salmon populations in the Umatilla River had gone extinct, there were few stocks remaining in the river that could be used to start a supplementation program that could meet the rather large objectives for artificial production. The tribes, along with the State of Oregon, developed three objectives: 1) to rehabilitate naturally spawning populations in historical spawning grounds, 2) to return fish to the basin so they could be used as a self-sustaining source of fish for artificial production, and 3) to reestablish both Indian and non-Indian fisheries.

The program has been fairly successful in meeting these objectives. The numbers of returning adults have ranged from 4,000 to 8,000 fish annually. The numbers of natural spawners have increased and several broodstocks for artificial production have been developed. Holding facilities have been developed for artificial production, and there have been both Indian and non-Indian spring-run chinook salmon fisheries in 3 of the last 6 years.

The development of hatcheries is critical to reestablishing salmon runs and increasing fish production, especially in areas such as the Grande Ronde, which lies above eight dams. In the Grande Ronde, however, hatchery facilities have not been developed nor have acclimation facilities been placed at localities that would stimulate natural spawning. The release of spring-run chinook salmon fingerlings, for example, has met with varying degrees of success, and hatchery supplementation has gained a bad reputation. One indication of the failure of this program is that the estimated return of spring-run chinook salmon into the Snake River in 1994 is an all-time low of less than 1,000 fish, of which only one third are probably wild fish. Yet, NMFS has mandated some 40 sub-population management units in the Snake River for spring-run chinook salmon. That makes an average of about 10 fish per management unit. Straying has also been an undesirable side effect of some of these efforts to supplement salmon production, and a 5% straying policy under these conditions is practically meaningless.

The right combination of hatcheries and their locations, however, has never been achieved to maximize production. Indian tribes consider hatchery supplementation an important means of achieving production goals, and to limit the use of non-native broodstock will greatly limit the ability to achieve these goals because of the lack of native fish. While the tribes do not want to continue past mistakes, they are aware of the realities of reduced levels of fish to harvest. At what population level does the concern for inbreeding depression in a captive brood stock outweigh the concern for outbreeding depression from the straying on non-native fish from a supplementation program? The tribes would like to move ahead with some kind of non-native stock supplementation, but are not sure how to evaluate the risks involved with such a program.

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