The Columbia River Dams Project focuses on the call to remove the three lower Columbia River dams- the John Day, The Dalles, and the Bonneville- by the Yakama and Lumi Nations. We began by looking at the history of these three dams, and how their construction impacted the lives and culture of the indigenous tribes along the Columbia River. Because of the construction of these three dams, the salmon runs on the Columbia River declined exponentially, leaving indigenous communities who had relied on salmon for centuries without it. Their livelihoods were ignored in exchange for mass amounts of energy that the dams produce for the Pacific Northwest. Finally, in late 2019, the Yakama and Lumi Nations called for these three dams to be destroyed to restore the salmon runs, restore the river to its natural flow, and allow Northwest tribes to regain their cultural land and way of life. This call for removal is ongoing and the goal of our project was to understand the circumstances that lead to this call for destruction and the current implications of keeping or destroying these three dams.

In this podcast, we give an overview of our project. We first start by discussing the history of these three dams and how the indigenous tribes rights were stripped away with the construction of the dam. Then, we move into the current call for removal and discuss where our project will go.