Timber Wars Season 2: Salmon Wars

Apr 24 2024 22 ep. 31 mins 709

Timber Wars Season 2: Salmon Wars Podcast artwork

Salmon are essential to Columbia River tribal people. These fish represent not only a food source but a way of life. As a white kid growing up in the Pacific Northwest, Tony Schick heard a lot about salmon — how important they are to this region, and how much trouble they’re in now. But the history he learned was not the whole story. As an investigative reporter for OPB and ProPublica, he’s been working to uncover and understand a more sinister version of events. And along the way, he connected with a guy named Randy Settler and his family.
“Salmon Wars,” a production from OPB and ProPublica, tells the story of salmon in the Northwest in a way you haven’t heard before – through the voices of one Yakama Nation family who have been fighting for salmon for generations. We’ll dive into hidden history. We’ll investigate who’s to blame for the salmon vanishing, and what can be done before it’s too late.

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Bonus Episode: Celilo Memories

Apr 24 2024 13 mins

We hear the voices of tribal elders who remember Celilo Falls before The Dalles Dam silenced this sacred fishing spot. Many of the voices you hear in this episode were shared, with permission, by Confluence. Confluence is a nonprofit focused on the Columbia River system. The organization has collected oral histories from Native people, many of whom remember Celilo Falls before the

Ep 6: The Future

Apr 17 2024 33 mins

Salmon hatcheries set up by the federal government prioritized ocean fishermen over river tribes and created genetically inferior fish. In this final episode, we visit a tribal hatchery to see how they’re doing things differently. And we’ll hear from 11-year-old Aiyana about how she thinks about carrying on her family’s legacy.

Ep 5: The Crime

Apr 10 2024 37 mins

Salmon have been on the decline for more than 100 years. The federal government knows why. It knows who killed the salmon. And how. But for decades it’s been telling a tale of progress, and obscuring the ugliest truth. We’re going to uncover it.

Ep 4: The Salmon’s Struggle

Apr 03 2024 23 mins

Salmon used to be plentiful and they’ve been a staple of tribal diets for centuries. Since the early 1900s, salmon populations in the Columbia River have steadily declined thanks to overfishing, dams, habitat loss and warming waters. Hatcheries are one way the U.S. government has tried to make up for the loss of wild salmon. But it hasn’t worked. In this episode, we exa

Bonus Episode: LiaDonna Lopez Whitefoot

Mar 27 2024 15 mins

You heard from Randy Settler’s cousin, LiaDonna Lopez Whitefoot, in the most recent episode of Salmon Wars. She’s the one who was fearless in the face of a blockade of boats trying to block Native people from accessing fishing sites. She worked closely with Randy’s mom in the family fishing business. In this bonus episode, we’re bringing you more of her memo

Ep 3: The Court Battles

Mar 20 2024 31 mins

Federal officials took away a way of life that had sustained Pacific Northwest tribes for centuries. So some tribal members became outlaws. During the 1960s and beyond, Native activists fought back against state and federal restrictions on their fishing rights – a period known as the “fish wars”. They held “fish ins” and fought for their rights in cour

Ep 2: The Treaties

Mar 13 2024 33 mins

To understand the war over salmon, we have to go back to 1855. That’s when chiefs from the Yakama Nation and other Pacific Northwest tribes signed treaties that are still used as the basis for laws and policies around salmon fishing. Some tribal members believe the Yakama signed a treaty under duress. In some ways, this document represents the first of a multi-generational se

Ep 1: The Family

Mar 13 2024 23 mins

Host Tony Schick introduces us to Randy Settler and his family. The Settlers, members of the Yakama Nation, have been deeply affected by the Northwest’s salmon policies for generations. They lost their home, their primary food source, their ancestral fishing grounds. Randy and his parents went to jail for exercising their fishing rights. And they won some important victories

Season 2: Salmon Wars ... coming soon

Mar 04 2024 3 mins

“Salmon Wars” tells the story of salmon in the Northwest in a way you haven’t heard before – through the voices of one Yakama Nation family who have been fighting for salmon for generations. We dig in to uncover who is to blame for the salmon vanishing, what can be done before it’s too late and why their disappearance impacts all of us ... coming

Bonus Ep: Suzanne Simard and the Social World of Trees

May 07 2021 60 mins

What if, instead of competing with each other, trees work together? What if they even communicate? Renowned forest ecologist Suzanne Simard has spent her life digging into the "wood wide web"—the mycorrhizal network of fungi and roots through which trees share resources and information. Her work has transformed the way we understand forests and inspired everything from the Tr