Montana state Rep. Dan Salomon, R-Ronan, is in a unique position when it comes to understanding the recently proposed water-rights compact for the Flathead Indian Reservation.

The Yakama Nation today celebrated the 16th anniversary of operations at its Cle Elum Supplementation and Research Facility, a central Washington facility designed to rear hatchery fish that the tribes feel are better adapted to survive and reproduce in the wild.

The Kalispel Tribe of Indians has signed a 10-year, $39.5 million agreement with federal agencies that focuses on actions to address impacts of Albeni Falls Dam on fish and wildlife in the area of Lake Pend Oreille and the tribe’s reservation along the Pend Oreille River about 55 miles north of Spokane.

In between summertime fishing seasons this year for chinook and sockeye salmon, steelhead and other fish stocks, tribal fishermen could well be setting their sights on American shad, a non-native species that also heads up the Columbia River system each year to spawn.

Inside the National Guard Armory at Okanogan, Wash., Leroy and Mylan Williams teach a small crowd of onlookers the nearly lost art of building fish nets by hand. The father and son are part of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Indian Reservation and are teaching other tribal members how to build and use traditional fishing gear.

With a recent uptick in the number of fall chinook salmon spawners passing over the lower Columbia River’s Bonneville Dam, treaty fishers are expecting a corresponding jump in the catch in reservoirs above the project.

Leaders from the federal government, tribes, states, and non-profits gathered in Spokane, Wash., last week to sign an “executive statement” they say strengthens their commitment to reduce toxic contaminants in the Columbia River basin.

Confederated Tribes of the Colville Indian Reservation fishermen continued their investigation into the use of “selective” commercial-type fishing gear with a venture north of the border this week to snare sockeye salmon from the depths of Lake Osoyoos.

Four Columbia River treaty fishing tribes on Thursday strongly encouraged the states of Oregon and Washington to push forward by immediately to refile an application with NOAA Fisheries for a Marine Mammal Protection Act Section 120 permit that allows them to remove California sea lions that feed each spring on salmon returning to the Columbia River to spawn.