The Coeur d'Alene Tribe is releasing 150 Chinook salmon into the Spokane River as part of its ongoing reintroduction efforts

Two truckloads of live Chinook salmon were released into the Spokane River by the Coeur d'Alene Tribe on Friday afternoon.

The fish, some weighing up to 20 pounds, leapt into the air and reached their peak as they began their journey upstream.

The 150 fish were taken from the Entiat Fish Hatchery as part of an ongoing initiative by the Colville Reservation, Coeur d'Alene Tribe and Spokane Tribe. The tribes signed a 20-year contract with the Bonneville Power Administration last September that provided them with $200 million to study the feasibility of reintroducing Chinook salmon to the river.

The fish released Friday were the third batch released into the Spokane River this year, bringing the total to about 500.

“The ultimate goal as a tribal leader and a father is for my grandchildren or great-grandchildren to be able to stand on the banks of the Spokane River and catch a fish,” said Gene “Hemene” James, vice chairman of the Coeur d'Alene Tribe.

Chinook salmon was once a staple food for Native Americans along the river, but James says there is much more to this fish than just consumption.

“For most of the salmon run, we were interacting with our neighboring tribes,” James said. “After a long winter, we would meet because we knew we would replenish our food banks and perform certain ceremonies that take place at this time of year. We met relatives we hadn't seen before and were able to arrange weddings and political arrangements.”

Although the salmon population in the river had been declining for decades, James said the construction of the Grand Coulee Dam in the 1930s was the decisive blow. The salmon could no longer return upstream to spawn.

Thomas Biladeau said that in the 10 years he has served as the Coeur d'Alene Tribe's freshwater spawning fish division, he has watched both the federal and local governments, as well as elected officials, recognize the importance of tribes' efforts to restore the river.

“They see it. How it can benefit their community,” Biladeau said. “And they want it to happen.”

But no one is talking about removing the dams that caused the Chinook to disappear in the first place.

“The idea of ​​this study is to figure out how we can bring salmon back into these areas without compromising the benefits of these projects,” Biladeau said.

While the Coeur d'Alene Tribe and others have released salmon into the river in the past primarily for cultural and educational purposes, this initiative is unique in that it includes data collection.

Salmon from previous releases were tagged with tracking devices so the tribe could monitor places the fish could not pass. Of the 150 salmon released Friday, the Coeur d'Alene tribe took genetic samples and plans to monitor whether the group is successfully reproducing. They should spawn in about a month.

“I could say we are meeting both needs. There is a cultural component to this, but at the same time we are also doing active research on these fish,” said Biladeau.

James said that while tribes have known for decades the importance of bringing salmon back to the river, their traditional knowledge is only legitimized by scientific data.

“We want our rivers to be healthy again. We want the riparian zones to be healthy again. We want the raptors to be healthy and unharmed again because they, like us, cannot live without them until these fish are released,” James said. “We took responsibility – we took the burden. We picked up that huge boulder to try to move it as far as we could. Not just for the benefit of the Indians, but for the benefit of the entire region.”

James said there is still a long way to go before the Chinooks can return to the Spokane River.

“We want to show that this was just a small step in the process and that we are not satisfied with what we have accomplished now,” James said. “That was the easy part, finding partners and funding. But we want to keep local residents interested and excited that the tribes are working together to make this a reality.”