America Promised Salmon to Tribes. They’re Forcing the Government to Deliver.
Why the world’s biggest dam removal project is about more than fish, it’s about keeping promises made 170 years ago
The Klamath River is free for the first time in 100+ years after tribes led the world’s largest dam removal project.
Salmon restoration isn’t just about fish, it’s about enforcing 170-year-old treaty rights that guaranteed tribes the right to fish.
Tribes are tackling both big dams and small culverts, opening hundreds of miles of habitat across the Pacific Northwest.
In California, salmon populations have collapsed by more than 90%, yet new water projects threaten to make things worse.
Saving salmon means saving entire ecosystems, and tribes are showing that large-scale restoration is possible.
For the first time in more than a century, the Klamath River runs free.
Four giant hydroelectric dams that were built in the 1920s and long despised by tribal nations are gone. In their place: 420 miles of reopened salmon habitat, the largest dam removal project in world history.
It’s an environmental win, yes. But more importantly, it’s the fulfillment of promises the United States made to Native nations almost two centuries ago.
Across the Pacific Northwest, tribes are leading an unprecedented wave of restoration, tearing down dams, ripping out road culverts, and reviving salmon runs that once fed forests, rivers, and families alike. And this work isn’t just conservation. It’s the enforcement of treaty rights that guaranteed tribes access to salmon “as long as the sun shines and the water flows.”
The World’s Largest Undoing
The $500 million Klamath River project didn’t happen overnight. For decades, the Yurok, Hoopa Valley, and Karuk tribes battled in courtrooms, at statehouses, and in the press to force dam owners and the federal government to act.
“After more than a century, the Klamath River will flow freely again thanks to tribes that fought for decades,” environmental advocates declared as the final dam crumbled.
And the Klamath is only the beginning.
The Small Fixes That Matter
Big dam removals make headlines. But some of the most effective, and overlooked, restoration happens in places most of us never think about: under roads.
Culverts, those steel or concrete pipes that channel creeks beneath highways, are often salmon death traps. If they’re too steep, too shallow, or too narrow, fish can’t pass. Imagine running a marathon and suddenly hitting a brick wall.
That’s why this year, the federal government awarded $39.4 million to 10 tribes in Puget Sound to replace these barriers. The Tulalip Tribes alone will replace 38 culverts, unlocking 128 miles of salmon streams.
“It’s a lot easier to conserve existing habitat than it is to restore habitat,” says Ryan Miller of the Tulalip Tribes. “In many cases, fish just need a clear path.”
Treaties Still Matter
The reason tribes are at the forefront is simple: treaties.
In the 1850s, tribes in the Northwest ceded millions of acres but retained fishing rights in their “usual and accustomed” places. Courts later affirmed those rights meant not only the ability to fish, but the guarantee that fish would exist to catch.
That interpretation has teeth. A 2001 lawsuit over Washington’s culverts forced the state into a $7.8 billion fix, with a 2030 deadline. It’s one of the biggest infrastructure projects in the state’s history, all rooted in a treaty promise signed generations ago.
These aren’t relics of the past. They’re binding agreements and still the supreme law of the land.
A Race Against Extinction
Time is running out. Salmon populations have collapsed by more than 90% since colonization. Climate change is pushing water temperatures higher and drying out streams.
“We know climate change is catching up quicker than we can respond,” says David Blodgett III of the Yakama Nation. His tribe is spending $9 million not only to replace culverts but to reroute an entire state highway that blocks fish passage.
That urgency is shared up and down the coast.
California’s Salmon Crisis
While the Northwest is cutting barriers, California is piling them up.
Commercial salmon fishing has been shut down for three straight years. In 2024, just 99,274 fall-run Chinook returned to the Sacramento River, once home to millions. Winter-run Chinook hover at just 4,500 fish, a fraction of historic numbers.
And yet the state is pushing forward with the $900 million Sites Reservoir, a project that would release hot, stagnant water into rivers salmon depend on. “From a salmon standpoint, it’s an environmental disaster,” warns Scott Artis of the Golden State Salmon Association.
Why Salmon Matter to Everyone
Saving salmon isn’t just about one species. These fish are a keystone of entire ecosystems. When they migrate inland, they deliver nutrients from the ocean to forests, eagles, bears, even the soil itself.
Every dam removed and culvert fixed doesn’t just help fish. It restores cold-water habitat, revives genetic diversity, and rebuilds traditional food webs. And healthy rivers mean cleaner water, stronger economies, and more resilient communities, for Native and non-Native people alike.
Collaboration Over Confrontation
Tribes could spend decades fighting lawsuits. But increasingly, they’re choosing collaboration.
The Yakama Nation works directly with farmers and agencies to solve problems together. That approach recognizes something essential: salmon recovery is too big for one side to win alone.
Looking Upstream
Already, young salmon are migrating through sections of the Klamath River they haven’t reached in 100 years. It will take decades to fully restore historic runs. But for the first time in a century, the path is open.
The Cowlitz Indian Tribe is next, with $3.3 million to take down the 55-foot Kwoneesum Dam, the part of a goal to restore 30% of salmon habitat on their homelands.
“The river runs free again,” as one elder put it. And with it runs the chance to keep promises, restore ecosystems, and offer future generations the same abundance their ancestors once knew.
Why this matters: Salmon recovery isn’t just a Native issue. It’s about the health of rivers, forests, economies, and communities across the West. The fight tribes are leading today is a fight for everyone’s future.