Features Overview

First Nations and Tribes Unite to Protect Salmon

Portland, Oregon, February 11, 2025 – At the U.S./Canada Pacific Salmon Commission (PSC) Annual Meeting, Commissioners from the First Nations and Tribal Caucuses signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to collectively safeguard the salmon that have sustained their communities for countless generations.

The MOU outlines a collaborative framework for Tribes and First Nations to:

• Sustain healthy salmon populations to meet the social, spiritual, economic, and cultural needs of current and future generations.

• Enhance Tribal and First Nations capacity for fisheries governance and resource stewardship.

• Share information to support conservation, resource management, and salmon harvest, use, and governance.

Guided by holistic principles that respect the sovereignty, indigenous rights, and trust responsibilities of Tribes and First Nations, the MOU supports their commitment to co-stewardship and the management of shared resources.

W. Ron Allen (Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe) signing on behalf of the Tribal Caucus with McCoy Oatman (Nez Perce Tribe) stated, “We're going to find ways to meet and collaborate regularly to work together to implement this MOU commitment. We all agree that to help each other understand what we can do to protect and restore the salmon resource so that it will be sustained for future generations.”

Russ Jones, Chief Nang Jingwas (Haida Nation) signing with Murray Ned, Kwilosintun (Semá:th Nation) on behalf of the First Nations Caucus added, “There's a long standing relationship between First Nations in Canada and First Nations in the U.S., and we'll be building on that as we move forward. It's also a way that we can bring our values and our interests forward in a coordinated fashion because this process is changing. There are negotiations approximately every 10 years and it's an opportunity to look at how we might do things differently, better for the fish, for conservation, for First Nations and stakeholders in Canada and the United States.”

Gordon Sterritt, Xsaxgyoo (Gitxsan Nation), Chair of the First Nations Caucus, emphasized “While the MOU formalizes our relationship with each other, it provides structure and supports the respectful and collaborative relationships between Tribes and First Nations within and outside the PSC process, there's a lot more work to do… We're in a period of great uncertainty on a number of fronts and only with all of us working together will we have a fighting chance to address the issues that salmon and by extension we are all challenged with.”

A copy of the MOU and recording of the ceremony is available on the PSC website.

The MOU is based on The Sociocultural Significance of Salmon to Tribes and First Nations (2021) Special Report.