A Fight For Survival: The "Salmon People" of the Columbia River

The Columbia River runs for over 1,200 miles through the Pacific Northwest, from the Canadian Rockies, through Idaho, then Washington, and through Oregon before finally emptying in the Pacific Ocean.

For thousands of years, Native Tribes along the Columbia River have depended on the river, and its bountiful stocks of salmon for sustenance, and for their livelihood, and the salmon are engrained in their cultural identity, and their spiritual practices. So much so, that the Columbia River Basin tribes today proudly refer to themselves as "Salmon People."

While there were once 10 million salmon that returned to the Columbia River's spawning grounds, extensive damming, overfishing, habitat loss, and now climate change, have decimated salmon populations.  Today, just around 1 million salmon make the return trip up the Columbia and through its tributaries.

A new documentary from ProPublica and Oregon Public Broadcasting directed by Katie Campbell titled Salmon People: A Native Fishing Family’s Fight to Preserve a Way of Life, tells the story of Randy Settler and his family, who are from the Yakama Tribe, as they fight to preserve the depleting salmon populations, and preserve their way of life.

We speak with Katie Campbell, documentary filmmaker with ProPublica and director of the film Salmon People, A Native Fishing Family's Fight to Preserve a Way of Life, and Randy Settler, Yakama Tribal fisherman, about the fight to protect the salmon of the Columbia River, and the fight to preserve the way of life of the "Salmon People."

For more, check out ProPublica and Oregon Public Broadcasting's multi-part reporting series "Broken Promises," and watch the documentary online for free.

The Columbia River runs for over 1,200 miles through the Pacific Northwest, from the Canadian Rockies, through Idaho, then Washington, and through Oregon before finally emptying in the Pacific Ocean.

For thousands of years, Native Tribes along the Columbia River have depended on the river, and its bountiful stocks of salmon for sustenance, and for their livelihood, and the salmon are engrained in their cultural identity, and their spiritual practices. So much so, that the Columbia River Basin tribes today proudly refer to themselves as "Salmon People."

While there were once 10 million salmon that returned to the Columbia River's spawning grounds, extensive damming, overfishing, habitat loss, and now climate change, have decimated salmon populations.  Today, just around 1 million salmon make the return trip up the Columbia and through its tributaries.

A new documentary from ProPublica and Oregon Public Broadcasting directed by Katie Campbell titled Salmon People: A Native Fishing Family’s Fight to Preserve a Way of Life, tells the story of Randy Settler and his family, who are from the Yakama Tribe, as they fight to preserve the depleting salmon populations, and preserve their way of life.

We speak with Katie Campbell, documentary filmmaker with ProPublica and director of the film Salmon People, A Native Fishing Family's Fight to Preserve a Way of Life, and Randy Settler, Yakama Tribal fisherman, about the fight to protect the salmon of the Columbia River, and the fight to preserve the way of life of the "Salmon People."

For more, check out ProPublica and Oregon Public Broadcasting's multi-part reporting series "Broken Promises," and watch the documentary online for free.