When renewables threaten the sacred

JEREMY TAKALA, a Yakama citizen, was fishing for sockeye and summer chinook a few years ago, just downstream from the John Day Dam on the Columbia River. He was accompanied by a Yakama elder, who pointed to a high ridge towering above them covered in juniper bushes, shrubs and grasses that plunged dramatically into the river over 2,000 feet below. The site is called Pushpum, or Juniper Point, and it is remembered in Yakama legend as a place of refuge for the members of Kah-milt-pa, or the Rock Creek Band. The Yakama, who consider the area sacred, use it for ceremonies and for collecting almost three dozen different kinds of roots, flowers and shrubs.

Takala listened as the elder recounted the area’s history and explained the importance of the plants. “I remember him telling me that I have to keep fighting to protect that mountain for the future generations, so that they can continue to gather the first foods and medicines,”