The annual kokanee spawning run is underway at Kokanee Creek, and for the Sinixt Confederacy, it’s a part of a much bigger story about salmon, the land and the waterways they depend on.
Cindy Marchand, chairwoman of the Sinixt Confederacy, said salmon have long been central to Sinixt culture and livelihood.
“Sinixt people are a salmon people. We’re also a canoe people, we’re a river people, and so salmon was very important historically, culturally, just for everything.”
Marchand said salmon were historically used as a food source and for trade and bartering. She said they’re also a part of the Sinixt creation story.
“Salmon have definitely been very important culturally and just important to our livelihood and who we are.”
But the importance of the salmon extends beyond their cultural significance.
Marchand said the annual return of kokanee to local spawning channels is also a reminder of the resilience of the fish.
“It’s just a reminder of how resilient these fish are when it comes to just facing things every day, human interference, warming waters, things like that. So every time we see them come back, it’s just, I would say, a tribute to how resilient they are.”
Marchand said the kokanee returning to the West Arm can also provide an indication of the health of the surrounding environment.
“Salmon can be said to be almost like a resource that tells us how the system is doing.”
She added that salmon play a vital role throughout the local ecosystem, providing food for people, bears and other wildlife.
When animals leave salmon carcasses along riverbanks and in the forest, Marchand said those remains return nutrients to the land.
“That gives us healthy forests. It gives us healthy vegetation on riverbanks. So it actually is doing more than just feeding our bodies. It’s feeding the land and feeding the whole ecosystem.”
That connection between salmon, the land and the water is part of what makes the annual return significant to the Sinixt.
“We’re really excited whenever we see salmon in an ecosystem, that it’s almost like that complete circle is being met,” said Marchand.
She noted that the kokanee spawning channel provides the fish with good habitat and cooling water, which can help improve egg survival.
And while kokanee continue to return to the West Arm, Marchand said the Sinixt are also working to restore salmon populations elsewhere in their traditional territory.
“Just having kokanee in Kokanee Creek is just a good testament because we don’t have that throughout all our systems and traditional territories,” said Marchand.
She explained how Chinook salmon have been blocked from some historic spawning areas by hydroelectric dams, including Grand Coulee Dam in Washington state.
“We are doing work further down to restore anadromous salmon, or those ones that do go back to the ocean and back up. So seeing kokanee still there and resilient is good news for us. That’s one species that we don’t need to work on as far as, as much as like the Chinook.”
Marchand said those efforts to restore Chinook salmon serve as a reminder that healthy salmon populations can’t be taken for granted.
“We need to find ways that we make sure, not just kokanee, but also Chinook are alive and well.”
For people visiting Kokanee Creek to watch the spawning run, Marchand said it’s an opportunity to see an important part of the salmon’s life cycle and understand the role the fish play beyond the water.
“It definitely adds value and it kind of helps you understand more about what these salmon go through during their lifetime and just how important they are to the ecosystem.”
The kokanee will continue their annual spawning run through the third or fourth week of September.
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