Nez Perce Tribal Fisheries Department

Fish always have been central to the Nimiipuu culture and traditional diet. One estimate suggests that in the 19th century, the tribe’s annual fish harvest ranged from 300 to 564 pounds per person. However, as non-Nimiipuu have moved into the region to exploit its abundant resources, the natural environment changed drastically, disrupting the life cycle of fish in the Columbia River basin. By the mid-1980s, not a single coho salmon could be found in the entire Clearwater River basin. Without healthy fish stocks, the tribe’s treaty rights were meaningless.

The Nez Perce Tribe manages a state-of-the-art tribal fish hatchery, a federal hatchery, and co-manages a second federal fish hatchery that is among the largest in the country. The department also runs nine acclimation sites to encourage natural fish spawning. Taken together, these Nez Perce operations release approximately 10 million salmon and steelhead annually. The department also works to counter habitat degradation and recreate conditions that are beneficial to fish, removing passage barriers, restoring riparian areas and stream channels.

The harvest of Snake River Fall Chinook resumed in 2009 after being closed for 35 years, with fish returns rising from 300 to 80,000 fish. The Clearwater River Coho Salmon run also has bounced back, rising from no fish counted in the river in 2009 to over 18,000 in 2014. For the first time in living memory, tribal citizens can harvest a variety of fish species throughout the region.

State fish and game staff respect the Nez Perce Tribe’s biological research, statistical sampling, harvest management decisions, and on-the-river fisheries policing. The Tribe’s capabilities help it affirm its sovereignty over resources in its traditional territory since it can determine its own objectives and enforce harvest limits on its own citizens without interference from non-tribal agencies.

The Nez Perce Fisheries was awarded a Conservation Achievement award in 2022 by the American Fisheries Society recognizing their work managing both coho and chinook salmon. They were nominated by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.