As Trump cancels Columbia River deal, promises to Indigenous American tribes are still being broken

Washington State Standard | June 18, 2025
By Rebecca Tallent

It is a common phrase in treaties between the U.S. government and Indigenous American tribes: “Each tribe or band shall have the right to possess, occupy and use the reserve allotted to it, as long as the grass shall grow and the waters run, and the reserves shall be their own property like their horses and cattle.”

But as Angie Debo pointed out in her 1940 book “And Still the Waters Run,” grass still grows, waters still run and all the treaties have been broken by the federal government for mining, grazing, land for settlers and other reasons. Tribes are protected people under federal law even though they are sovereign nations within the United States.

Now, the Trump administration continues that federal tradition by breaking yet another treaty, this one between the feds, four Indigenous tribes and the states of Washington and Oregon. The 2023 agreement to restore fish runs is being revoked so corporations can generate electricity in the Columbia Basin. Prior to the agreement, salmon, steelhead and other native fish were being killed by hydroelectric dams along the Columbia River.

Water flows out of the Bonneville Dam along the Columbia River between Multnomah County, Oregon and Skamania County, Washington. on Tuesday, July 23, 2024. (Jordan Gale/Oregon Capital Chronicle)