Quinault Nation President Included in Natural Resource Management Roundtable Discussion
The U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs will be holding a roundtable discussion today titled “Roundtable on Protecting our Fish and Wildlife Resources” that will be attended by Fawn Sharp, Quinault Nation president.
The Quinault Nation, consists of the Quinault and Queets tribes and descendants of five other coastal tribes: Quileute, Hoh, Chehalis, Chinook, and Cowlitz according to the Quinault website. The Nation has a great interest in fish and wildlife discussions as a Pacific Northwest Nation that has lived off salmon runs, sea mammals and other wildlife for centuries.
According to a press release on behalf of the Nation, “[t]he roundtable will focus on a variety of issues tribes and native communities are facing in conserving, managing, and protecting their fish and wildlife resources.”
Topics are to include:
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- Promoting sustainable practices to ensure healthy populations of fish and wildlife;
- Preserving hunting, fishing, and gathering rights and access to traditional food sources;
- Incorporating traditional knowledge in federal policy and decision-making;
- Co-management of fish and wildlife resources;
- Promoting cultural preservation through intergovernmental cooperation.
“Protecting the resources that sustain our economy and our culture is a sacred responsibility and never-ending effort,” Sharp said in the release. “We Quinault people walk the same beaches, paddle the same waters, and hunt the same lands our ancestors did centuries ago. Today, we co-manage natural resources with the state and the federal governments and our scientists and policy officials do everything we can to do so in a way that is cooperative with other managers and always mindful of the generations to come,” she said.
“Today, we face many challenges and we welcome this roundtable discussion. Our challenges range from climate change and acidification of the ocean to oil spills and the proper management of feeder fish. The decisions we make today can mean whether or not many of our people have an adequate food source for their families. They can also make the difference between survival and extinction of critical species in the years to come,” she said.
“This is a top priority for the Quinault Indian Nation, and I thank the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs for taking it seriously,” said Sharp.
The roundtable will be held in the SCIA Committee Hearing Room in the Dirksen Senate Office Building.
