“Without Regulation the White Man Does Not Know What Conservation Means”: Wilson Charley Articulates Conservation and Yakama Sovereignty on the Postwar Columbia River

• In Event: Negotiations and Renegotiations of Space and Resource Use in Pacific Northwest Aboriginal History

Abstract

While many Native Americans protested construction of The Dalles dam in the 1940s and 1950s, this paper focuses on Wilson Charley, a Mid-Columbia fisherman and member of the Yakama Tribal Council. Using new sources located in the James J. James papers at the University of Oregon, I present an untold story that highlights the activism of a single twentieth-century Indian leader. Charley’s leadership benefited from his non-native friendships and cross-cultural partners, all of which helped him overcome racial and bureaucratic barriers. Originating with him and working via a broad coalition of conservationists and preservationists, Charley aimed to stop the dam project and stave off state regulation of off-reservation sites. I argue Charley’s work to frame tribal resource management as conservation was a form of tactical survivance and expression of tribal sovereignty. Above all, his leadership serves as an important prequel to the famous fishing rights battles on the Puget Sound and Columbia River decades later. Tactfully embedded his conservation campaign, Charley sought to assert tribal control of Mid-Columbia fisheries as well as archaeological sites. His innovative strategies articulated adaptive tribal resource policies that embraced traditional elements while also incorporated new technologies. After completion of The Dalles dam, Charley continued to play an important leadership role in redefining treaty protections and was foundational in the development of contemporary tribal resource protection programs—well before federal environmental and cultural resource laws. As a Native American leader, he not only commanded an impressive knowledge of federal policy and tribal resources, but also was an important figure in the global history of conservation movements and indigenous resistance to colonialism.

Author

• David-Paul Brewster Hedberg, Portland State University