Tanis Matthews Tlingit Artist's Statement Recently environmentalists have suggested placing the coho salmon of the Pacific Northwest on the endangered species list. This suggestion is alarming to us, indigenous peoples of the coast, as salmon is a mainstay of our diet and central to our culture. First and foremost salmon have been over fished by commercial and pleasure fishermen for the last two hundred years. Dams have been placed on strategic rivers where salmon have migrated since the beginning of time. The lumber industry clear-cuts and disturbs the water runoff.
Miners destroy spawning beds by dredging.
Agriculture causes millions of tons of cow manure to leach into the rivers which kills the salmon. Private and state agencies operate federally funded fish farms to compensate for the destruction of the salmon. Fish farms raise genetically altered salmon which are forced to mature and spawn early. Luk nax Adi is the Tlingit name of my sub-clan under the Raven moiety and translates as coho. Our experience as Native Americans and that of the wild salmon are one and the same.