Page 32 - ATODAY

A32 FEATURE
Tuesday 13 december 2016
Mohawks become first tribe to take down a federal dam

MARY ESCH Salmon,’” David said. “Be-
Associated Press fore salmon were extirpat-
HOGANSBURG, N.Y. (AP) ed from this river, people
— A century after the first would be out in the shal-
commercial dam was lows netting or spearing
built on the St. Regis River, them to feed their fami-
blocking the spawning runs lies.”
of salmon and sturgeon, The project is part of a larg-
the stream once central er movement that has dis-
to the traditional culture of mantled almost 250 dams
New York’s Mohawk Tribe is across the country since
flowing freely once again. 2012, according to the
The removal of the 11-foot- conservation group Ameri-
high Hogansburg Dam this can Rivers.
fall is the latest in the tribe’s Most have been small
decades-long struggle to dams no longer useful, but
restore territory defiled by environmental groups and
industrial pollution, begin- Indian tribes in the Pacific
ning in the 1980s with PCBs Northwest are pressing for
and heavy metals from removal of large hydro-
nearby General Motors, electric dams to restore
Alcoa and Reynolds Metal salmon runs.
plants, a cleanup under The Mohawk dam removal
federal oversight that’s This Thursday, Nov. 17, 2016 photo, shows the decommissioned powerhouse to a hydroelectric was not without contro-
nearly complete. dam on the St. Regis River in Hogansburg, N.Y. versy in the tribal commu-
The St. Regis River project is Associated Press nity. Will Clute, a Mohawk
gram partners young ap- sary upgrades. Seizing an fishing guide, said he and
prentices with tribal elders opportunity to recover some other fishermen wor-
to preserve the Mohawk some treasured territory, ried spawning grounds
language and pass on tra- the Mohawks became a downstream would be bur-
ditional practices such as co-licensee and took the ied in sediment from be-
hunting, fishing, trapping, lead in the decommission- hind the dam.
basket-making, horticul- ing, working with the U.S. When a dam was removed
ture and medicine. Fish and Wildlife Service, on the nearby Salmon
Standing on the rocky the state Department of River 10 years ago, some
edge of a shallow, rush- Environmental Conserva- downstream habitat was
ing river that was stilled by tion and Trout Unlimited. buried under several feet
a 330-foot-long concrete The dam removal re-estab- of muck.
dam until backhoes de- lished the river’s connec- “We will be monitoring
molished it in September, tion with the St. Lawrence the impact on down-
David said a new park River and opened nearly stream habitat,” David
will be built to showcase 275 miles of stream habitat said. “What we’ve learned
Mohawk artwork where
the powerhouse once
hummed.
On the opposite bank,
a nature park will replace
a treacherous tangle of
In this Thursday, Nov. 17, 2016, photo, brothers Angello Johnson, industrial equipment, de-
left, and Eric Sunday, apprentices in the St. Regis Mohawks’ cul-
tural restoration program, pose on a bank of the St. Regis River, crepit structures and trash.
in Hogansburg, N.Y. “We’re transforming it from
Associated Press a dangerous no-go zone
to someplace that’s invit-
the first removal of an op- ing back this scar on our ing and beautiful,” said
erating hydroelectric dam landscape that’s a con- Eric Sunday, an apprentice
in New York state and the stant reminder of those in the cultural restoration
nation’s first decommission- days of exploitation,” said program.
ing of a federally licensed Tony David, water resourc- “It creates opportunities
dam by a Native American es manager for the St. Re- to get people together,
tribe, federal officials say. gis Mohawk Reservation, showcase skills, get more
Paired with the recent which the Mohawks call knowledge about our tra-
success of North Dakota’s Akwesasne. ditional ways and just ap- This Thursday, Nov. 17, 2016 photo shows a disassembled turbine
Standing Rock Sioux in re- The former industrial site will preciate nature.” at a hydroelectric powerhouse in Hogansburg, N.Y.
routing a pipeline they become a focal point in The dam, on former Mo- Associated Press
feared could threaten their the Mohawks’ cultural res- hawk land adjacent to the
water supply, the dam’s toration program, funded sprawling reservation, was to migratory fish, including from all the dam removals
removal underscores long- by a $19 million settlement in the early stages of fed- American eel, lake stur- across the country is that a
standing concern over the in 2013 with GM, Alcoa eral relicensing five years geon, Atlantic salmon and lot of the negative impacts
health of tribal lands. and Reynolds for pollution ago when owner Brookfield walleye. are short-term. The river will
“We look at this not only as of tribal fishing and hunt- Renewable Energy decid- “The next town upstream flush and fix itself. You need
reclaiming the resources ing grounds along the St. ed it wasn’t economically was known by the Mo- at least five to 10 years to
and our land, but also tak- Lawrence River. The pro- feasible to make neces- hawks as ‘Place of the see how it will end up.”q