The Lower Elwha tribe still resides near this river, but it is not the same as when their ancestors lived there. Salmon was sacred to the Native Americans and with a dam put in place that was taken away from them. Larry Echo Hawk, U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs stated in the film DamNation, “The people of the lower Elwha entered into a treaty in 1855 that gave the word of the U.S. that they would be able to continue their way of life and to live off the abundant resources of that free flowing river. Although the U.S. Constitution says that treaties are the supreme law of the land, the people of the lower Elwha saw only injustice for 100 years, but there is a healing now because that is changing.” One member of the tribe cried, “Its an answer …show more content…
On the Glines Canyon Dam one of the most hypocritical signs is hung reading, “Defacing natural features destroys our heritage. Graffiti is unsightly and illegal.” Once again dams are not natural features and the dam is the structure that is defacing nature and destroying our heritage. Edward Abbey, an activist and author of Earth First saw dams as an invasion and decided to put a plastic crack down the Glines Canyon in protest of the dam. Mikal Jakubaland, a former earth first environmental activist, and his friends were inspired to do the same, but in a more creative way. They propelled down the 430 foot Hetch Hetchy dam in Yosemite National park and painted a crack down the middle of it and wrote “Free The Rivers!” Then again Mikal painted a crack on Glines Canyon Dam and wrote “Free The Elwha!” This protest woke many people up to the idea of dam removal. Dams biggest effect on rivers is the endangerment of our fish. Once the Elwha was removed biologists were already counting thousands of fish in the lower ends of the river where the habitat hadn’t seen fish in over 90 years. Just because a dam has been sitting in a river for 200 years doesn’t mean it has to stay there for 200