last day

Today is the last day of this long trip. We are now at Dry falls and looking at one of the largest falls in the US. These falls are larger then Niagara Falls. Also we learned that this was the beginning part of a huge glacier that used to be here. Even there is asphalt at the bottom of the canyon and columns that were formed over thousands of years.After all the learning we went through on this long trip. We have been to Warm Springs and to the small town of Wellpinit. I have learned a lot of things from each of these tribes. Many of the tribes all are trying different methods of preserving the natural resources. I believe that the tribes do not have enough involvement from the other tribal members . If they had help trying to save the salmon or the ecosystems, they would be set for a long time. But many of the tribes have scares in the land that are effecting homes of the animals. A good example of this is like in the county of Pendleton they have dikes that are changing the natural flow of the river. Also the keystone animals are becoming very rare to the environment. This can change a lot of things in the ecosystem such as the sockeye salmon in the Nez Perce tribe has been harvested for many of generations and now the sockeye salmon has not been sighted in any of the rivers. That means that the sockeye has been erased from the river and all the animals that depend on it are going to have to eat something else and that could have horrific effects. Many of the Natives that thrive on the sockeye salmon have to go without the sockeye salmon. Many people need to understand that it will take years for the animals to start coming back and need to start restoring them to the land. Another example that I learned form a fur trapper in Nespelem is the beaver. The beaver had always lived on the columbia river. Until the Grand coulee dam was put on the river, causing the water to slow down and water level to rise. The beavers have always lived o the fast flowing parts on the river. They do that because the amount of fish that come through and their houses are built off to the side. It would take the beavers less calories to catch the fish. Which would later cause the beavers to move to a more convenient place where the fish are abundant and the water flow is fast. Overall this trip had taught me that a lot of the tribes have disappearing animal species and other important species in an ecosystem.