Herring
Dear Editor: Thank you for your articles on STA’s fight to save our SE Alaska herring population and the Alaska Supreme Court’s decision. I just want to express my heartfelt appreciation to Sitka Tribe of Alaska for standing up for herring science knowing the State of Alaska will never acknowledge the sovereignty of Alaska’s Indigenous people.
For years, I have listened to the Native people trying in vain to explain herring science to ADF&G. I’ll paraphrase some of the quotes, “The herring are not making it to the beaches because you are targeting age groups and the young herring need the older fish to lead them back to their designated spawning areas.” “You are taking too much and collapsing the herring populations in valuable bays where they have fed us for centuries!” “Do not kill the herring BEFORE they lay their eggs!” “Do not kill the fish that feeds everything!” “You need to be protecting the spawning areas by keeping boats out and keeping the disturbance to a minimum!”
But sadly all their knowledge fell on deaf ears of oppressors who had no respect for thousands of years of experience. Many many times I heard elders talk about how thick the herring eggs used to be on the hemlock branches. Never did I think that someday, I would be an elder describing how herring eggs used to be found on all our Sitka beaches and how thick they were on the hemlock branches that the Tlingit set!
The herring are the single most important food source in the marine ecosystem! That is why the Tlingit respect for the herring runs so deep. The Kiks.adi have a beautiful herring lady story, a sacred herring rock that they literally saved after it was almost destroyed and it has a name, and a song. Now they have an amazing dance with blankets created with such beauty they are displayed in a traveling exhibit for others to understand the Spiritual connection and love for the herring that is stronger than ever.
Of course Sitka Tribe of Alaska went to court to try to save the herring and of course the Alaska Supreme Court “did not agree that the Alaska Constitution requires the state to use the best available information in fisheries management” because greed and ignorance trump the best science practices all over the planet, not just in SE Alaska. But know this, taking legal action is not always about winning, sometimes it is because it is the right thing to do! If you win, then you might right a wrong, but if you lose, you stayed on the path of truth and fought the fight to teach your children, “This is who we are!”
The Cherokee believe that it is not about the bad things that happen to you in this life, it is about what side you are on and the path of truth is the one that builds your Spirit. My respect and appreciation of the Sitka Tribe’s continued fight to save our local marine ecosystem runs deep. The people running Sitka Tribe right now are working extremely hard for ALL the people in Sitka and it is a light that shines far and wide. Gunalcheesh to the Sitka Sentinel for your coverage of this news and to STA for taking on ignorance to expose the damage it creates.
Patricia Dick, Sitka
