Indians seek decent housing by their beloved river
Indians seek decent housing by their beloved river
By GOSIA WOZNIACKA, Associated Press | November 8, 2014 | Updated: November 8, 2014 7:25pm
LONE PINE, Ore. (AP) — Bernadette Grace's trailer is hidden behind a larger trailer charred and strewn with trash. It's far enough from the communal restroom and shower without doors, where drunks linger after dark. But close enough to the icy waters that sustain her.
Home is a scrap of rock and dried grass that juts out into the Columbia River, with a view of the massive Dalles Dam. The river is a constant reminder of Grace's Native American heritage; the dam is the root cause of all that her people lost when the backwaters swallowed houses, fishing platforms, and burial grounds.
"The river, it's my calm spot. Since I was a baby, I've been on a boat with my mom and dad," Grace says.
From the drying shed where Grace hangs salmon to smoke, makeshift structures spread like a shantytown: shacks, trailers with broken windows, old tires, couches and rusted boats.
Lone Pine is an eight-acre fishing site provided by the federal government to compensate tribes for the loss of fishing grounds inundated by the dam in 1957. It's one of 31 replacement fishing sites, scattered among four dams on the Oregon and Washington shores.
More:
http://www.chron.com/news/us/article/Indians-seek-decent-housing-by-their-beloved-river-5880318.php
