Clatsop Community College
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 8, 2007
Contact: Roger Friesen, 503-338-2456
Elmer Crow, a Nez Perce Elder, to speak on “The River and The Salmon”
Elmer Crow, a Nez Perce elder, will present “The River and the Salmon:
Restoring the Balance to Achieve Sustainability for the Seventh Generation,” on
Monday, October 15, at 7 p.m. in the CCC Art Gallery. The event is collaboration
between CCC’s Arts & Ideas and The Front Porch Institute. It
is open to the public and free of charge.
Crow was taught traditional and modern hunting and fishing techniques by
his father and extended family, instilling in him a life-long concern for
salmon and natural resources. He was a key tribal leader at the Rapid River
Incident in 1980. This flashpoint event between the State of Idaho and
the Nez Perce over tribal treaty fishing rights resulted in significant
changes to the way the Federal Government interpreted the Treaty Rights
of all Native American tribes in the United States.
In 1998, Crow was appointed to serve on the Nez Perce Fish and Wildlife
Commission. He received the “Nez Perce Spirit of the Salmon” award
from the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission’s Hall of Fame
in 2006. He also served on the advisory committee for “Healing Conference,” the
final signature event for the Lewis & Clark Bicentennial, held in June,
2006.
Currently, Crow is focusing on fishery restoration, specifically lamprey
restoration on the Nez Perce ceded lands. He is working to organize an
intertribal effort to accomplish lamprey restoration throughout the Columbia
River Basin as a strategy to restore the salmon.
He is also renowned for his bighorn sheep horn bows and is the last Nez
Perce elder who can create these rare and coveted weapons.
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