day twelve - people of the big river

Woke up slowly, it was quite hard because I was so comfortable…slept so good, it was so hard to fully wake up and get ready. I was so slow, but made our way down the road, Mission Oregon. We stopped off at the Nursery with Gail Redbird. We got a tour of the whole nursery that could help the Umatilla river thrive more. When it comes to restoring salmon and the vegetation. After the tour, we got to start trimming the tops of a willow, so they can grow the population of Willows. We then put the plants we trimmed into another area, so they can thrive and grow more on their own so they can really soak up the sun. We then went to the Agency in Mission Oregon, then we got a Powerpoint from Andrew Wildbill. Discussing the importance of Utilizing all programs to help aim for the same goal. Talked about shutting down the commercial huckleberry pickers. He also brought up about their first foods ceremony at their longhouse in Mission. They celebrate their first food like us Yakama’s and discussed what they do in order to still have those rights. 1885 they signed their treaty in Washington state, however they lost about 600,00 acres from the Slater Act. The casino in a way can help buy back the land they don’t have anymore overtime. He brought up an elder named Elmer Crow and all the teachings that he passed down. Then we went down to the bunkers located outside of Pendleton OR. They have 82 burrows to help restore the Burrow owls. We got split into two groups. The Environmental Science majors went with Jessica Black and Solai Le fay and we all went to tag 4 owlets with a metal piece around their leg. They have a harmless technique to grab them out of the artificial structure Burrows. It was really interesting watching them collect their data on the few burrows we did out of the 82 site burrows they have. I surprisingly had so much fun holding the owlets and did 15 owlets total. They explained how the parents would come bring them food or the owlets would hangout just outside the burrow, it was very interesting to see and be apart of. 
Andrew Wildbill - tribal member of the Cayuse. Bachelors Degree in Fish and WIldlife science. Went to school in Michigan State University. 
Solai Le Fay - Bachelors degree in Biology at Portland State University. Graduate student, getting Masters in Rapter Biology at Boise State University. 

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