The tribal vision is rebirth of the spiritual values of the Basin's land, water, air, plants and fish and wildlife, and the importance of these values expressed in terms of love, purity, respect and worship that sustained life for native peoples before the time of Christianity, Judiasm, or any other of the world's great religions. This strength should not be lost.

The tribal vision is how the tribes came to be part of the earth and part of creation and what the future holds. This vision is not easily expressed into non-tribal language, but it is sovereignty, respect of the air, water, plants and animals and the interconnection of the spirits of these and tribal peoples, past, present and future.

The Columbia River Basin is a single watershed, forming an entire ecosystem. It is linked and united by one river-the Columbia-and its many tributaries. In the past, this river-and this watershed and ecosystem-were biologically healthy and self-sustaining. They provided a multitude of resources and other benefits to the native populations.

For the tribes, there has always been a common understanding-that their very existence depends upon their respectful enjoyment of the Basin's rich and vast land and water resources. When Europeans came to the Columbia Basin, they found abundant resources under thousands of years of tribal stewardship. This stewardship was taught by unwritten laws and passed down through the generations. These laws begin with recognition of nature's bounty as a gift from the Creator, that everything in nature has a purpose, and that human society has a need to harmonize itself with the structures and rhythms of nature. When the first salmon comes up the river, the human world stops to honor the returning spirit of the salmon.

Tribal people believe that there is no distinction between natural resources and cultural resources-all are necessary for culture, economy, religion and a way of life to be expressed, practiced and maintained. Indeed, the native peoples' very souls and spirits were and are inextricably tied to the natural world and its myriad inhabitants.

Today, the Columbia River, and the Columbia River Basin ecosystem, is seriously damaged and extensively degraded. The extinction and threatened extinction of many salmon species is currently only the most prominent symptom of this widespread devastation. Many other fish and wildlife species of critical importance to the Basin tribes are also in danger.