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Portland, Oregon
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Bruce Jim, a Warm Springs tribal member, was selected by officials
from the Umatilla, Yakama, Nez Perce and Warm Springs tribes to
lead the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission (CRITFC) as
its new chair. Mr. Jim has deep ties to the Columbia River. He is
a respected tribal fisher who has fished the Columbia and its tributaries
his entire life.
“I am privileged to be the new chair of CRITFC,” said
Jim in his address to his fellow commissioners. “This commission
and those of us who sit around this table have the ability to impact
a lot of things and change a lot of peoples’ lives. We are
one voice and equal among each other.”
Born and raised on the Warm Springs reservation, Mr. Jim has served
on the Commission since 2000 and currently serves on the Warm Springs
Fish & Wildlife Committee.
Jim succeeds Joel Moffett (Nez Perce) who served as CRITFC chairman
for three months after McCoy Oatman stepped down as CRITFC chairman
after being elected chairman of the Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee.
“It has been a privilege and an honor to serve as the Chair
for the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission,” said
Moffett. “We are entrusted by our tribal members to protect
our tribal sovereignty and treaty rights and Mr. Jim will continue
to lead us in a great direction.”
The Nez Perce presided over CRITFC during a year that was highlighted
by historic runs of salmon to the Columbia Basin, a significant
increase to the Bureau of Indian Affairs Rights Protection funding
and considerable strengthening of the tribal-federal relationship
in Washington DC.
Virgil Lewis (Yakama) was elected vice-chair, Kat Brigham (Umatilla)
was elected secretary and Joel Moffett (Nez Perce) was elected treasurer.
The election of CRITFC officers takes place every year with the
seats rotated among the four member tribes.
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About CRITFC
The Portland-based Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission is
the technical support and coordinating agency for fishery management
policies of the Columbia River Basin's four treaty tribes: the Confederated
Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the Confederated Tribes
of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon, the Confederated Tribes
and Bands of the Yakama Nation and the Nez Perce Tribe.
CRITFC, formed in 1977, employs biologists, other scientists, public
information specialists, policy analysts and administrators who work
in fisheries research and analyses, advocacy, planning and coordination,
harvest control and law enforcement. |
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