High above the Columbia River, Angela Goudy, the current Miss Yakama Nation, led young girls in a dance to welcome people to a celebration of an incredibly sacred site to her tribe. It’s called Pushpum, or “mother of all roots.”
The dancers flow together around in a line, occasionally extending a foot to the side and reaching their hands toward the ground.
This place is one of the highest points along this stretch of the Columbia River Gorge, just outside Goldendale, Washington.
“On a good day, on a clear day, you can see all the way down Sisters mountains. And on a good day, you can see Mount Rainier and Mount St. Helens over here,” said Elaine Harvey, a member of the Rock Creek Band, one of the 14 bands and tribes that make up the Yakama Nation.
Harvey has fought to protect Pushpum for years.
The area is a seed bank for traditional medicines and roots. It’s also a spiritually important spot for the tribe, said Bronsco Jim Jr., or “BJ,” who is the chief of the Rock Creek Band.
“ Nobody planted these foods. Nobody brought it here. It was intended for us to be here,” he said.
Right now, buckwheat blossoms all around. Juniper tree branches sway in the gusts of wind — no surprise as to why, as wind turbines stand sentry overhead. Their blades are swooshing in the distance, generating carbon-free power.
Yakama Nation members gathered here — along with other tribes and environmental activists — on Friday to stand against an energy storage site that could soon be built nearby.
The potential project
Lawmakers and some energy groups say the Goldendale Energy Storage Project is needed more than ever to help the Northwest use more carbon-free power. The pumped storage project could store about as much energy as the Bonneville Dam can produce at peak capacity.
For its part, the project’s developers said they are working with the tribe to mitigate the damage. In an earlier interview, Erik Steimle, who is with Rye Development, said it’s just not feasible to move the project elsewhere.
“From an engineering standpoint, this is one of the best pumped storage sites in North America. It's been studied since the 1970s,” Steimle said.
The tribe has pushed back against two similar proposals at this same spot in the past.
The Yakama Nation said: Don’t build it here.
“I believe we can go green, but in a responsible manner and not destroying shrubsteppe,” Harvey said.
Now, environmental groups, including Columbia Riverkeeper, have joined the cause. Simone Anter is a senior attorney for the group. Recently, the project got a key federal license, which means construction could start very soon.
However, Anter said Columbia Riverkeeper plans to ask a federal court to review the license.
“It's not built yet. There are no shovels in the ground, and so there's a real possibility that there won't be,” she said.
The Yakama Nation said energy development is an ongoing form of dispossession for tribes across the country, who’ve lost land to dams and wind turbines. More development is on the horizon, Harvey said.
“ We try to protect our foods. Our way, our beliefs, our traditions, and now they're all under threat,” she said.
Yakama Nation leaders said they’re tracking more than 80 proposed projects on ceded lands. That includes renewable energy projects, new transmission lines and more data centers.
“I feel like it's coming too fast. And our people are pushed aside,” Harvey said.
To show support, members from tribes across Washington and Oregon joined the ceremony at Pushpum. Throughout the ceremony, they joined together in intertribal dances.
The Klamath Tribes, in southcentral Oregon and northern California, are fighting a similar energy storage project called Swan Lake Energy Storage. The Klamath Tribes said that the project would destroy sacred rock stack features and culturally important foods.
“ The struggles between our nations and Indian country, it crosses every border of Indian country since the coming of the non-Indian, and it's been a battle for literally our survival,” said William Ray Jr., the Klamath Tribe’s chair.
The Klamath Tribe rejected a $40 million settlement with energy developers, he said.
The tribes said they want to be brought in on project development from the very first proposals. That could avoid these sorts of high-stakes conflicts, they said.
In the meantime, Jim said, his people — the river people — will continue to protect this land.
“What we say, we're still here. We're resilient. We're alive. We're adaptive,” he said.
And, he said, they’ll keep moving forward.
