The Pelton/Round Butte Dam project is expected to help compensate for the tribes' voluntary decrease in timber cutting revenues.

This won't be the tribes' first experience with dam ownership, however. In 1982 they completed one of their most ambitious projects—a $30 million hydroelectric plant. Designed to control overflow from the two larger PGE-owned dams, the Pelton Reregulating Dam Hydroelectric Project received the first license ever issued to an Indian tribe by the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. It generates almost 20 megawatts of energy each day, which the tribes sell to the Pacific Power and Light Company.

Gaining a majority share in the Pelton/Round Butte project will give the tribes another source of income. After a recent decision to voluntarily decrease the amount of timber cut on the reservation by 50 percent, revenue from the dams will help fill the gap left by the loss of timber revenue. Currently, PGE pays $10 million annually as part of its lease agreement, and the reregulating dam brings in an additional $4 million. But the Pelton and Round Butte dams could potentially earn between $20 million and $50 million per year for their license holders. Although operating costs may increase over time, the tribes could earn hundreds of millions of dollars over the next several decades.

Sal Sahme, manager of Warm Springs Business and Economic Development, believes owning the dams will be another positive step forward for tribal members. "When you've had several generations of people who have learned to be dependent—forced onto a [reservation] and losing self-sufficiency in a traditional sense, losing rights to salmon—when that's been taken away it's hard to unlearn dependence." But after the tribes' long struggle for economic self-determination, gaining control of the hydroelectric project would be a tremendous victory.

The Warm Springs Reservation is nestled between the Cascade mountain range to the west and the fast flowing Deschutes River to the east. The Wasco and Warm Springs Indians relocated onto this area in north central Oregon in 1855 after ceding more than 10 million acres along the Columbia River in exchange for a reservation of only 640,000 acres. In the 1870s and 1880s the U.S. government moved members of the Northern Paiute tribe from their traditional home in the high desert to the southern part of the reservation. Although the three tribes spoke different languages and had traditions ranging from nomadic hunting to settled trading, they banded together. In 1938 the Wasco, Warm Springs and Paiute tribes incorporated into the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs.


The federal government tried to assimilate the tribes' culture into mainstream American life during the early decades of the reservation. Children were required to be educated at boarding schools, and individual land ownership was encouraged, allowing tribal members to sell off plots of land to outsiders. Maintaining traditional ways of life was also difficult. The rivers and streams supported few salmon, and the poor soil quality made it difficult to farm. The Warm Springs, Wasco and Paiute Indians struggled to overcome their poverty, but it wasn't until the early twentieth century that the tribes achieved their first taste of economic success.

In 1923 the Department of the Interior began taking bids for cutting 526 million board feet of timber on the reservation. A Seattle based organization, the River Logging and Lumber Company, received the logging contract, but over the next 15 years it accomplished almost nothing beyond some basic clearing. Ultimately, the Warm Springs tribes took the company to court for defaulting on the contract and were awarded a $40,000 settlement in 1940. The tribal council voted to use the money to purchase land that had previously been sold.

During the next decade, the tribes received another, much larger settlement after dam construction on the Columbia River destroyed a traditional salmon fishing ground at Celilo Falls. In 1957 the Army Corps of Engineers built the Dalles Dam downriver from the site, and the falls were completely flooded. To compensate for this loss, the federal government paid tribal members $4 million in 1958. A small portion of the money was distributed—$500 per member—but most was kept in the tribal treasury. The tribes then contacted Oregon State University and commissioned a study of the reservation's natural resources and its potential for economic development. Based on OSU’s recommendations, the tribal council used the Cecilo Falls settlement money to fund projects that contributed to the future welfare of the tribe, such as the Kah-Nee-Tah resort and several housing developments.

Susan Guerin, a Warm Springs Indian who works at the Pelton reregulating dam, applauds the foresight of the tribal council. "The Celilo dollars - thankfully the tribal leaders invested that money. I'm so thankful for that. We've come so far since my grandparents' days."

The new contract will mark the first time an Oregon tribe has purchased a hydroelectric project.

But controlling the Pelton and Round Butte dams is about more than simply increasing revenue. It's also about controlling the environmental and social effects the tribes have on the reservation." As PGE transfers its operations to the tribes, a number of jobs will become available. While many of the openings initially will be filled by non-tribal members, Sahme hopes to sponsor educational and vocational training programs on the reservation. "We want to position ourselves to begin preparing our workforce for those jobs," he says.

The tribal council also intends to begin operating the fish ladders at the two dams and add recreational facilities to Lake Billy Chinook, the 400 foot reservoir formed by their construction. Sahme feels it is important for the tribes to protect and preserve their natural resources and fully realize the economic potential of their land. "When we were forced on the reservation, philosophically we've always looked ahead," he says. "Eventually taking over [the dams] potentially won't show its benefits for the current generation but will for future generations."