by Dallas Cross

Issaquah Press, May 2008

Before the Ice Age Sockeye ancestors bearing our tribal name, Oncorhynchus nerka, regularly came from the ocean to Lake Sammamish to find mates and reproduce in its streams. As it got colder a huge glacier formed cutting off escape to the sea. Being trapped we had to accommodate to living our entire lives in fresh water. It was difficult at first but soon we adapted to feeding on the insects and small invertebrates living in the lake. Because this food was not as plentiful as in the ocean our sizes got smaller. Our tribe became content with less travel time for a life cycle and we were glad to be rid of the perils of predation by bigger, salt water fish. We became land-locked, adapted and survived.

We did retain some of our sea-run traditions such as only living three to five years and dying after we laid and fertilized our eggs in the streams. Our short life spans allowed us to make rapid genetic changes in response to climate changes and food availability. These changes gave us sufficient numbers for disaster survival, targeted the food in the lake we needed, and assured that the traditions of the tribe would continue in our offspring. We specialized and thrived.

After many generations the Vashon ice sheet retreated and our cousins, the Sockeye Salmon, started returning to the lake coming up the Sammamish River after entering Lake Washington through the Duwammish River and now extinct Black River. We were not that glad to see them because they were bigger and took over the spawning areas we had reserved for ourselves. In addition the King and Coho salmon came in to claim more spawning beds.

To adapt we divided into three clans, each selecting a different time of the year in which to go up the creeks to spawn. In this way the competition for our redds, or gravel beds where we laid our eggs, was eased and we had more safety during our reproduction efforts. We adapted and endured.

When the native humans came they named us Kokanee meaning "red fish" and we got along reasonably well and provided them with food. The relationship deteriorated when the immigrant humans came and allowed their farm and logging waste to enter and change the spawning streams; and then used us for fertilizer after trapping us while we spawned. It was worse later when they dumped in their dairy and human waste not only contaminating the streams but reducing our food supply in the lake. Humans also restricted our ability to reproduce by putting dams and culverts in some streams. But we were numerous enough to rebound, even after our redds were mined away or scoured by flash floods as a result of heavy water run off from developed areas..

The worst came when the Federal Government built the Fish Hatchery denying the Kokanee Clans access to our major spawning area on Issaquah Creek. Their hatchery is popular bringing in millions of dollars for tourism and providing some salmon for ocean fisherman. So it persists but we can not go upstream from the hatchery to spawn, even when they are not trapping salmon. They plan to remedy this to benefit some Salmon but it may come too late for us. We can not adapt so we diminish.

Finally, someone noticed there were not as many of us fresh water fish around so instead of habitat restoration people chose a policy of stocking and restocking. That is how we lost so many of our members as prey for foreign trout, bass and other fish they introduced into the lake. They even brought in related Kokanee from Lake Kootenay who competed with us but eventually could not adapt to our special environment and disappeared. The human's waste changed to include chemical poisons; now lessening because of governmental concern. No one has heard from the summer run clan that spawned in Issaquah Creek for quite a while. Our early run clan has been declared extinct. Only some in the late run clan have survived.

Good news has sunk into the lake. The Federal Government passed the Endangered Species Act that could address and remedy our plight. Our human friends in the Trout Unlimited, City of Issaquah, King County, People for Puget Sound, Save Lake Sammamish, Snoqualmie Tribe, and Wild Fish Conservancy organizations have petitioned the Federal Wildlife Agency to recognize our peril and help prevent our otherwise certain demise. These friends filed this request last July citing our genetic uniqueness and the certainty of our extinction if there is no intervention. The deadline for response has long passed and there is none. Another broken treaty. Those few of us left who spawn in Lewis, Ebright, and Laughing Jacobs Creeks are diminishing. . . as is hope for our fry.