In 2022 Nch’i Wana Housing worked with Big Water Consulting to conduct a Community Needs Assessment of people living along the Columbia River at treaty and in-lieu fishing sites and adjacent communities. The Community Needs Assessment collected actionable data that Nch’i Wana Housing and its partners used to plan for future housing and community development projects and to strengthen their programs and services.

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Nch’i Wana Housing was established to empower the Nch’i Wana Pum, or People of the Big River, by ensuring they have safe and sufficient housing, economic opportunities along the River, and other programs and services to make the Columbia River a great place to live, all rooted in Native culture.

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The Columbia River Basin is the home of several Native Tribes, known today as the Nez Perce Tribe, the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, and the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Indian Nation. In 1855, the United States government entered into treaties with the Tribes whereby the Tribes ceded most of their land, but retained the right to fish at their ancestral fishing sites—these are now referred to as treaty sites. However, the damming of the Columbia River behind the Bonneville and Dalles Dams in the first half of the 20th century flooded a number of these sites, submerging them completely. As mitigation for the flooding of these sites, Congress set aside new sites for the displaced communities—these are the in-lieu sites.