At the Pyramid Lake Paiute Reservation in northern Nevada, rolling mountains cloaked in pale-green sagebrush unfold for miles like a painting that never ends.
Standing at an overlook in these hills, Tribal Chairman James Phoenix watches the Truckee River rush over Numana Dam, an irrigation diversion structure.
As a kid, Phoenix fished in these waters for Cui-ui, a type of sucker fish that isn鈥檛 found anywhere else in the world.
鈥淏ringing them to shore and then cutting and filleting them, that鈥檚 what my dad had taught me,鈥� Phoenix said with a smile. 鈥淎nd I got to experience that鈥檚 how he was taught when he was young.鈥�
The tribe refers to themselves as Cui-ui Tucutta in their Native language, which means 鈥渢he Cui-ui eaters.鈥�
But tribal members stopped catching them back in the 1980s as the fish population plummeted.
A big reason for the decreased fish population is the dam, which was built more than 100 years ago to divert river water to the reservation for farming and ranching. But it鈥檚 been a barrier for migration of the and 鈥� another fish crucial to the tribe.
A previous tribal council discussed removing or modifying the dam, but kept running into the same hurdle.
鈥淎 lot of funds weren鈥檛 available,鈥� Phoenix said.
That finally changed. The tribe is receiving $8.3 million from the to modify the dam. The money will be used to build a large underwater ramp 鈥� stretching from bank to bank 鈥� so fish can swim up and over the dam. The project, which recently broke ground, will reopen 65 miles of river for their migration.
Phoenix says that will impact more than the .
鈥淚t鈥檚 important to our economics,鈥� he continued. 鈥淲e rely on tourism and fishing. We get a lot of anglers that are coming in seasonally, so it鈥檚 really big for us.鈥�
Dams aren鈥檛 the only obstacles fish populations like Cui-ui and Lahontan Cutthroat Trout have to overcome, said Siva Sundaresan, deputy director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
鈥淎s climate changes in places, we鈥檙e seeing changes in snowpack, changes in the timing of when you have snow melt, changing water temperatures,鈥� he said. 鈥淎ll of that is definitely affecting fish populations, fish habitat.鈥�
Sundaresan said that鈥檚 why the fish passage project at Numana Dam is one of dozens nationwide receiving federal funding. Other projects in the Mountain West include efforts to recover Yellowstone Cutthroat in Idaho; Rio Grande Cutthroat in New Mexico; Bear River Cutthroat in Wyoming and Utah; and Flannelmouth Sucker in Utah.
Projects include everything from removing old dams to installing new culverts, which are large pipes that pass streams beneath roadways.
鈥淭he more, I think, we can restore these ecosystems, allow fish to migrate up and down the streams, have habitat where they can find refuge when water temperatures rise, the better we will be at protecting and restoring, conserving these fish populations,鈥� Sundaresan said.
At the Pyramid Lake Paiute Reservation, the underwater ramp will allow up to 600,000 Cui-ui to swim over the diversion dam to new spawning grounds, said Lisa Heki, a Reno-based project leader with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
鈥淗istorically, they move in large numbers at the same time, and they back up behind this current design,鈥� Heki said. 鈥淣ow, with this gradient structure downstream, it鈥檚 designed specifically for Cui-ui swimming capacity and speed.鈥�
Heki said when river flows go down this fall, construction of the ramp structure will speed up. The tribe is putting the project out for a construction bid and a third-party contractor will build it, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Tribal Chairman James Phoenix said the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe is excited to finally see shovels break ground on a decades-long effort to recover their native fish.
鈥淚t鈥檚 historical,鈥� said Phoenix. 鈥淚t鈥檚 big for us and it signifies us as Numu people here at the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe.鈥�
Phoenix said he鈥檚 looking forward to the day when the Cui-ui population is big enough for tribal members to catch, fillet and eat them once again.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, 糖心vlog传媒 in Colorado and KANW in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the .