Soul of the Snake with Shannon Wheeler, Vice Chairman of the Nez Perce Tribe

Shannon Wheeler, Vice-Chairman of the Nez Perce Tribe, envisions the return of the Snake River system to a semblance of its former self as essential to the health of the entire Pacific Northwest and its residents. Wheeler wants the fish back. The Nez Perce people want the fish back. So does the Yakima nation, the Nisqually, the Sauk-Suiattle, the Nooksack. All united to one cause—bring the Snake River salmon back for once and for all. Bring the dams down.

Wheeler, an affable and extremely capable leader, is the seventh of 11 children raised to hard-working parents in Lapwai, Idaho. After a successful entrepreneurial and business career spanning everything from owning multiple convenience stores in the region, to graphic design and screen printing, at 56, Wheeler has risen as the voice for salmon and for his people.

Wheeler’s perspective is an angler’s perspective. He grew up on the rivers and streams, fishing with his family. The Selway, the South Fork Salmon River, Big Creek, the Seesch, Rapid River.

Today he is one of the leading advocates for the opportunity that Representative Mike Simpson’s “Northwest in Transition” proposal presents for his tribe, as well as the other tribes of the Columbia Basin. But he also believes that great opportunity lies ahead for the agricultural community, transporters and river communities in the Snake River Basin. But the fish need to come back and they can only come back if the dams come down. All four of the Lower Snake Dams.