‘It’s going to take all of us’: Yakama Nation youth learn about Hanford’s legacy

On a warm evening last month, Yakama Nation leaders and environmentalists got together to eat giant crab legs, salmon and cheesecake — and to discuss the grave environmental challenges before them at Hanford.

In a banquet room, past the whirring machines at the back of Legends Casino in Toppenish, Washington, they talked for hours about the site and its radioactive contamination.

“When I think about being able to speak for the resources, those not yet born, I think about the people in this room,” said Emily Washines, board president of the watchdog group Columbia Riverkeeper and a member of the Yakama Nation.

“I think about the messages that we carry, [...] the messages that we give to our children and even other youth in the community, about what we have to do. Because it’s going to take all of us in order to make and restore this area and land again,” she said.