I don't claim to know a great deal about fish, despite the patient efforts of my father and grandfather. I no longer pretend to have much faith in politics.

But it's long past time to toast what the Nez Perce Tribe, with a nifty assist from the late Sen. Mark Hatfield, has accomplished on the Snake River, resurrecting a glorious fall chinook salmon run.

In a memorable summer for salmon -- 63,870 chinook hit the fish ladder at Bonneville Dam on Sept. 9 -- the best recovery story may be on the Snake.

"In the 1930s, we had 500,000 Snake River fall chinook, spawning in the gravel. In 1990, it was down to 78 fish, crossing the Lower Granite Dam," notes John Platt, a lawyer who has an extensive history with the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission.

"It's now heading to 30,000. The numbers are just amazing. And the Nez Perce did most of the work."