The Klamath River Basin

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Introduction
Unlike most basins, the headwaters of the Klamath River are in the high desert of the Great Basin in eastern Oregon and travel south through the temperate rainforests of the Pacific Coast Mountain Range in north Central California, before finally draining into the Pacific Ocean in coastal California. The river basin spans a total of 5,700 square miles in an hourglass formation and includes parts of three counties in Oregon and five counties in California (Bureau of Reclamation 2016). The communities living in the “upside down” basin are as diverse as its climatic ranges in their cultures and livelihoods, but are bound by their reliance on the same sources of water.
Prior to settlement by whites, the Klamath River Basin(KRB) was …show more content…

Historically, the Modoc Tribe lived in the region around Lower Link River and Clear Lake, the Yahooskin lived east of the Yamsay Mountain, and the Klamath Tribe lived along Klamath Lake. Historically, the tribes relied on two fish species, lost river and short nose sucker, as major components of their diet and traded with tribes in the lower basin for other staples, such as salmon. The Return of the cwaam ceremony is still held by the Klamath Tribes to celebrate the return of the fish runs at the end of March (Klamath Tribe …show more content…

A group of historically antagonistic stakeholders attempted to compromise on water allocation, economic development, dam relicensing, and environmental restoration along the Klamath River and its tributaries. The current and historical resource conflicts in the KRB are symptomatic of its long history of environmental exploitation, and the conflicting uses of numerous livelihoods which depend on water for endurance (Doremus and Tarlock 2007). For nearly a century, clashes between fishers, tribes, environmentalists, and farmers have peaked and ebbed with water shortages and wet years. The Euro-American colonial legacy and the settlement and occupation of native territories has resulted in the dispossession of indigenous lands and waters, as well as the strict regulation of indigenous access to waters formerly under their jurisdiction by American government forces (Most 2006). The Klamath Hydroelectric Project(KHP) and its associated dams constructed along the Klamath River in the first half of the 20th century proved catastrophic for the region’s ocean and river fishing economies and indigenous livelihoods(Spain, Interview 9/19/2016). The causal link between dams and decreasing anadromous salmon populations was scientifically unfounded until the late 1990’s. Previously, decreasing salmon stocks were attributed to overfishing by indigenous peoples the

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