Tribal rivers among group's most endangered

FROM THE ARCHIVE

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TUESDAY, APRIL 2, 2002

Controversy over endangered species and treaty rights has put the Klamath River on an environmental group's list of "most endangered" rivers in the country.

Released on Monday by American Rivers, the Klamath makes its sixth appearance on a list dating back nearly two decades. In prior years, proposed hydro-electric and diversion projects led to the river's inclusion.

This time, a high-profile fight over the allocation of water has drawn attention from tribes, environmentalists and the Bush administration. In an action praised by President Bush, Secretary of Interior Gale Norton and Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman traveled to the Oregon-California border last Friday to let the precious resource flow to hundreds of non-Indian farmers who were denied the same last year in an effort to uphold trust responsibilities to the tribes.

That's precisely the reason American Rivers has cited the Klamath as Number 3 on its list. "Faltering fish and wildlife populations are no longer sufficient to meet the treaty rights promised to Native American tribes," the group stated.

Several tribes depend on water and fish in the region for subsistence and cultural purposes. The Klamath Tribes of Oregon, whose federal status was terminated and their reservation revoked, have court-affirmed but unquantified treaty rights.

"We reserved that right and we should be able to exercise it today and we can't," said Klamath chairman Allen Foreman, who showed up uninvited to the water release.

Downstream in California, the Yurok Tribe and Hoopa Valley Tribe also rely on the water system and their leaders and members showed up to protest the Bush administration's reversal. The tribes face a dispute of their own over the Trinity River, which was not named by the conservation group yesterday.

In addition to the Klamath, other tribal-significant rivers were named by the group. Tops on the list for the second year in a row was the Missouri River, which was included for dams projects dating to the 1950s.

The dams have caused enormous upheaval among Sioux and other tribes. Congress has approved compensation for lost and flooded land and other problems, including damage to burial sites. A $28 million bill for the Yankton Sioux Tribe of South Dakota and the Santee Sioux Tribe of Nebraska is pending.

The Powder River in Wyoming was cited for coalbed methane drilling which has drawn opposition from farmers and ranchers in the region. Tribes in Wyoming and Montana are considering tapping into this lucrative resource, and the Environmental Protection Agency is finalizing regulations affecting how water use in Indian Country would be affected.

As for the Klamath, the Department of Interior is consulting with the Klamath Tribes on a number of issues, including management and possible restoration of 690,000 acres of former tribal land now under the control of the federal government. Foreman said he welcomed Norton's involvement.

"I applaud the high level attention to the basin's problems," he said, "and hope that right thinking, common sense thinking will prevail."

Get the River Report:
Most Endangered Rivers of 2002 (American Rivers April 1)

Relevant Links:
Resource Allocation in the Klamath Basin: An Assessment of Natural Resource, Economic, Social, and Institutional Issues - http://eesc.orst.edu/klamath
Klamath Tribes - http://www.klamathtribes.org
Klamath Basin in Crisis - http://www.klamathbasincrisis.org