Donald McCovey: Resighini Rancheria denied say in Klamath talk

Wednesday, July 11, 2012  

"The Resighini Rancheria is a small federally recognized tribe with a reservation at the top of the Klamath River estuary. We are of Yurok ancestry. Our people have fished the Klamath River since time immemorial and we remain dependent on the bounty of the river, both for our sustenance and our spiritual well being. The Resighini Rancheria favors removal of four Klamath Hydroelectric Project (KHP) dams but strongly opposes the implementation of the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement (KBRA) that is part of the government dam removal process.

Our tribal government was denied participation in the Klamath settlement talks, but we have studied the issues while participating in review of government dam removal environmental documents. We have come to the conclusion that our treaty rights and the government's trust responsibility should not be changed to favor politically powerful farm interests as part of dam removal. Also, dam owner PacifiCorp should be made to remove its polluting dams sooner than 2020 and replace their power generating capacity at the expense of their rate-payers, not at the expense of the citizens of California.

The Indian people of the Klamath River Basin share a harmony-based culture where all living creatures are part of a living river system. The Upper Klamath ecosystem historically provided clean water for the lower Klamath River, until the Klamath Project reduced lakes and wetlands by 80 percent. By preventing recovery of the marshes and shallow lakes of the Upper Klamath Basin, the Klamath settlement will block the recovery of water quality as well as the endangered sucker fish and dozens of bird species dependent on the Tule Lake and Lower Klamath National Wildlife "

Get the Story:
Donald McCovey: Resighini Rancheria Chairman Donald McCovey: Time for different direction on Klamath Dam removal (The Eureka Times-Standard 7/11)