Klamath Tribes
Encyclopedia
The Klamath Tribes, formerly the Klamath Indian Tribe of Oregon, are a federally
recognized confederation of three Native American
tribes who traditionally inhabited Southern Oregon
and Northern California
in the United States
: the Klamath, Modoc, and Yahooskin
. The tribal government is based in Chiloquin
, Oregon
.
(1872-1873), and were forced to return to Oregon.
In 1954, the US Congress terminated
federal recognition of tribal sovereignty of the Klamath, part of an effort to assimilate American Indians judged ready to be part of mainstream culture. With the growth of Indian activism
in the late twentieth century, the tribes reorganized their government and, in 1986, regained federal recognition. By this time, some members had sold their individual plots of land allocated in the 1950s, so the communal reservation land was broken up. A portion of that land was acquired by the government for the Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuges Complex
.
A new reservation is in the planning stages. With support from The Trust for Public Land
, the Klamath Tribes recently entered into an agreement to repurchase the 90000 acres (364.2 km²) Mazama forest.
and Klamath Falls
. Their total land area is 1.248 km² (308.43 acre
s). As is the case with many Native American tribes, today few of the Klamath tribal members live on the reservation; the 2000 census
reported only nine persons resided on its territory, five of whom were white people
.
In 2001, an ongoing water right
s dispute between the Klamath Tribes, Klamath Basin
farmers
, and fishermen
along the Klamath River
became national news. As of 2006, the water rights issue is still controversial. To improve fishing for salmon and the quality of the salmon runs, the Klamath Tribes are pressing for dams to be demolished on the upper rivers, as they have reduced the salmon runs.
By signing the Treaty of 1864, 16 Stat. 707, the Klamath tribe ceded 20 million acres (80,937.2 km²) of land but retained 2 million acres (8,093.7 km²) and the rights to fish, hunt, trap, and gather from the lands and waters as they have traditionally done for centuries.
As part of an effort at assimilation, in 1954 the US Congress had terminated the federal relationship with the Klamath Tribes, but stated in the Klamath Termination Act, "Nothing in this [Act] shall abrogate any water rights of the tribe and its members... Nothing in this [Act] shall abrogate any fishing rights or privileges of the tribe or the members thereof enjoyed under Federal treaty."
The states of California and Oregon have both tried to challenge Klamath water rights, but have been rebuffed. Local farmers tried unsuccessfully to claim water rights in the 2001 cases, Klamath Water Users Association v. Patterson and Kandra v. United States but these were decided in favor of the Department of Interior's right to give precedence to tribal fishing in its management of water flows and rights in the Klamath Basin. In 2002 U.S. District Judge Owen M. Panner
ruled that the Klamath Tribes' right to water preceded that of non-tribal irrigators in the court case United States vs. Adair, originally filed in 1975.
. Most tribal land was liquidated when Congress
ended federal recognition in 1954 under its Indian termination policy
. Some lands were restored when recognition was restored. The tribal administration currently offers services throughout the county.
in Chiloquin, Oregon
in 1997. It provides revenue which the tribe uses to support governance and investment for tribal benefit.
Bureau of Indian Affairs
The Bureau of Indian Affairs is an agency of the federal government of the United States within the US Department of the Interior. It is responsible for the administration and management of of land held in trust by the United States for Native Americans in the United States, Native American...
recognized confederation of three Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
tribes who traditionally inhabited Southern Oregon
Southern Oregon
Southern Oregon is a region of the U.S. state of Oregon south of Lane County and generally west of the Cascade Range, excluding the southern Oregon Coast. Counties include Douglas, Jackson, Klamath, and Josephine. It includes the Southern Oregon American Viticultural Area, which consists of the...
and Northern California
Northern California
Northern California is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. The San Francisco Bay Area , and Sacramento as well as its metropolitan area are the main population centers...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
: the Klamath, Modoc, and Yahooskin
Yahooskin
The Yahooskin are a band of Snake Indians comprising part of the federally recognized Klamath Tribes in Klamath County, Oregon. In 1864 they, along with the Klamath and Modoc, signed a treaty with the Federal government which established an Indian reservation in Southern Oregon for them, in...
. The tribal government is based in Chiloquin
Chiloquin, Oregon
Chiloquin is a city in Klamath County, Oregon, United States. Chiloquin was the pioneer version of a Klamath family name Chaloquin, which was the name of a Klamath chief who was alive at the time of the treaty of 1864...
, Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
.
History
After signing the 1864 treaty, members of the Klamath Tribes moved to the Klamath Reservation. At the time there was tension between the Klamath and Modoc, and a band of Modoc left the reservation to return to Northern California. They were defeated by the US Army after the Modoc WarModoc War
The Modoc War, or Modoc Campaign , was an armed conflict between the Native American Modoc tribe and the United States Army in southern Oregon and northern California from 1872–1873. The Modoc War was the last of the Indian Wars to occur in California or Oregon...
(1872-1873), and were forced to return to Oregon.
In 1954, the US Congress terminated
Indian termination policy
Indian termination was the policy of the United States from the mid-1940s to the mid-1960s. The belief was that Native Americans would be better off if assimilated as individuals into mainstream American society. To that end, Congress proposed to end the special relationship between tribes and the...
federal recognition of tribal sovereignty of the Klamath, part of an effort to assimilate American Indians judged ready to be part of mainstream culture. With the growth of Indian activism
Activism
Activism consists of intentional efforts to bring about social, political, economic, or environmental change. Activism can take a wide range of forms from writing letters to newspapers or politicians, political campaigning, economic activism such as boycotts or preferentially patronizing...
in the late twentieth century, the tribes reorganized their government and, in 1986, regained federal recognition. By this time, some members had sold their individual plots of land allocated in the 1950s, so the communal reservation land was broken up. A portion of that land was acquired by the government for the Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuges Complex
Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuges Complex
The Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge Complex is a wildlife preserve operated by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service located in the Klamath Basin of southern Oregon and northern California near Klamath Falls, Oregon...
.
A new reservation is in the planning stages. With support from The Trust for Public Land
The Trust for Public Land
The Trust for Public Land is a land conservation nonprofit founded in 1972 by Huey Johnson and based in San Francisco, California in the United States. TPL works throughout the United States to conserve land for people as parks, gardens, and other natural places.- TPL Conservation Initiatives :TPL...
, the Klamath Tribes recently entered into an agreement to repurchase the 90000 acres (364.2 km²) Mazama forest.
Klamath Indian Reservation
The present-day Klamath Indian Reservation consists of twelve small non-contiguous parcels of land in Klamath County. These fragments are generally located in and near the communities of ChiloquinChiloquin, Oregon
Chiloquin is a city in Klamath County, Oregon, United States. Chiloquin was the pioneer version of a Klamath family name Chaloquin, which was the name of a Klamath chief who was alive at the time of the treaty of 1864...
and Klamath Falls
Klamath Falls, Oregon
Klamath Falls is a city in Klamath County, Oregon, United States. Originally called Linkville when George Nurse founded the town in 1867, after the Link River on whose falls this city sat, although no falls currently exist; the name was changed to Klamath Falls in 1892...
. Their total land area is 1.248 km² (308.43 acre
Acre
The acre is a unit of area in a number of different systems, including the imperial and U.S. customary systems. The most commonly used acres today are the international acre and, in the United States, the survey acre. The most common use of the acre is to measure tracts of land.The acre is related...
s). As is the case with many Native American tribes, today few of the Klamath tribal members live on the reservation; the 2000 census
United States Census, 2000
The Twenty-second United States Census, known as Census 2000 and conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States on April 1, 2000, to be 281,421,906, an increase of 13.2% over the 248,709,873 persons enumerated during the 1990 Census...
reported only nine persons resided on its territory, five of whom were white people
White American
White Americans are people of the United States who are considered or consider themselves White. The United States Census Bureau defines White people as those "having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa...
.
Water rights dispute
In 2001, an ongoing water right
Water right
Water right in water law refers to the right of a user to use water from a water source, e.g., a river, stream, pond or source of groundwater. In areas with plentiful water and few users, such systems are generally not complicated or contentious...
s dispute between the Klamath Tribes, Klamath Basin
Klamath Basin
The Klamath Basin is the region in the U.S. states of Oregon and California drained by the Klamath River. It contains most of Klamath County and parts of Lake and Jackson counties in Oregon, and parts of Del Norte, Humboldt, Modoc, Siskiyou, and Trinity counties in California. The drainage basin...
farmers
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
, and fishermen
Fisherman
A fisherman or fisher is someone who captures fish and other animals from a body of water, or gathers shellfish. Worldwide, there are about 38 million commercial and subsistence fishermen and fish farmers. The term can also be applied to recreational fishermen and may be used to describe both men...
along the Klamath River
Klamath River
The Klamath River is an American river that flows southwest through Oregon and northern California, cutting through the Cascade Range to empty into the Pacific Ocean. The river drains an extensive watershed of almost that stretches from the high desert country of the Great Basin to the temperate...
became national news. As of 2006, the water rights issue is still controversial. To improve fishing for salmon and the quality of the salmon runs, the Klamath Tribes are pressing for dams to be demolished on the upper rivers, as they have reduced the salmon runs.
By signing the Treaty of 1864, 16 Stat. 707, the Klamath tribe ceded 20 million acres (80,937.2 km²) of land but retained 2 million acres (8,093.7 km²) and the rights to fish, hunt, trap, and gather from the lands and waters as they have traditionally done for centuries.
As part of an effort at assimilation, in 1954 the US Congress had terminated the federal relationship with the Klamath Tribes, but stated in the Klamath Termination Act, "Nothing in this [Act] shall abrogate any water rights of the tribe and its members... Nothing in this [Act] shall abrogate any fishing rights or privileges of the tribe or the members thereof enjoyed under Federal treaty."
The states of California and Oregon have both tried to challenge Klamath water rights, but have been rebuffed. Local farmers tried unsuccessfully to claim water rights in the 2001 cases, Klamath Water Users Association v. Patterson and Kandra v. United States but these were decided in favor of the Department of Interior's right to give precedence to tribal fishing in its management of water flows and rights in the Klamath Basin. In 2002 U.S. District Judge Owen M. Panner
Owen M. Panner
Owen Murphy Panner is an American attorney and jurist from Oregon. A native of Illinois, he has served on the United States District Court for the District of Oregon since 1980, and was chief judge of the court from 1984 to 1990. He is currently a senior judge on the court.-Early life:Owen Panner...
ruled that the Klamath Tribes' right to water preceded that of non-tribal irrigators in the court case United States vs. Adair, originally filed in 1975.
Demographics
There are currently around 3,500 enrolled members in the Klamath Tribes, with the population centered in Klamath County, OregonKlamath County, Oregon
-National protected areas:* Bear Valley National Wildlife Refuge* Crater Lake National Park * Deschutes National Forest * Fremont National Forest * Klamath Marsh National Wildlife Refuge* Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge...
. Most tribal land was liquidated when Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
ended federal recognition in 1954 under its Indian termination policy
Indian termination policy
Indian termination was the policy of the United States from the mid-1940s to the mid-1960s. The belief was that Native Americans would be better off if assimilated as individuals into mainstream American society. To that end, Congress proposed to end the special relationship between tribes and the...
. Some lands were restored when recognition was restored. The tribal administration currently offers services throughout the county.
Economy
The Klamath Tribes opened the Kla-Mo-Ya CasinoKla-Mo-Ya Casino
The Kla-Mo-Ya Casino is derived from the name of the Klamath, Modoc, and Yahooskin tribes.The casino was built in 2005, and allowed the Klamath Tribes to distribute payments to its members in 2007.-External links:*...
in Chiloquin, Oregon
Chiloquin, Oregon
Chiloquin is a city in Klamath County, Oregon, United States. Chiloquin was the pioneer version of a Klamath family name Chaloquin, which was the name of a Klamath chief who was alive at the time of the treaty of 1864...
in 1997. It provides revenue which the tribe uses to support governance and investment for tribal benefit.