Like the old days

The festival on Sunday will also have a few new twists, such as a 5K run, car show and heavy equipment rodeo.

“It will be inclusive of all of the community,” said volunteer organizer Dale Ann Fry Sherman. “In the 1950s the Salmon Festival brought together people of all different walks of life.”

This year’s Salmon Festival will have family-oriented activities that “all genders and ages” can enjoy, Sherman said.

Locals can participate in the Ney-puey 5K run. Participants will run through five mock villages, reminiscent of how Yuroks used to run from village to village delivering messages.

“Our villages ranged from 5 miles to 15 miles away,” Sherman said. “Runners trained their whole lives.”

Also new is the car show, which will be featured in the parade and on display all day during the event.

“Because we don’t always move around in our canoes anymore, this is a form of transportation,” Sherman said. “It affects everyone, men and women.”

Dale Ann Fry Sherman

Those who were loggers or worked in the mills had to use heavy machinery. However, “we don’t do so much logging anymore,” Sherman said, but people still like big machines.

Sunday will kick off with the 5K run and a breakfast for veterans at 8 a.m. in the Yurok Tribal Office in Klamath and will be followed by the parade and car show.

During the day, festival-goers can feast on traditionally barbequed salmon while watching Yurok Tribe members weave baskets, make eel hooks and take part in the stick game competition, a full-contact sport combining elements of wrestling and lacrosse. There will also be a demonstration of  the tribe’s Brush Dance, which is a healing ceremony.

“We are sharing our culture,” Sherman said about the salmon celebration.

Two bands will perform throughout the day: Dr. Squid from Humboldt County, which plays eclectic rock music, and the Blackhorse Blues Band from Ukiah.

For kids, AOK the Clown will provide entertainment and Shantaram the Magician will do magic tricks. There’s also face-painting and a children’s activity area.

The Salmon Festival originated in 1953 as a three-day break from the doldrums of working, Sherman explained.

“The men worked so hard in the summertime,” she said. “The men could put aside work and enjoy summer for what it was.”

Sherman noted how different Klamath is today from what it was like then.

“Klamath at that time was a booming town with shops and gas stations and restaurants and a variety of stores — it was a town,” she said. “You go through there now and there isn’t anything.”

Throughout the year, people could “count on the Salmon Festival” for fun, Sherman said. There used to be a circus, rodeo and horse show at the festival, she continued, and she is working to make it more like that again.

“It was community-orientated,” she said. “I’d like that to happen again.”

People who moved away would come home for the Salmon Festival, Sherman added.

“You were assured to see old friends,” she said. “It was just fun.”