The Yurok Tribe will sponsor the 43rd annual Salmon Festival in Klamath on Saturday and Sunday to celebrate the return of the salmon.

The festival will begin with a parade on Saturday morning at 10:30.

“We will serve a traditional salmon dinner, have cultural and environmental presentations, demonstrate basketry and net hanging, listen to music and enjoy Indian stick games,” a Yurok Tribe news release stated. “There will also be a Sunday morning veterans’ breakfast at 8 a.m., with a softball tournament, boat-rowing contest and a cultural tour continuing throughout the weekend.”

Admission is free and vendors will be selling various crafts and food all weekend.

For more information, to enter the parade or to register for booth space, contact Stephanie McQuillen at (707) 482-1350, ext. 392.

The Yurok Tribe said it is the most populous tribe of Native American people in California with 4,661 members.

The Yurok Reservation is located from the mouth of the Klamath River one mile on each side of the river upstream for 44 miles to the Weitchpec village area.

The tribe said it is currently engaged in battles to protect salmon and other fish from the effects of several dams and water diversions, which it said harm the river and its fish.

The tribe is also lobbying in Congress to expand its current boundaries to include additional ancestral lands. These lands are currently managed by the federal government or privately owned by timber companies.