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Ceremony honors tradition, promise
H&N
photos by Todd E. Swenson The
Steiger Butte Singers lead off the c’waam ceremony with an honor
song Saturday.
Gerald Skelton, culture and heritage director for the Klamath Tribes, said he
remembers the last time he fished for c’waam, the sucker fish. He was a young boy and with two casts of a net, a fisherman could have his whole day’s catch.
The possibility of being able to harvest the fish in the future brought Skelton and between 200 to 300 other Klamath tribal members and guests of all ages to a spot below the Chiloquin Dam on the Sprague River Saturday for a ceremony to honor the c’waam.
Tribal leaders indicated the importance of the ceremony, to honor the tradition it holds as well as to work toward a promising future for the Tribes.
H&N
photo by Todd E. Swenson Gerald Skelton,
43, sings his fish spirit songs and is reflected in the pool holding
the c’waam before beginning the ceremony on Saturday near Sprague
River in Chiloquin.
“Because of the c’waam, our people exist today,” said tribal member Jeff Mitchell.
C’waam were the first fish to swim up the rivers in the spring, and were one of the staple foods in the tribal diet, along with salmon and trout.
In telling the story behind the ritual, Mitchell said the c’waam were made when the Creator, Gmookumps, killed a giant snake-like creature that was wreaking havoc upon the land during a famine.
Gmookumps killed the creature and cut it up into small pieces that he threw into Upper Klamath Lake. Each piece that hit the water became a c’waam, a gift to the Tribes during the famine.
Disappear
In exchange for the c’waam, the Creator requested a ceremony, during which a fish is sacrificed, be performed. If the ceremony isn’t performed, the fish will disappear, as will the tribal peoples, Mitchell said.
H&N
photo by Todd E. Swenson Allen Cole, 36,
releases a c’waam, sucker fish, into the Sprague River near
Chiloquin, Saturday during the annual ceremony honoring the fish.
Only in the past few years have the tribes begun to perform the ceremony annually again since its regular observance ceased in the 1930s. Various hardships such as the Termination of the Tribes and a prohibition by the federal government to practice their beliefs made it difficult to keep traditions such as the c’waam ceremony alive.
Skelton said he remembers his father and another tribal member, the father of Perry Chocktoot, culture resource protection specialist, being arrested for performing the ceremony.
“We’re just happy that it survived,” Skelton said.
Survival, traditions
Survival of the Tribes and its traditions were a focus of a speech by Allen Foreman, tribal council chairman, at the ceremony.
The c’waam has been on the federal endangered species list for 20 years. Now, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service will soon meet with tribal leaders to discuss the possibility of downgrading that status to threatened, lending hope to the opportunity to harvest the fish again in the future, Foreman said.
The abundance of tribal youth was also noted, with Foreman saying that it is through the young that the Tribes’ culture and heritage will carry on.
Tribal elder Phyllis Walker said she was encouraged by the attendance of youth in a time when it appears the knowledge of the Tribes is fading away.
“I like to see the younger generation take part in it,” she said. “We’re losing everything, like our language.”
Much still needs to be accomplished, though, Foreman said. The Tribes must continue to be patient and work together to keep their culture and the c’waam alive.
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