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BOZEMAN,
Mont. – Over the past many months,
new threats to the Klamath River
salmon populations have prompted
decisive action by the Karuk Tribe
in California. Leaf Hillman,
Vice-Chairman for the Tribe, told
Native American Times in an
interview this week that the recent
attacks upon their ancestral fishing
grounds are, “Nothing more than
Recreational Genocide.”
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Ron Reed, Karuk tribal
citizen, uses the
traditional method of
dip-netting for salmon
at the Ishi Pishi Falls
area on the Klamath
River. KARUK TRIBE Photo
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Dams,
drought, developmental expansion and
environmental contaminations have
plagued the local rivers and experts
have said that California may be
faced with the worst fisheries
collapse in history.
In 2008,
the Karuk Tribe, California Trout,
and Friends of the North Fork
formally petitioned California Fish
and Game to restrict suction dredge
mining. This controversial gold
mining technique has brought strong
criticism from local groups who
demand that state agencies limit the
recreational mining technique.
The
Karuk, aided by support from the
Tsi-Akim Maidu Tribe, the Sierra
Fund, various sport-fishing groups,
and several other conservation
organizations are fighting to
protect the endangered fish
populations. Despite strong
opposition by all of these groups,
the agency decided not to act on the
petition, allowing the recreational
mining to continue.
As a
result of the Karuk Tribe filing a
lawsuit in 2006, the Fish and Game
department is under a court order to
re-write mining permit rules
statewide. Due to extreme budget
constraints in California, however,
the agency has yet to act on the new
mining rule mandate.
Recently, a recreational gold mining
club, referring to themselves as,
“The New 49ers,” legally challenged
the Karuk Tribe’s right to fish at
their ancestral fishing area, Ishi
Pishi Falls. The hobbyist miners
contend that this violation of the
California state constitution,
allows the Tribe to kill far more
salmon than gold mining and other
activities combined and that the
commission has illegally granted
fishing privileges to a specific
group of people, specifically, the
Karuks.
Dr.
Craig Tucker, spokesman for the
Karuk, told Native American Times,
“Depending on how far the mining
groups want to challenge the
ancestral fishing rights, the tribe
may seek federal fishing rights as a
remedy. In the meantime, we are
asking the Department of Fish and
Game Director, Don Koch, to
immediately implement emergency
restrictions on where and when
suction dredging can take place.
This same authority is used to
restrict recreational and commercial
fishing when the fish runs are low.”
The
groups banding together to protect
the fish species in the Klamath
River are battling against a mining
process called “suction dredging.”
These dredges, powered by gas or
diesel engines, use powerful vacuum
hoses to pull the gravel and
sediment from the bottom of
riverbeds. This sediment material
passes through a sluice box and
allows the heavier gold particles to
settle into a series of riffles.
After the gold is removed, the
balance of the dredged material is
often dumped back into the river.
This
dredging technique is known to
redistribute toxic mercury into the
environment. As stated in earlier
press reports, Izzy Martin, Director
of the Sierra Fund, explained,
“There is a lot of mercury settled
on the bottom of these rivers as the
result of gold mining operations in
the 1800’s. Dredging reintroduces
mercury to the stream creating a
toxic hazard for fish and people.”
Mercury
contamination has become a global
concern as it applies to fish
species in that testing has revealed
increasingly high levels of mercury
in fish populations that may be
harmful when consumed. Exposure to
mercury can lead to mental
retardation, birth defects and
neurological damage.
Suction
dredging has come increasingly under
attack as declining numbers of fish
species such as steelhead, Coho
salmon, green sturgeon, and lamprey
are reported. Damage to the spawning
grounds for the fish and the
environmental impacts to critical
river habitats are drawing the
varied groups, including the Karuk
Tribe, to take strong action to stop
recreational mining.
“Dredging disturbs spawning gravels
and kills salmon eggs and immature
lamprey that reside in the gravel
for up to seven years before
maturing. In a system like the
Klamath where salmon can be stressed
due to poor water quality, having a
dredge running in the middle of the
stream affects the fishes ability to
reach their spawning grounds,”
explained Toz Soto, lead fisheries
biologist for the Karuk Tribe, in
previous press reports.
California Fish and Game manages
suction dredge permits and opponents
to this type of mining state that
the CFG sustains a significant
financial loss since the mining fees
fail to cover expenses. Figures
given by these groups explain that
this amounts to spending $1.25
million per year to subsidize the
destruction of California fisheries
by gold mining hobbyists.
Many of
the recreational miners come into
California from other states because
the mining laws are less restrictive
there.
The
Karuk Tribe, indigenous to the
Klamath River region, states that
the threat to them is greater than
ever. Vice-Chairman Hillman told
Native American Times, “The first
gold rush killed more than half our
people in 10 years. This modern gold
rush continues to kill our fish and
our culture.”
Hillman
added, “The salmon populations have
been effected in so many ways from
dams on the rivers to environmental
damage and mining. As it is now, we
cannot harvest enough fish for our
ceremonies or to meet our families’
food needs. The recreational gold
miners are just a repeat of what
began over 100 years ago.”
Though
the Karuk Tribe does harvest salmon
for food and ceremonial use only,
the Tribe rarely harvests more than
200 fish. Since the population of
the Tribe is approximately 4,200
members, the amount of fish taken
from Ishi Pishi Falls doesn’t begin
to meet the needs of their members.
With recent drought warnings across
California being issued, the Karuk
fear that the salmon numbers will be
far less given the stresses all
ready upon the fish.
In
response to the newest attacks from
the recreational gold miners, The
New 49-ers, Leaf Hillman stated,
“Our fishing grounds have been used
by the Karuk long before this land
was called ‘America.’ We still use
traditional dip nets to fish for the
migrating salmon and our way of
catching them allows us to release
the more endangered species back
into the river so that their
populations can increase.”
Vice
Chairman Hillman concluded by
telling Native American Times, “We
will not be removed from our
traditional fishing grounds in favor
of these miners. Harvesting and
consuming salmon is a fundamental
part of our Karuk culture. The
recreational miners now threaten
more than the survival of fish, they
threaten the culture of the Karuk.” |
