Activists get ready

By Phil Hayworth

Pioneer Press

Fort Jones , CA

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

page #E7, column  2

pioneerp@sisqtel.net

Last week, local activists in Orleans , Calif. hung a banner across a bridge, ostensibly not in an effort to persuade local passersby to support removing the dams along the Klamath River , but to get ready for a bigger protest action.

The banner, which reads: Warren Buffett's dams kill salmon, jobs, communities, was unfurled on the Orleans bridge - a place where not many people would actually see the sentiment. Instead, according to Craig Tucker, representative for the Karuk Tribe, the group responsible for the banner said they were "just practicing."

Practicing for what, you may ask? Likely for the next time Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway shareholders - or perhaps Buffett himself - are in their sights.

In early May, Klamath River Basin tribal leaders, Native American activists, commercial fishermen, recreational anglers and conservationists disrupted Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholders meeting in Omaha , Nebraska . Some 20 members of the Yurok, Karuk and Hoopa Valley Tribes unfurled a huge banner demanding, " Warren , Un-Dam the Klamath! Sign the Agreement Now!" They also leafleted the shareholders as they walked into and out of the event. The agreement to which they referred, of course, is the same one now supported by a majority of Klamath water stakeholders, including many Klamath Basin farmers and ranchers. Their protests outside the meeting hall were positively received by some shareholders, though Buffett himself refused to talk with the group.

The latest banner in Orleans is likely another sign that the Tribes are planning more protests - and soon.

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