Miners, Karuk slug it out 

Pioneer Press

Fort Jones, CA

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

page 1, column 2

pioneerp@sisqtel.net

In a game of tit for tat, a North State-based mining group called the New '49ers - upset by recent Karuk Indian efforts to stem suction dredging on some rivers in the North State and elsewhere in California - last week asked the Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors to support their efforts to outlaw Karuk dip-net fishing on the Klamath River.

Specifically, the Karuk fish at Ishi Pishi Falls on the Klamath -- a site sacred to the Karuk -- taking approximately 200 fish a year.

But the '49er's James Foley - a resident on the Klamath River -- argues that taking even that small number violates Federal Endangered Species law. They argue that if the Karuk are concerned about fish populations, then they shouldn't be fishing at all. Now, they're asking the county to support their efforts to "repeal" a state Fish and Game law that allows the Karuk a special privilege to dip-net fish at Ishi Pishi Falls.

"We respectfully ask this board to summon CDFG to appear before this board to answer questions regarding why they continue to illegally authorize an activity such as this, when they are charged with 'protecting' our fish and game resources," Foley told the board last Tuesday.

The board unanimously supported the request to summon Fish and Game representatives, according to Foley.

Foley's request to the board came only a few months after a 2008 petition signed by the Karuk Tribe, California Trout and Friends of the North Fork asking California Fish and Game to restrict suction-dredge mining because it hurts fish.

"Dredging disturbs spawning gravels and kills salmon eggs and immature lamprey that reside in the gravel for up to seven years before maturing," Toz Soto, lead fisheries biologist for the Karuk Tribe, has told various press in the past. "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."

Nonsense, says Foley and the New '49ers. They argue that mining rights are at stake and that their activities don't hurt fish but, instead, help them.

But Foley's appearance before the board and efforts to repeal Karuk fishing privileges is seen by some as a knee-jerk reaction to Karuk efforts to stem suction mining. Some argue that to compare the impacts of suction mining to dip-net fishing is like comparing apples to hamburgers. Even more, they argue it's an attempt at cultural genocide.

"The first gold rush killed more than half our people in 10 years," Karuk vice-chairman Leaf Hillman recently told Native American Times. "This modern gold rush continues to kill our fish and our culture."

Foley and the New '49ers say they could argue similarly - that the Karuk are trying to take away their livelihoods and Constitutional right to mine.

"Indeed, the Tribe has commenced one federal and two state lawsuits and has repeatedly
sought legislative and administrative actions attempting to destroy federally protected citizen rights," Foley told the board.

If it's illegal for non-Karuk to fish for federally protected coho, then it should be illegal for the Karuk, too, Foley argued. In other words, there should be no double standard at best and, at the very least, there should be greater oversight as to exactly how many and what species of fish are being taken at Ishi Pishi Falls, Foley argued. 

"The Commission and Department continue to authorize, and the Tribe continues to conduct, an unregulated dip-net fishery with substantial direct, immediate, and adverse impacts on fishery resources-."