The start of a federal takeover

Pioneer Press

Fort Jones , CA

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

page W16, column 1

pioneerp@sisqtel.net

To the Editor:

Having read March 5, 2008 and reading Marcia Armstrong's Ridin' Point, and also the article by Gary Lake , vice chairman Shasta Nation, I feel I should put in my two cents worth.

Having been born 75 years ago right here in Siskiyou County , have hunted and fished all my life, I think I have the experience to talk. Marcia is right to a certain degree on the issue of dams and removal. But about five years too late. Had she and other supervisors had been doing their homework they could have voted to say no to the removal of any dams, due to what it will cause in lost revenues and what it would do to high prices of electricity after dams are removed. They should have stated no from the start and represent the public like they swore to do.

Now as to the dam removal on the Klamath. This started out Felice Pace's goal and then he and his wacky tobacky friends, Karuks, Yuroks, Hoopas and enviro greenies, Klamath Indians, all in the name of saving the salmon, want all dams removed on the Klamath. I know for a fact what Gary Lake , vice chairman of Shasta Nation said about the Karuks. They did not ever control any part of this area where the dams are to be removed. This was all Shasta Indian land. Nor did they, the Karuks, as of 1851, have any camps in Scott Valley , Fort Jones , Shasta Valley , Little Shasta Valley.  Where did these names of the valleys and Mt. Shasta come from? Not the Karuks, but the true holders of this area, the Shasta indians.

What the Karuks have now in Fort Jones area, Scott Valley , was taken by fraud from the Shastas. I have stated in other writings that the fish they say they are trying to save by removing all dams on the Klamath, just won't happen.

My grandmother's sister was married to a  Shasta Indian. They lived near Shovel Creek above Copco Lake before any dams were on the Klamath River . He, Wren Frain, said as a young boy, that the salmon up there above what is now Copco Lake, would be completely rotten when they got that far up and not edible. Just a lot of rotten fish. If they remove dams it would be the same as it was when Wren Frain was a child over 100 years ago.

This now brings me to my old time friend, the late Johnnie Solus. He told me how the Klamath Indians and Modoc would come to his parent's property. It was located near where Yreka Creek dumps into the Shasta River . These Indians would come once a year and camp there to get the winter's supply of salmon. This proves if fish were good above Iron Gate or Copco Lake they would have got their fish up around that area and would not have traveled another 30 miles.

Now comes the green algae hoax, a scare by the Karuks and other groups about Iron Gate green algae. While I and another were fishing Iron Gate there was a boat from the Karuk Tribe out in the lake getting algae samples. They had several five gallon buckets in the boat. Some were marked Karuk, Yurok, etc. I told my friend I was fishing with with that they were up to no good and we would have to wait and see what would come of this.

As I have said it is not the Shasta Indians. They are against dam removal. It is time to stop them.

I hope you will print this as it needs to be said. This still looks like the start of a federal take over of all water, rivers, streams, etc. It is coming sooner than you think.

I still wonder what happened to those Karuk women that waded in all that toxic green algae. Are they still with us? Or have they gone to the Happy Hunting Ground?

Ed Jones,
Montague

(Permission to post from the publisher.)