Agenda:
Phone:
541-783-2219
Invocation:
Vice Chairman, Joe Hobbs
Non-tribal
members participating (that I knew and in no particular order):
Bob
Gasser – Steve West – John Elliott – Al Switzer – Steve Kandra –
Luther Horsely – Deb Crisp – Gerta Hyde – Becky Hyde – Gary Wright –
Bob Flowers – Jake Flowers – Dan Keppen – Jacqui Krizo – Kehn Gibson –
Pat Ratliff – Bill Kennedy – Dyland Darling
Tribal
Chairman Allen Foreman’s
presentation was on tribal historical information using a PowerPoint program.
He stated the following:
The
Klamath Tribes originally controlled over 22 million acres
The
Treaty of 1864 gave them 2.1 million acres
The
original reservation was cut down to 1.2 million acres in 1907 due to a survey
error
Termination
of the tribe happened in 1957 when there was only 880,000 acres left and he
compared the termination to ethic cleansing
Natural
resources provided for the sustenance of the tribe – the land provided
everything they needed (No mention was
made of the trading that went on between the Klamath’s and other tribes of the
Pacific Northwest, Foreman made it sound like the Klamath area was the garden of
Eden.)
In 1960
there were 600 miles of road on the reservation – today there are 6,000 miles
of roads (According to my husband, who not
only built roads for Weyerhaeuser in the 60’s, but also worked for the Winema
National Forest out of the Chiloquin Ranger district from 1982 through 1991:
“There maybe 6000 miles of roads on the old reservation lands, but none
of them were built after the 1960’s.”)
According
to Ore State Fish and Game there were 44,000 mule deer wintering on the
reservation in 1960 but currently only
approximately 4,000.
100’s
of tons of suckers were harvested every year
10,000
acres of wocus available for harvest, but now less then 1,000
(One
PowerPoint slide showed a picture of sucker fisherman along the
8:30 am
–
Will
Hatcher, Tribal Forester
also used a PowerPoint presentation to show pictures of different types of tree
stand diversity in the
There are
690,000 acres in the
KC Commissioner Steve West and
Will Hatcher – Tribal Forester
Don
Gentry – Natural Resource Manager
Rick
Ward, Tribal Wildlife Biologist
also used a PowerPoint presentation to show what types of animals that live on
the old reservation lands and pictures of lost or changed habitat that has
caused the decline in those species. The
tribe blames loss of habitat and environment for the number one reason for the
decline in the mule deer population – last on the list of reasons was harvest
(hunting) controlled by the Ore State Fish and Game (No
mention during this presentation of the numbers of deer taken by tribal members
over the years – later in the day I was talking to Helen Crume-Smith, a member
of the Tribal Council; who told me that back in the 40’s up till the late
70’s, many tribal families would kill 2 or 3 deer a month – year round –
to feed their families. Today she
thinks that only about 200 deer a year are killed by tribal members because of
the decline in the herds.)
Larry
Dunsmoor, Chief Biologist
who has worked for the Klamath Tribes since 1986, used a PowerPoint presentation
to explain the tribe’s plans for restoring aquatic ecosystems in the rivers of
the old reservation. He spoke about
the old Williamson River and the restoration that’s taken place on its stream
bed over the last 5 years. Explained
how loss of riparian zones along the Williamson, Sycan, and Sprague rivers have
change the ecosystem of the streams and made them wider rivers.
(Larry
spoke way over my head most of the time . . . either that or he baffled us with
BS; don’t know which. For example,
one of his PowerPoint slides said: “Robust
ecosystems are highly structured mixtures of physical and biological features
interacting in complex ways.” No
explanation of what that meant. Maybe
I was just dense during his presentation?)
He talked
about the evaporation study done of Ruby
Wetlands
need more study for water storage.
Showed
several slides of examples where cold water springs on the
15
minute break
Tour stop at Ponderosa Pine stand Scrub rock and Juniper
An hour
and a half late, the tour members were hosted to a lunch of venison, salmon,
green beans, mashed potatoes and gravy, venison stew, salad, Indian Fry bread,
and huckleberry cake. It was
wonderful!!!
We
stopped here (west of Beatty) so we could see what the loss of willows along the
Sprague
Chairman
Foreman also spoke about how this valley lies at an elevation of 5000 feet and
has been sold off to “gentlemen” farmers who think they can farm here and
make a living. They are lucky to get
2 cuttings of alfalfa per year, and they go broke in less then 5 years; but have
no problem selling out because there are lots of people from California that are
waiting in line to buy.
All along
the Sprague, irrigation pumps are pulling water for farming.
After the water adjudication process, these land owners should have very
junior water rights. But the water
they’re pumping is decreasing the amount that ends up in
The
Tribes Sucker hatchery is located north and up the hill from the old Bray Mill
site on the Chiloquin to
The
hatchery grows both
Hatchery
personnel feed the suckers brine shrimp.
Tribal Fish Hatchery – Above old Bray Mill
Plastic
tanks with approx. 20 fish each 
4
year old Shortnose Suckers
Larry Dunsmoor, Tribal Biologist
While
touring the tanks, Dan Keppen told Dunsmoor that the water in the tanks should
be shallower because everybody knows that they don’t like deep water.
I then asked Dunsmoor, “’Where’s the lake bottom mud, algae, and
aquatic vegetation that suckers need to survive?”
I didn’t get an answer, just a slight smile from Dunsmoor.
Barbara Hall
October, 2003
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