KLAMATH TRIBES WATER UPDATE (SUMMER 2001) 

As you may have seen or heard in the community, this years record setting drought is causing major problems for nearly everyone in the Basin. Recent news reports emphasize the difficulties faced by farm families who may receive no water this year.

Some Tribal members have been approached by people who apparently think the Tribes are responsible for the problem. Press stories earlier this year have left those people with the impression that the Tribes are withholding water from others. This, of course, is mistaken because water management in the Basin is currently the responsibility of the federal and state governments. While the Tribes do have substantial water rights, the Tribes are not in a position to withhold water from anyone, even if they wanted to.

The following news release was prepared by Klamath Tribal Chairman, Allen Foreman, as a result of the United States Department of Interior announcing its water management plan for 2001. That Interior management plan has triggered much anger in the farming community. As you have seen, the Klamath Tribes have not been fairly represented in the local newspaper, which continues to confuse our own tribal membership and the general public. Therefore, the following information has been prepared by the Klamath Tribes, in hopes to shed some light on this major crisis situation.

Tribal Chairman, Allen Foreman...

''I appreciate the opportunity to present our views on the water problems in the Klamath Basin. In order to understand this problem appropriately it is important to understand its historical roots:

*In the Treaty of 1864 the Tribes were guaranteed the water needed to support our fisheries and other resources. We gave up twenty million acres of land for this guarantee.

*Later when the government invited farmers to move into the Basin and suggested that water would be available, the government did not tell the farmers about Tribal water rights.

*For nearly a century Oregon has been issuing water permits without regard for Tribal water rights, and until recently without regard for the natural health of the rivers, lakes and marshes.

*Then the government allowed their agencies, the Forest Service, National Park, and the US Fish and Wildlife to claim the same water, again without regard to the Tribes water rights or needs.

The Tribes had to go to court several times to reaffirm our rights; the courts have upheld those rights.

It would be both incorrect and unfair to blame the Tribes for the current water shortage. The real problem is that the demand for water in the Klamath Basin has been allowed to exceed the supply. I hope that everyone can understand why the Tribes continue to defend our water rights; in the same way everyone else in the Basin seeks to reinforce their own rights and claims.

With the water shortage this year it is hard for anyone to think about the future when the present looks hopeless. We know that livelihoods are at risk in the farming community.

We would like to remind you that over use of the water has already severely damaged the livelihoods of our own families.

*We no longer have the salmon runs that nourished us. They were extinguished in one heart-breaking act when the dams were put in the Klamath River.

*Our sucker fisheries have been closed for over a decade. Now people are suggesting that the fish may be dying because of too much water. This is nonsense and is based on false assumptions about the depth and chemistry of the water in Upper Klamath Lake. It is also based on a failure to understand the physical habitat needs of the fish. The amount of water available to fish today in Upper Klamath Lake is much less than what Nature provided when the fish thrived.

Harvesting fish is our heritage and our legal right, as important to our livelihood as harvesting any other crop grown in the Basin.

Recently the Water Users Association put forth a plan to save the sucker fish, I want to emphasize that while there are serious errors of fact in their fish recovery, we are pleased to see the Water Users joining the Tribes in recognizing that the fish are in trouble and that a comprehensive plan must be developed to restore Klamath Lake and its tributaries. Most important it is the good faith and good sense shown by the Water users in recognizing, as the Tribes do, that the fish are in trouble because the health and productivity of our waters have been decimated.

Any plan to support just enough fish to keep them from extinction can neither satisfy the commitments of the Treaty nor the Endangered Species Act. It certainly will not allow us a livelihood. The federal governments responsibilities to our people will not be met until fish populations are restored to harvestable levels.

We also believe the federal government has a responsibility to the farm families who, like the Klamath Tribes, now depend on a water system that is simply not capable of meeting current demands. We as a people, who for years have felt the pain of being unable to meet the needs of our families and communities, do not want to see our friends and neighbors in the agriculture community suffer.

Sharing the benefits of natures bounty is one thing but now we must also share the adversity caused by decades of ineffective resource management.

Today we all need to focus on the present problem. The Tribes have been a leader in the search for an effective solution to the water problems. The goal must be restoring and sustaining a healthy and functioning system to support multiple uses. This is the stewardship for which we believe the Creator expects of all of us.

We have put forth a framework for a comprehensive settlement proposal that will really work.

*We need to repair damaged riparian corridors, so water quality and habitat can improve for fisheries.

*We need to restore the Tribes ownership of our homelands, which contains a significant portion of the watershed so that our people can restore the health of the forests, streams, and springs that nurture our water supply, and so that we will be able to restore our much needed subsistence base.

*We need to reduce demand on the system through a program that fairly rewards the agricultural community for retiring land, so the remaining lands can be sustainably farmed.

The Basin will not regain its health by treating symptoms while avoiding the causes of our water shortage. We will not recover healthy fisheries by trying to put the fish in Klamath Lake on life support systems or treating them as if they were living in an aquarium.

We need to restore nature's productive capacity in the Klamath Basin. Otherwise we will be facing problems like this one for years to come.

The Klamath Tribes will be as flexible as possible regarding the delivery of irrigation water from Klamath Lake, so long as it is consistent with the recovery of our fisheries in the Lake.

We have outlined a comprehensive restoration proposal based on extensive discussions with the Water Users Association, other farmers and ranchers, the State of Oregon, and our own people.

Not surprisingly the current crises is a predictable result of the federal government making more promises than it can keep.

Those of us who must face the consequences of those empty promises cannot build a future by turning on each other. The fisheries, the farming communities, the Klamath Tribes culture and economy are all at risk.

We need high-level Federal policy makers to provide leadership so that all of us who live in the Klamath Basin can work together on a lasting solution, not an inadequate quick fix.''