First Salmon:

The Klamath Cultural Riverscape and The Hydroelectric Project

By Thomas F. King for the Klamath River Intertribal Fish and Water Commission March 25, 2004

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1 First Salmon

Table of Contents (All headings hyperlinked to text)

Abstract………………………………………………………………………… i

Introduction…………………………………………………………………….. 1

The Klamath “Riverscape”……………………………………………………... 6

The Riverscape’s Character…………………………………………………….. 10

Does the Riverscape Meet the National Register’s Criteria for Eligibility?...... 18

The Effects of PacifiCorp’s Klamath Hydroelectric Project……………………. 40

Recommendations………………………………………………………………. 54

Summary Conclusions………………………………………………………….. 59

Bibliography…………………………………………………….. 60

Endnotes………………………………………………………… 63

Appendix: Author’s Qualifications……………………………… 67

2 3 First Salmon along the river. These effects damage tribal use of and relationships to the riverscape,

and diminish its cultural integrity. Abstract The discussion of effects includes reference This report is based on studies done by or on to cultural resource legal authorities other behalf of the , , and Shasta than NHPA, offering recommendations to Tribes, together with documents provided by FERC, PacifiCorp, and other parties about the Tribe, dealing with the cultural how to address the requirements of such significance of the Klamath Riverscape – authorities as the National Environmental that is, the Klamath River and its Policy Act, the American Indian Religious surroundings. It addresses several questions Freedom Act, Executive Orders 12898 and that are fundamental to fulfilling the Federal 13007, and the Environmental Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC’s) Quality Act. responsibilities under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), and under other cultural resource authorities, in considering relicensing of the PacifiCorp Klamath River Hydroelectric Project.

The report first asks whether there is a definable “Klamath Riverscape” that may be eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places. It concludes that there certainly is such a riverscape. It next outlines the characteristics that contribute to the riverscape’s cultural character, identifying such elements as the The Klamath Riverscape: 1 river itself, its anadromous and resident fish, typical view its other wildlife and plants, and its cultural uses and perceptions of its value by the The report recommends that FERC give Yurok, Karuk, Shasta and Hupa Tribes. serious consideration to not relicensing the Klamath Hydroelectric Project, or to The report then turns to whether the relicensing it with conditions requiring riverscape is in fact eligible for the National the removal of the facilities that appear Register – that is, does it meet the National to contribute most to ongoing impacts. Register Criteria at 36 CFR 60.4. It More comprehensive approaches to concludes that it does meet these criteria, as restoring the riverscape’s cultural a traditional cultural landscape. integrity are recommended to the Bureau

of Reclamation and other agencies. Next, the report considers the effects of the Klamath Hydroelectric Project on the riverscape, concluding that there is a Go to Table of Contents complex pattern of cumulative adverse Go to full text effects, caused by multiple factors, to which the hydroelectric project contributes. Effects include obstructions to fish passage, alterations in water quality, quantity, temperature, and flow regime that affect fish, plant life, habitat, and human use of the river, and erosion of significant cultural sites 1 Photo by the author First Salmon: lives of the tribes. But questions have arisen about whether the River meets the The Klamath Cultural specific criteria of eligibility for the Riverscape National Register of Historic Places, and And is therefore entitled to the special consideration required by Section 106 of PacifiCorp’s Klamath NHPA. The core purpose of this report Hydroelectric is to help resolve these questions. Project NHPA does not exist in a vacuum,

however, so we will also consider how a Introduction range of other legal requirements may pertain to the river and the effects of the Project on it. As a further aid to FERC Purpose and Scope in its compliance with Section 106 and other legal requirements, this report will This report has been prepared at the address the apparent impacts of the request of the Klamath River Intertribal PacifiCorp Klamath River Projects on Fish and Water Commission the cultural significance of the Klamath (KRITFWC) in connection with River. PacifiCorp’s application to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Finally, we will offer recommendations for relicense of its hydroelectric dams to FERC, PacifiCorp, and others with and reservoirs on the Klamath River, jurisdiction in the area – such as the collectively known as the Klamath Bureau of Reclamation (BOR), Forest Hydroelectric Project (Project). The Service, and Bureau of Land geographic locations of the Project and Management – concerning actions that the Klamath River are shown in Figure they might take with respect to the 1 One . Klamath River and its cultural significance. In considering whether to relicense the Project, FERC must consider the impacts of doing so on the environment, including its cultural aspects. A key law dealing with aspects of the cultural environment is the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), which at Section 106 requires agencies to take into account the effects of their actions on “historic properties” – defined as places that are included in or eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. 2 Iron Gate Dam The KRITFWC and its member tribes have no question that the Klamath River This report is based largely upon data is a deeply significant cultural resource compiled for the KRITFWC by or on whose health is critical to the cultural behalf of the Yurok, Karuk, Shasta, and

2

Figure One: The Klamath River from the PacifiCorp dams downstream

3 Hupa Tribes regarding the cultural above works, each of which stands very qualities of the Klamath River, as competently on its own. Rather, the data detailed in the following reports: and analyses they present will be used to address the specific questions posed by • Ethnographic Riverscape: Klamath the KRITFWC for consideration in this River. Yurok Tribe Ethnographic report, quoting extensively from them Inventory. Kate Sloan, M.A.I.S., where appropriate. Yurok Tribal Archeologist, Yurok Tribe Culture Department; draft This report pertains only to cultural November 2003 (hereinafter “the values ascribed to the Klamath River and Yurok ethnographic report”). its environs by the Yurok, Karuk, Hupa,

and Shasta Tribes – and indirectly by the • White Paper on Behalf of the of California: A Context , whose concerns are the Statement Concerning the Effect of subject of a separate report (Deur 2004). Iron Gate Dam on Traditional It may be that the river or specific Resource Uses and Cultural stretches of it are culturally significant to Patterns of the Karuk People Within others – for example, loggers, non- the Klamath River Corridor. John Indian residents, whitewater rafters, and F. Salter, Ph.D, Consulting hydroelectric project workers – but Anthropologist, November 2003 examining this kind of cultural value is (hereinafter “the Karuk beyond the scope of this report. ethnographic report”). Legal Authorities • Preliminary Shasta TCP Study (draft). Brian Isaac Daniels, The central purpose of this report is to November 2003 (herenafter “the Shasta ethnographic report”). evaluate the eligibility of the Klamath River and its environs for inclusion in • The Trinity River Mainstem Fishery the National Register of Historic Places. Restoration Environmental Impact It should be clearly understood that this Statement/Report, U.S. Fish and report is not intended to serve as the Wildlife Service, U.S. Bureau of basis for nominating the river or Reclamation, Hoopa Valley Tribe, anything else to the Register. Rather, its and Trinity , October 2000, purpose is to help FERC, the tribes and especially Section 3.6, “Tribal Tribal Historic Preservation Officers Trust” (hereinafter, “the Trinity (THPOs), the KRITFWC, the California EIS”). and State Historic Preservation Officers (SHPOs), PacifiCorp, and • Ethnographic Riverscape: others consulting about the relicensing Regulatory Analysis. Prepared by Yurok Heritage Preservation Office application to decide whether they for PacifiCorp, November 2003, should regard the river and its environs Contract #P13342 (hereinafter as eligible for the Register. If they “Regulatory Analysis”). decide to regard it as eligible, then further consultation about effects on it, No attempt is made here to summarize and means of mitigating adverse effects, or recast the material set forth in the will be required under Section 106 of the

2 National Historic Preservation Act this case relicensing or not relicensing (NHPA) and its implementing all or portions of the Project). It also regulations (36 CFR 800); if they elect may trigger the requirements of CEQA not to treat it as eligible, then further with respect to projects whose effects actions under Section 106 are not must be considered under that state law. required. There is often a degree of confusion Other purposes of this report include about the data needed to determine a considering how impacts on the cultural property eligible for the National values of the river and its environs Register vis-a-vis the data needed to should be addressed under legal nominate it for formal inclusion in the authorities other than Section 106 – Register. A nomination requires detailed including the National Environmental documentation of the property’s Policy Act (NEPA), the American Indian characteristics, significance, and Religious Freedom Act (AIRFA), and boundaries, because the property is Executive Orders 12898, 13007, and being entered on maps as a formally 13175, as well as with reference to the designated historic place for purposes of Federal Government’s trust commemoration, education, inspiration, responsibility toward Indian tribes. and long-term management. FERC is obligated to consider effects Determining the eligibility of a property under these authorities regardless of for purposes of Section 106 review whether the river is regarded as eligible requires only the data needed to judge for the National Register. Although the property’s historic or cultural FERC is not bound by its terms, the significance and to consider how the requirements of the California contemplated federal action might affect Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) will that significance. Precisely what this also be considered, because they are means in any specific case depends on applicable to PacifiCorp and others the nature of the action that is whose activities may affect the river. contemplated, the types of effects that may occur, and the types of properties The Meaning of National Register that may be involved. Eligibility The discussion that follows attempts to It should be clearly understood that organize the information needed to judge regarding an area as eligible for the eligibility and potential effects, without National Register does not require that becoming bogged down in information the area be managed in any particular of marginal relevance to the potential way, does not confer any special effects of relicensing. protections on it, and does not in any way alter land ownership. It simply As noted, a separate report is being means that the historic or cultural value prepared dealing with possible historic of the area must be considered in properties of concern to the Klamath accordance with specific regulatory Tribes, which are concentrated in and requirements3 by Federal agencies (in upstream from the Project. Accordingly, this case by FERC) in reaching decisions this report focuses on the river and its about taking or not taking an action (in environs within the aboriginal territories

2 of the Shasta, Karuk, and Yurok Tribes. Merriam-Webster’s 2001 dictionary Consideration is also given to the provides no definition of the word concerns of the Hupa Tribe, whose “riverscape,” but a cursory search of the territory along the Trinity River, a internet shows that it is widely used, in tributary of the Klamath, is not within many ways. There is a Riverscape the watershed immediately affected by Metro Park in Dayton, Ohio and the PacifiCorp Project but which is Riverscape Apartments in Odenton, concerned about the health of the Maryland. A book published in 2000 in in general and about England is entitled London’s Riverscape impacts on fisheries and its neighbor Lost and Found, and deals with the built tribes along the Klamath. environment of the Thames6. The Potomac Conservancy in Washington DC publishes a newsletter called Riverscape, dealing with conservation of the Potomac River. The term has been adopted by KRITFWC and others considering the potential effects of Project relicensing on the Klamath River’s cultural values as perceived by members of the Klamath, Shasta, Hupa, Karuk, and Yurok tribes, apparently to embrace the river itself and its

4 floodplain, terraces, valley, and Morning at the Mouth of the Klamath surrounding hill slopes.

The Klamath “Riverscape” “Riverscape” and “Landscape”

In discussions among representatives of Discussion of the term in the Regulatory the tribes, FERC, and PacifiCorp, the Analysis” indicates that “riverscape” Klamath River and its environs have was used as a way of adapting the better- come to be referred to as a “riverscape.” known term “landscape” to the Klamath The riverscape concept is discussed in River situation. “Landscape” is defined considerable detail in the “Regulatory by Merriam-Webster as “the landforms Analysis” prepared for the KRITFWC of a region in the aggregate” – a and PacifiCorp by the Yurok Culture 5 definition that virtually encompasses all Department . Riverscapes have not the world’s land masses. There is heretofore been explicitly considered obviously a “Klamath Riverscape” in the with respect to their National Register sense of the river’s land – and water -- eligibility, so a first task of this report is forms in the aggregate. to address just what the Klamath Riverscape is, and whether it is possible “Cultural Landscape”and “Cultural for such a riverscape to be eligible for Riverscape” the Register. In the literature of the National Park What is a “Riverscape?” Service (NPS) cited in the Regulatory Analysis, the word “landscape” is used

3 as part of the description of a particular of the river valley that have high kind of physical cultural resource – the aesthetic values. “cultural landscape.” A cultural landscape, according to the Secretary of The question that needs to be addressed, the Interior’s Guidelines for the then, is not whether the Klamath River Treatment of Cultural Landscapes, is: and its environs constitute a riverscape, but whether that riverscape may be a geographic area (including both eligible for the National Register of cultural and natural resources and Historic Places. the wildlife or domestic animals therein) associated with a historic Problems in Applying the event, activity, or person or “Landscape/Riverscape” Terminology exhibiting other cultural or aesthetic values7. The Secretary of the Interior’s Guidelines for the Treatment of Cultural A “cultural riverscape,” then, would be a Landscapes say that: river and its environs, including their natural and cultural resources, wildlife, There are four general types of and domestic animals, associated with a cultural landscapes, not mutually historic event, activity, or person or exclusive: historic sites, historic exhibiting other cultural or aesthetic designed landscapes, historic values. Clearly there is such a vernacular landscapes, and riverscape along the Klamath River. ethnographic landscapes9. There is a river and its environs, there are natural resources (plants, animals, The “Regulatory Analysis” suggests that minerals, etc.) and cultural resources8 all or a portion of the Klamath River and (human cultural activities, beliefs its environs may be eligible for the ascribed to places along the river, National Register as an “ethnographic ancient village sites, fishing sites, landscape.” There are certain problems structures, etc.), there is wildlife (birds, with this assumption. fish, bears, deer) and there are domestic animals (cows, horses, pigs, chickens). First, the word “ethnographic” refers to a The river and its environs are associated form of research – “the study and with a range of historic events and systematic recording of human activities (notably for the purposes of cultures10.” Referring to something as this report, events in the lives of Indian “ethnographic” implies that the tribal societies along the river, and significance of the thing (“ethnographic events surrounding their treatment by object,” “ethnographic site,” Euroamerican society), and no doubt “ethnographic riverscape”) lies in its with notable persons. The river and its usefulness to such research11. This kind environs exhibit other cultural values – of significance may or may not have for example, the values ascribed to it by anything to do with the way the thing is tribal practitioners of the first fish valued by the people in whose culture it ceremonial cycle, the brush dance, and plays a role. other rituals – and there are parts at least

4 Calling a place or thing “ethnographic” seems to have been included as suggests that it is the job of the something of an afterthought. ethnographer, not of the people themselves, to decide whether it is The Klamath Riverscape is not a significant. This can be deeply “designed riverscape;” it was not misleading. The core cultural value of a designed and constructed by human riverscape (or anything else) lies in its beings. While it contains both designed relationship to the cultural life of a and vernacular architecture and community or group, the way it is engineering (roads, sawmills, houses, perceived by the group’s members. The towns, garden plots), these do not reflect significance ascribed to it by outside the central cultural values ascribed to the researchers may also be important, but area by the tribes. Reflections of tribal for different reasons. Referring to the use of the area – village sites, fishing thing as “ethnographic” implies that we sites, petroglyphs – are virtually place the ethnographer’s views above invisible to the untrained eye, and by those of the community. their very nature do not dominate the visual character of the riverscape. The This is not to say that ethnography and Klamath River and its environs comprise ethnographers are irrelevant; they are a natural riverscape, in which many of often necessary translators of a group’s the obvious works of human beings – cultural values and beliefs into the towns, sawmills, and the like – are visual language of an outside world12. But that intrusions. is all they are; the ethnographic study of a thing’s significance articulates a While one could certainly say that a community’s beliefs and values; it does riverscape like that along the Klamath not create them13. constitutes an “ethnographic riverscape,” trying to evaluate it as such would lead Second, the various NPS guidelines for to a very contorted analysis, attempting evaluating and treating “cultural to make the actual cultural significance landscapes” of all kinds were developed of the natural landscape somehow relate by landscape architects, and reflect a to the language of guidelines developed primary interest in designed landscapes with designed landscapes in mind, or – parks, parkways, and the like. reinterpreting the guidelines to make Although the definition of “ethnographic them relate more reasonably to the landscape” given in the guidelines landscape. embraces wholly natural features of the environment14, virtually all of the This problem is compounded by the fact examples the guidelines present are of that there are no NPS guidelines for designed landscapes, and most of the evaluating ethnographic landscapes as treatment measures prescribed are most such. The closest such guidance (other relevant to such landscapes. than National Register Bulletin 38, “Vernacular landscapes” are given some discussed below) is National Register consideration, but these too are Bulletin 30, Guidelines for Evaluating landscapes that reflect human activity – and Documenting Rural Historic agricultural valleys, mining areas. Landscapes15. A Rural Historic Reference to “ethnographic landscapes” Landscapes is defined as “a geographical

5 area that historically has been used by be evaluated than does any of the people, or shaped or modified by human guidance dealing with “cultural activity, occupancy, or intervention, and landscapes” as NPS defines them. that possesses a significant concentration, linkage, or continuity of It requires fewer conceptual and areas of land use, vegetation, buildings semantic contortions to evaluate the and structures, roads and waterways, and Klamath Riverscape as a traditional natural features.” The guidelines for cultural riverscape, following National evaluation focus primarily on Register Bulletin 38, than it does to documenting physical evidence of address it as an “ethnographic human influences on the natural landscape” following the NPS cultural environment. In essence, a rural historic landscape guidelines. Accordingly, this landscape is about the same as the report follows Bulletin 38 in evaluating “historic vernacular landscape” defined the Klamath Riverscape’s eligibility for in the Secretary of the Interior’s the National Register, though elements Guidelines16. of the cultural landscape guidance will be referred to where they are useful. A Traditional Cultural Riverscape May the Klamath Riverscape be The need to have a way of evaluating Eligible for the National Register? essentially natural places valued by indigenous and other traditional Under Bulletin 38 and all other National communities was one thing that drove Register guidance, to be eligible for the the National Register of Historic Places National Register a place must have in 1990 to issue National Register “integrity” and meet at least one of the Bulletin 38, Identification and National Register Criteria18 -- Documentation of Traditional Cultural association with significant events or Properties. A traditional cultural patterns of events, association with property is any place – a site, a structure, significant people, representation of a a district made up of multiple sites or type, style, school of thought, or a structures, a landscape, and hence a distinguishable entity, and/or possible riverscape – to which a living possession of information important in community ascribes cultural significance history or prehistory. Traditional that is rooted in the group’s traditions cultural properties are most often found and history17. Such places can be wholly eligible under Criterion “A,” for natural, wholly designed and association with significant patterns of constructed, or any combination of the events in the traditional history and two. The important thing is how the culture of the group that ascribes value place is viewed and valued by the to them. community or communities with which it is associated. The definition of Clearly the Klamath Riverscape is “ethnographic landscape” in the associated with significant patterns of Secretary of the Interior’s Guidelines events in the traditional histories of the describes one type of traditional cultural Yurok, Karuk, Hupa, Shasta, and property, but Bulletin 38 gives far more Klamath tribes. These tribes to lesser or guidance in how such a landscape may greater degrees (mostly greater)

6 depended and continue to depend on the Accordingly, the geography of the river and its resources, especially Klamath Riverscape logically comprises salmon, steelhead, and other fish, for the Klamath River valley, including the their existence. Their cultural lives were river itself, its surrounding lowlands, and and are substantially built around the the slopes that bound it. river and its fish, plants, wildlife and water. Hence it is safe to say that the Contributing Elements Klamath Riverscape, or perhaps several riverscapes associated with the various It is beyond the scope of this report to tribes, may be eligible for the National identify specific contributing and non- Register. The core purpose of this contributing elements of the Klamath report, of course, is to organize the data Riverscape (“This bend in the river needed to make a judgment about contributes; that one does not,”). Data whether the riverscape in fact is eligible. are not available to make such discriminations, and they are not Conclusion necessary for the purposes of addressing the impacts of relicensing. At this point, Based on all the above, it is clear that let us simply identify the general there is a definable Klamath Riverscape elements of the riverscape that make it that may be eligible for the National what it is, and hence contribute to its Register19. character.

The Riverscape’s Character The river:

Having established that the Klamath We can begin in simplest terms by River and its environs can legitimately specifying that the river itself is a be thought of as a riverscape that may be critical, indeed defining, element of the 20 eligible for the National Register, our riverscape’s character . Without the next task is to define the Riverscape’s river, there would obviously be no general character, with particular riverscape. reference to the features that contribute to its significance – referred to in The river, of course, is a dynamic feature National Register guidance as of the environment; it does not hold still. “contributing elements.” Although not It shrinks, floods, deposits sediment and particularly relevant to consideration of washes it away. Any understanding of PacifiCorp Project impacts, it is also the river as a riverscape component must necessary to discuss what might be take this dynamism into account. defined as the boundaries of the Klamath Riverscape – where does it begin and For the purposes of this report, the end. Klamath River is understood to be the stream of water flowing through the General Character valley and its immediately associated landforms, including the floodplain, It seems self-evident that a riverscape sandbars, rapids, islands, and terraces must comprise the landscape bordering the stream. surrounding and including a river.

7 The cultural importance of the river is “watercourse coming from way back emphasized in all the ethnographic in the mountains.”)21. reports, and is reflected in tribal traditional history. For example: Water:

The traditional Yurok belief at the It should go without saying, but may not, time of European Contact was that that the water making up the river is a the world is a flat extent surrounded fundamental part of the river and hence by ocean and bisected by the River. of the riverscape. A river without water The role of the River to Yurok is not a river22; it is a riverbed, a canyon, culture was not limited to a stream cut, an arroyo. Certainly an transportation, but was an integral active river like the Klamath would not part of the social network both be itself if it were not full of flowing within Yurok and between their water. The importance of water quality neighbors. Extensive visiting is stressed over and over by consultants between villages, families and interviewed for the Karuk ethnographic outside villages occurred via the report, for instance: river. Travelers would come from up and down river to participate or You dip in the falls and pull out your attend various ceremonies and net all covered with this green stuff. gatherings so much that the primary It’s not right. It never was there Yurok ceremonial sites include before. It is all because of the houses for visitors from Hupa and reservoirs they have up there holding Karok communities. Likewise the the water back, not letting it go. Karok and Hupa have houses for Then when they have to let it go and visiting Yurok for similar that crap is what washes out. If it ceremonies. Although each group was flowing freely we wouldn’t have had its own unique aspects of ritual, the buildup no matter what they did language and material culture, the to it up there. Most of it would come river provided a common cultural down and drain out of there so when framework that was integrated in we got a high water, it would flush it socioeconomic and spiritual life for clean. It doesn’t flush out and all three groups (Waterman eventually it’s going to kill the 1920:186). river23.

Waterman reported that the Yurok Fish, wildlife, and plants: had no name for the River because in Yurok terms, it is the only river. Although a river can be deprived of fish, Streams and creeks are often named wildlife, and plants and technically still descriptively, after a character, story be a river (a stream of water), it would or nearby village, or not at all obviously be very different from the (Waterman 1920:196). (Note: river it was when inhabited by living Waterman’s conclusion that there creatures. Hence the living population was no Yurok name for River is not of the river – its fish, the plants that accurate. The Yurok word for the grow on its banks and in its wetlands, River is HeL kik a wroi or and the terrestrial animals and birds that

8 live along, drink from, hunt in, and land "This salamander brings luck to you. on it are obviously character-defining When it comes to visit your home, elements of the riverscape24. The that's a good omen, good luck. I importance of salmon, steelhead, Pacific remember when I was a kid, my lamprey, and other fish species is well grandfather used to have Karuk known and will be discussed further tobacco which he gave to pu'f-puuf. below, but virtually all other native He would put him in a basket and species in the riverscape contribute to its take him down to a spring. He used cultural significance in some way. The to say in Karuk, 'I'm going to help Trinity EIS identifies willow, you. You are not in a good place. cottonwood, wild grape, bulrush, hazel, There are children around and tules, spearmint and blackberries among somebody might step on you.' You the plant types that had and have cultural see them in springs. They don't stay and spiritual significance to Hupa people there [in one spring] all the time. I (Trinity 3-212). The Pacific giant guess they just do their thing salamander is a good example of an [purifying the water] and go on to animal that is less charismatic than the the next one [spring]. They don't live salmon, but nevertheless carries in a certain spring. You don't see considerable cultural significance for the them traveling around like other people of the riverscape: salamanders. They are a very spiritual and sacred animal. Lots of In Karuk mythology the Pacific giant people are scared of them. They salamander (pu'f-puuf in the Karuk won't harm you. They have respect language) assumes the responsibility for you, and you must respect them. of purifying water, being placed here They're sacred, you know. They're by the Creator and delegated the here for a good purpose"25. specific function of water purifier. The evidence lies in both legend and Valley floor and terraces: the empirical observation that where in the past pu'f-puuf and pure water The floor and terraces of the Klamath were both present, the absence of the River valley are the product of the river, salamander in these same streams and constitute the immediate landscape and springs is an unfailing indicator through which the river flows. This that something is wrong with the naturally makes them parts of the water. That in turn is a sure sign that riverscape. Their plants and animals something is not right in the contribute to their visual and ecological watershed. character, and accordingly are themselves contributing elements of the Norman Goodwin, a contemporary riverscape. Karuk ceremonial leader descended from medicine people on both the Surrounding hill slopes and ridges: maternal and paternal sides of his family, considers the role of pu'f- The Secretary of the Interior’s puuf in the following statement: Guidelines for the Treatment of Cultural Landscapes26 identifies “topography” as a character-defining feature of a

9 landscape – as it obviously is; a It is the traditional use of the riverscape landscape would not be a landscape by Yurok, Karuk, Hupa, Shasta and without topography, even if the that makes the topography is flat. The dramatic riverscape a “cultural” one. topographic change from the valley floor Accordingly, the cultural uses to which up to the surrounding hilltops and ridge the tribes put the riverscape and its lines clearly helps define the character of component parts, contribute critically to the Klamath Riverscape; it would be a its character. Similarly, the ways in very different riverscape if the valley which the riverscape and its component were bordered by low knolls with gentle parts are perceived by tribal people slopes. The slopes that surround the contribute to its character. The way the valley, from their bases to their crests, with their plant cover and wildlife, must be understood to be parts of the riverscape, and to contribute to its definition. The wildlife of the uplands – bear, dear, coyote – like those of the valley floor and the river itself, play critical roles in tribal perceptions of the riverscape and indeed the world, and of the place of people in the world: 28 Cooking salmon "Talking about those old stories grandpa used to tell us when we river provides spatial orientation to were kids... 'You know we were all people living along it, and the spiritual animals' - animal people, I guess and other cultural values ascribed to the you'd call them. 'Put yourself in that river, its fish, other animals, and plants, context.' Used to tell us these old and to specific places within and along stories, 'just lay there on the floor, the river are elements of the riverscape’s put yourself in the position of that character. animal going through the steps... That's me, going through the steps - Specific cultural locations. how this came about, how this came about"27 Within the riverscape, a large number of specific locations are associated with The hill crests and ridges are where trails cultural beliefs or activities, and/or run that are used not only in subsistence exhibit evidence of use by tribal pursuits but for ritual purposes. World ancestors. One hundred thirty-seven Renewal priests climb ridges to perform Shasta village sites are noted in the ceremonial functions and travel from site ethnographic report prepared for the to site. Salmon callers stationed on Shasta, twenty-eight of which lie within ridges alerted towns up and down the the boundaries of the Klamath 29 river of the coming of salmon runs. Hydroelectric Project itself .

Cultural uses and perceptions. Some 23 “prehistoric sites,” presumably representing the villages and camps of ancestral Hupa and perhaps other tribes,

10 were identified along the Trinity River in the sweatlodge some distance the Trinity River EIS, but this number is away, which is regarded as misleading for at least two reasons. First culturally inappropriate though it represents only sites recorded by past unavoidable. archeological surveys, rather than contemporary survey work. Past surveys • Paniminik, at Orleans, where almost certainly did not meet modern erosion is cutting close to the standards, and the EIS provides no data priestly sweatlodge used in on how thoroughly they covered the World Renewal rituals. banks of the river. Second, the number of sites listed did not count sites inundated by Trinity Reservoir; the EIS alludes to 53 “archeological sites” that are known to be thus inundated, but it is not clear how many of these represent tribal as opposed to historic Euroamerican activities30.

Many of the tribal consultants interviewed for the Karuk ethnographic report mention ancestral sites that are Looking from the eroded bank at washing into the river as a result of Katamin toward A’uich, the Karuk erosion that they associate with the center of the world31 effects of the dams. Several such sites were shown to the author on February 6th These sites are contributing parts of by Karuk Vice-Chairman Leaf Hillman districts determined eligible for the and his colleagues. Examples include: National Register in the 1980s and 90s in connection with Section 106 review of 32 • Katamin, the central place in one Forest Service projects . of the Karuk World Renewal Ceremonies. This site has been The Yurok ethnographic report notes heavily eroded. Where the land that: is described as sloping gently to the river’s edge about 40 years Various ethnographic sources show ago, there is now a nearly sheer a wide diversity and abundance of bank; acres of the site have cultural sites located along the apparently been lost. River. For example in 1909 the anthropologist Thomas Waterman • Amekiarum, a dance village and documented 82 various cultural site of the First Salmon places, 41 rocks of cultural Ceremony, where a sheer bank significance, 97 fishing spots, and 44 bisects the housepit that villages all located in the river represents a priestly sweatlodge channel, river flood-plane or just used for generations and as above the high water mark. The 82 recently as the early 20th century. places are places significant to It has been necessary to rebuild Yurok history (both historic and legendary), ceremony, gathering,

11 and hunting. In addition to these 264 and residential site, on either side of sites, the Yurok Tribe Heritage which are riverbanks devastated by Preservation Office has documented hydraulic mining. approximately 100 additional sites that were either missed by Waterman Boundaries or have been established since his early century visit to the territories National Register Bulletin 38 warns that of the Yurok people33. “defining the boundaries of a traditional cultural property can present Many of these specific locations may be considerable problems34.” It goes on to individually eligible for the National discuss the example of the Helkau Register, as traditional cultural Historic District, a place whose properties, as archeological sites, or for eligibility for the National Register is other reasons. In the context of the based on its cultural significance to riverscape, however, it is not necessary Karuk, Yurok, Hupa, and other tribes of or useful to evaluate their individual the area: significance. Together with the river, the fish, the plants, the topography, and In the case of the Helkau Historic the cultural uses of and beliefs about the District in , for area by the tribes, they are contributing example, much of the significance of elements to the overall Klamath the property in the eyes of its Riverscape. traditional users is related to the fact that it is quiet, and that is presents Non-contributing Elements extensive views of natural landscape without modern intrusions. These Data are not available to permit a factors are crucial to the medicine detailed listing of elements of the making done by traditional religious riverscape that do not contribute to its practitioners in the district. If the Register eligibility, and there is little or boundaries of the district were no reason to identify such elements for defined on the basis of these factors, the purposes of this report. Generally, however, the district would take in a modern residential areas like Orleans, substantial portion of California's Happy Camp, and Somes Bar probably North coast Range. Practically do not contribute to the riverscape’s speaking, the boundaries of a traditional cultural character, and areas property like the Helkau District severely impacted by mining, logging, must be defined more narrowly, even and road building (e.g., the Richardson though this may involve making Bedrock Mine) probably also do not some rather arbitrary decisions. In contribute. However, one has to be the case of the Helkau District, the careful about such generalizations. boundary was finally drawn along Orleans, for example, is the site of the topographic lines that included all Karuk town Paniminik, one of the three the locations at which traditional centers of the World Renewal Ceremony practitioners carry out medicine- and actively used as such by Karuk making and similar activities, the today. Not far away is Amekiarum, travel routes between such locations, another important Karuk dance, ritual, and the immediate viewshed

12 surround this complex of locations relicensing – like the impacts of the and routes. dams today – will be on the river itself, its immediate environs, and the fish and Bulletin 38 recommends that boundaries other life forms that inhabit it. Water be established to enclose those areas quantity, water quality, water actually used for cultural purposes. temperature, the speed of currents, and Bulletin 30, similarly, says that things like erosion and deposition are the “boundaries for rural historic landscapes variables affected by the presence (or must encompass the area having historic absence) and operation of the dams. significance, rather than just scenic While changes in these variables may values, and contain contributing have effects on the riverscape beyond resources that express the characteristics the riverbanks (for example, by of the historic landscape35.” facilitating or discouraging development on the valley floor), these effects are far As this author has discussed in some less direct than those on the river itself. detail elsewhere36, there is no actual Both direct effects on the river and regulatory requirement that a historic indirect effects elsewhere can be property’s boundaries be established considered without firmly defining the when considering a federal action’s boundaries of the riverscape. As long as impacts on it. The insistence by many the river and its immediate environs are cultural resource authorities that this be included – as they obviously must be – done is a misapplication of standards then there will be effects on the designed for use in formally nominating riverscape and it should be possible to properties for inclusion in the National consider means of mitigating them. As Register. The Secretary of the Interior’s for the less direct effects of actions like Standards for Identification direct that land development on the valley floor or identification of historic properties be surrounding slopes – one could analyze “undertaken to the degree required to every parcel of potentially affected land make decisions;37” since description of a and conclude, perhaps, that Parcel A is historic property is part of its inside the boundaries and Parcel B is identification, this principle clearly outside, but it would not follow that applies to the definition of boundaries as development of the latter would not have well as to all other aspects of effects on the former, or on some other identification. As a result, the author has part of the Riverscape. In other words, concluded that: possible effects will have to be considered, regardless of whether their The basic question to ask about sources are within or outside the boundaries is: Do we need to define boundaries. them in order to consider impacts? If we don’t, there’s no earthly reason Arguably, then, there is no reason to to get involved in the complex, define the boundaries of the Klamath usually arbitrary, exercise of Riverscape, other than to place the defining them38. riverscape on a map for discussion purposes. There is certainly no need to In the case of the Klamath Riverscape, define them with great exactness, or to the obvious potential impacts of

13 argue about precisely which parcel is in would be included along a selected and which is out. stretch of the river. Thus bounding the riverscape would obviously leave out the The obvious downstream boundary of culturally important hill slopes and the riverscape is the mouth of the river, ridges. In suggesting that they be though a reasonable argument can be excluded there is no intention to made for setting it some distance farther denigrate their importance or their west, where the influence of the river is cultural relevance to the riverscape. In felt at sea. For purposes of this report, another planning context they certainly the distinction between these boundaries should be considered part of the is of no importance. riverscape, but for purposes of reviewing the effects of PacifiCorp’s Project, there The logical upstream boundary would be is no need to include them. the upper reaches of the Klamath River watershed, but for purposes of this report Again, it should be stressed that the we need not consider such an expansive whole boundary-setting exercise is area. Subject to modification based on essentially irrelevant to the consideration the results of the study performed for the of PacifiCorp Project impacts. We Klamath Tribes, the upstream boundary worry about the question of boundaries of the riverscape considered in this because National Register guidance report is the upstream boundary of makes much of them, but for purposes of Shasta territory. project review in a case like this one they make little or no difference. With regard to lateral boundaries, one However one decides to bound the could plausibly define the riverscape to Klamath Riverscape, the important thing include all the territory occupied by all is that the river, in its entirety, including the tribes, or at least – as discussed its water, plants, and animals, is a part of above – to include all lands within the it. It is these aspects of the riverscape, river valley and its surrounding slopes. together with the river’s banks and Neither boundary would serve any terraces, that are subject to effect by the particular purpose, however, and either changes to water quantity, quality, flow definition would unnecessarily alarm characteristics, temporal availability and landowners and local governments. temperature that may be caused in whole or in part by PacifiCorp Project Considering the inevitably arbitrary management. nature of boundary selection in a case like this one, and the general irrelevance of boundaries to determining the effects of relicensing, it is suggested that if it is necessary to define boundaries, for the purposes of FERC’s impact analysis they be set at the limits of the 500-year floodplain39, with adjustments to include residential, sweatlodge, and ritual areas above the floodplain40. Figure Two41 shows an example of the areas that

14 Since the National Register is the 500-year National Register of Historic Places, an floodplain entity cannot be eligible for the Register unless it is a “place.” Because the National Historic Preservation Act42 uses the term “historic property” for places that are eligible for the Register, Bulletin 38 uses the word “property” to mean the same thing as “place”43. So the first step in determining the eligibility of something as a traditional cultural property is to determine whether it is a property – a place – as opposed to, say, a belief, a dance, a song, or an animal. Specific locations at This is not to say that beliefs, dances, higher elevations songs and animals may not be parts of, included where culturally important or contribute to, traditional cultural properties, nor is it to say that such entities need not be considered under laws other than the National Historic

Figure Two: Example of areas Preservation Act. It is simply to say that within hypothetical lateral a non-property – a non-place – cannot boundaries itself be eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, however much it may contribute to the Does the Riverscape Meet significance of something that is a the National Register Criteria property, and however much it may have for Eligibility? to be considered on its own merits under other legal authorities. Having established that the Klamath River and its environs comprise a The Klamath Riverscape is obviously a logically definable riverscape with property. It is a physical piece of space, identifiable physical and cultural a place, a piece of real property. elements, we can address the core question of the riverscape’s eligibility Bulletin 38 specifies that a traditional for the National Register. National cultural property, like any other kind of Register Bulletin 38 sets forth a four- historic property, can be a “district, site, step process for determining the building, structure, or object.” eligibility of traditional cultural Landscapes are usually identified as properties; this process will be followed districts, and this is probably the here. category to which the Klamath Riverscape would be most comfortably Step One: “Ensure that the entity under assigned. However, there is no utility in consideration is a property.” debating precisely how the riverscape should be categorized. Whatever one calls it, the riverscape is a piece of real

15 property, and hence meets the first test our tribal sovereignty. In times past of eligibility. and now Yurok people bless the deep river, the tall redwood trees, the Step Two: “Consider the property’s rocks, the mounds, and the trails45. integrity” The analyses presented in the To be eligible for the National Register, ethnographic reports underscore this a property must have what the association. regulations refer to as “integrity.” National Register Bulletin 38 directs that It is from the rivers in their with respect to traditional cultural aboriginal wildness, that the core properties there are two integrity issues cultures of northwestern California, to be considered: “integrity of those of the Yurok, Hupa and Karuk, relationship,” and “integrity of developed their elaborate and condition.” specialized expressions46.

Integrity of relationship exists if a place The River, being so basic that it has “has an integral relationship to no specific Yurok word designation, traditional cultural practices or beliefs.” is euphemistically referred to in its lower stretch as the “Yurok Integrity of condition is present if “the highway”. At the mouth of the River, condition of the property (is) such that Yurok also refer to the Klamath the relevant relationships survive44.” River as HeL kik a wroi or “watercourse coming from way back Integrity of relationship: in the mountains.” It is not surprising that Yurok culture reflects The strong relationship of the Yurok, a strong connection to the riverine Karuk, Shasta and Klamath with the environment. In contemporary times Klamath River, and of the Hupa with its the Klamath River is referred to as tributary the Trinity, has been remarked “the main vein” emphasizing its on many times by tribal members and comparison to a blood vessel that outside observers alike. This provides the main flow of relationship has been formally and sustenance. forcefully asserted by the Yurok Tribe in the preamble to its constitution: The Yurok people are named and live in relation to the rivers and the Our people have always lived on this sustenance that those quality flows sacred and wondrous land along the provide. Residency, natural and Pacific Coast and inland on the cultural resource sites, ceremonial Klamath River, since the Spirit practices, oral history, People, Wo’ge’ made things ready transportation route, economic and for us and the Creator, Ko-won-no- sociological dependence, indeed the ekc-on Ne ka-nup-ceo, placed us Yurok identity, are all intricately here. From the beginning, we have woven into the ecosystems of the followed all the laws of the Creator, Trinity and Klamath Rivers47. which became the whole fabric of

16 Documentary sources cited in the places, plants, animals, and things ethnographic reports, emphasize the associated with the River are relationships between the river and the detailed throughout Yurok stories49. tribes. There are Yurok stories that Kroeber and Barrett discuss the reinforce the Yurok belief that the Karuk as one of a number of “core River was created in a distinct way tribes” dependent upon fish within a in order to provide Yurok people social system of enforced rights: with the best of worlds. For example, Wohpekumeu said, “let the river run The best fishing places along downstream” and that is how the the rivers were privately River came to flow the direction it owned, sometimes by single does. In the story No’ots, a young individuals, sometimes jointly man went out on the River and took by several. In the latter case, a his paddle and rode about on the fishing place could be used by River. That is why it is crooked at each owner in rotation, Olege’l50. according to the proportionate share of his ownership. An The statements of tribal consultants owner might give someone else further emphasize relationships with the permission to fish there on the river. day or days when his turn would normally come. But no A Yurok elder said, “without this one was permitted to fish or to river we would not know who we are, establish a new fishing place where we’re from or where we’re immediately downstream from going.” Other Native Americans a recognized fishing track directionality based on place…most inferior fishing cardinal directions. In a steep places, and a few excellent riverine environment with a ones were not privately owned temperate rainforest climate, the but were open or suns’ rising and setting points are public…(Kroeber and Barrett not accurate ways of tracking time 1960 p. 3)48. and direction. Instead, the flow of the river is most essential for telling time The anthropologist Alfred Kroeber and direction51. traveled throughout the Yurok territory in the early 1900’s (Billy Wilson said) “The River is interviewing various Yurok people part of life. No river, no life. God put and documenting a Yurok way of life. it there for us, the people, to use. If In Yurok Myths (Kroeber, 1978), it is people don’t use it right, it’s gone. It obvious that the River was as was a place for everyone. The River important to the people from that era is there to supply food to the people as it is to Yurok people now. Out of who need it. We wouldn’t be here the 169 stories in Yurok Myths, there without the River”52 are 77 that make direct reference to the River. Yurok words that name

17 The Karuk people manage their characteristics are named. Even resources by way of ceremonies and when away from the water traditional rituals. There was the directionality is measured by the First Salmon Ceremony with taboos river flow, requiring people to associated. It was taboo to eat always know where they are in steelhead before the Pikiawish. And relation to the river. For example it there were four ceremonies in which is not uncommon to refer to burners the Medicine Man needs to go down on one side of a kitchen stove as up to the river to bathe. From early July or down-river burners54. right on through September. They need to bathe in the Klamath River Not only are the River’s fluctuations for ten days at a time –up to three, known by characteristics of water four, five times a day….. We content but… also… by what the believed that if we took care of our water flows additionally provide fishery we would always have food. Yurok people. For example it is If we didn’t manage our fishery right known that the spring run of salmon something bad would happen. will come soon after the budding of People would die. So we evolved the thimbleberry that grows along with that concept. Conservation was the Rivers’ courses. It is known that the goal of the ceremonies, was the after a good flooding willow-root goals of the way of life and it basket materials are best gathered in continues that way today. We’re still a straight narrow section of the river striving to do those same things, where a flood’s raging waters have trying to figure our how to introduce scoured the roots. After a flood it to the modern society. The closer event, specific gravel bars are we can mimic nature is the best searched for new deposits of granite method possible53. boulders used for porch rocks in Yurok traditional homes. It is known The ethnographic reports make it clear that in a drought year, flooding that the river influences and structures occurs in the lower portions of the virtually all aspects of tribal life and River because of sandbar buildup at perceptions. the mouth of the River. And for all of these natural occurrences River flow rates under natural know of appropriate ceremonies that conditions indicate both seasonality officiate the human communication and time of day. …. A good Yurok with these river processes55. boatman is rated by his ability to navigate the River in the dark. The Clearly, the relationship between the boatman does this by correlating the Klamath River and the core values and location and swiftness of the current beliefs of the tribes is very strong. The and the back eddy of the river in river is integral to core beliefs that relation to the sound of the river that underlie the cultural values and practices is uniquely created in each bend, of the tribes. It has structured the slick and riffle of the riverine lifeways of the tribes in the past, and environment. Every type of unique continues to do so, albeit in altered and feature of the water’s movement and perhaps attenuated form, today. The

18 Klamath Riverscape must be judged to the riverscape, but they also document have integrity of relationship. the continuing associations that the tribes feel and practice with reference to Integrity of Condition the river, its animal and vegetal inhabitants, and its environs. The Klamath Riverscape has suffered considerably from the impacts of The preamble to the Yurok Constitution logging, hydraulic mining, road speaks to the condition of the river, building, other construction, farming, deploring the damage that has been done and – importantly for the purposes of to it: this study – dam building and operation. There is no question that relative to its In the 1890’s, individual Indians mid-19th century condition, it has lost a received allotments from tribal land great deal of its integrity of condition. located in the Klamath River Reserve Loss of integrity, however, is a fate that portion of the Hoopa Valley befalls every historic place; it is, indeed, Reservation and almost all of the a fundamental byproduct of becoming remainder of the Reserve was historic. The question is not whether the declared “surplus” and opened for Klamath Riverscape has lost integrity; homesteading by non-Indians. The the question is whether it has lost so forests were logged excessively and much integrity that its relationships with the wildlife was depleted. Even the tribal cultural values and practices do not great salmon runs went into deep survive. decline due to over-fishing and habitat destruction57. National Register Bulletin 38 stresses that: Yet the preamble goes on to note that “the modern Yurok Tribe … has …the integrity of a possible emerged, strong and proud, from the traditional cultural property must be tragedies and wrongs of the years since considered with reference to the the arrival of the non-Indians into our views of traditional practitioners; if land,” and that its “sacred and vibrant its integrity has not been lost in their traditions have survived and are now eyes, it probably has sufficient growing stronger and richer each integrity to justify further year58.” It then specifies that among the evaluation56. core purposes of the Constitution are to:

In other words, integrity of condition 3) Reclaim the tribal land base must be assessed through the eyes of the within the Yurok Reservation and group that values the property. In this enlarge the Reservation boundaries case, of course, this means through the to the maximum extent possible eyes of the tribes. within the ancestral lands of our tribe and/or within any The ethnographic reports document in compensatory land area; considerable detail the concerns that the 4) Preserve and promote our culture, tribes and their members feel about the language, and religious beliefs and damaged and deteriorating condition of practices, and pass them on to our

19 children, our grandchildren, and to highway construction by Caltrans; in their children and grandchildren, on Karuk belief this would have resulted in and on, forever… (and) the end of the world. Karuk tribal 6) Restore, enhance, and manage the members rebuilt the river terrace tribal fishery, tribal water rights, between the eroding bank and the pond, tribal forests, and all other natural and were successful in saving it60. resources59. The Karuk and Yurok ethnographic The tribe could not realistically envision reports provides extensive testimony by achieving such purposes if the riverscape tribal consultants about the condition of – a critical part of its land base, the focus the river; these statements also convey of so many of its religious beliefs and the impression of deep sadness about the practices, and the source of its fishery, condition of the river, but a continuing had been damaged beyond recovery. association with it and at least some The Yurok Tribe, in other words, hope that it can be restored to something appears to believe that the riverscape approaching its earlier condition. retains a sufficient level of integrity to justify imagining its reclamation and For example, Yurok tribal member Walt thinking that it could continue to play its McCovey, Jr. remembers: roles in Yurok traditional life. Fish runs on the River included The Karuk Tribe has invested heavily in winter steelhead, spring, summer the acquisition of land along the river, and winter salmon. Many of the giving priority to culturally significant salmon spawned in the creeks sites, and it employs these sites in an feeding into the Klamath. He ongoing revitalization of its cultural and remembers the creeks had a lot of religious practices. Much of the world fish in them. He recalled fishing in renewal site Paniminik is now in Karuk the creeks when he was around 6-7 hands, for example; the priestly sweat years old. Now the creeks are silted lodge has been rebuilt there and in, full of gravel piling up at the ceremonies are carried out regularly. mouths, just like cement. Winter Ceremonies are carried out at Katamin salmon used to run in November, and Amekiarum as well, and at other December, and January. These runs dance sites up and down the river. have disappeared. Tribal representatives express concern about damage to these sites, notably The River used to have high winter resulting from erosion that they believe flows. People would move around in is associated with dam operation, but the winter. The River would rise 40- there is no question that the sites and 50 feet every year in peak flows. their environs are intact enough to make Walt recalls high water and flood their ceremonial use feasible. Active events in 1955, 1964, and 1974. efforts are being made to control erosion High water events removed silt and and other forms of damage; for example, sediments and large woody debris at Katamin a sacred pond almost from the river. Now the flows are not collapsed into the river as a result of the high enough to float out the big logs 1997 flood and the effects of nearby over the riffles or clear out the

20 gravel and sediments that pile up at water in these creeks because of the mouths of the creeks. The greediness. People taking all the construction of dams on the Klamath water away from the river. … And and the Trinity Rivers had a big we could drink the water. I wouldn’t impact on the River and its annual drink it now. You had to drink it flow. Walt stated that a significant when you came off the ceremonies. decline in fish population was When you came off the hill you had evident after the construction of the to wash yourself as good as you dams. could and you had to drink the water. Before that you couldn’t eat But still… or drink water so I know it was traditional and no one ever got sick. “The River is the lifeline of the The water always had a little color Indian people. We depend on the but it wasn’t like it is now, soapy, fish, depend on eels, sturgeon…. with sediment, algae growing in it. River is medicine to him. He can feel Algae did not grow in the river then. lousy as hell and go out on the River It is just dirty now. It was real nice. and come back feeling good. Gives It was smooth and it was deep, not strength, knowing this is mine; this is like it is today62. where I live, where I’m born. This is where my roots are”61. Ms. Davis’s comments, like those of other older tribal members, are mostly Similarly, former Karuk Tribal Council retrospective and focus on how the river member Vera Vena Davis recalls: has deteriorated. Some younger tribal members are looking for solutions that We had nice deep holes in Ti Creek could bring the river back to its when I was young. The vegetation traditional condition. For example, wasn’t dried out and broken up the Karuk tribal member and cultural way it is today. … The river was biologist Ron Reed says: never scummy the way it is now. You could walk around in the river, there Approximately 80% of the wetlands was more sand than sediment. … We in the Upper Klamath Basin are no used to eat Kaaf (Indian Rhubarb), longer in existence. Either they have and watercress. Now I’d be scared to been drained or they are farmland. eat watercress because you don’t That has a profound effect on the know where the water is coming Lower Klamath Basin. … If the from. And of course we had all the dams weren’t there and the wetlands wild turnips. There were lots of were, you would have the spring crayfish. Now you don’t see them freshet system with peak flows any more. We used to eat freshwater during the spring. …. When the clams too. We used to get clams water comes down unnaturally in a where we got our eels and fish in one dam-regulated flow it accumulates little area there. There was more and scours out the riverbank… The water in the creeks, now they are all regulated flows channelize the drying up. … There were fish in all Klamath all the way down to the of the big streams. Now there is no . …. The sediment load

21 gets transported down to our to a place where he can call out to country. …. Now the system is the remaining shooters where their overloaded with nutrients causing arrow has fallen in relation to the the algae to overtake the river. …. target. On subsequent days the And what are the effects of that poor archers move from location to quality water on the fish trying to location, in the sequence enter these streams? It’s not just preordained by the Ixkareya. In acts PacifiCorp, there are other things of abstinence, concentration and going on out there upslope that need purification reminiscent of the to be considered too if we are going purifications required for deer to get back healthy fish populations. hunting, the arrow shooters fast from It’s sedimentation from Highway 96. the previous night, neither eating nor It’s Forest Service management. My drinking water. Following a prayer goal is to get all these agencies by the Headman which includes a together in a holistic way to look at statement propitiating health “even these issues63. for the creatures that crawl,” the shooters make medicine (bidish) Tribal ceremonial life continues to focus using a pinch of tobacco crumbled on the river and its inhabitants. The into a medicine fire and making a Karuk have managed to sustain their war cry in the direction of a sacred World Renewal Ceremony (Pikiavish) peak designated by the Head Man through the hard times of oppression, while uttering a phrase in Karuk genocide, and environmental calling for a long life64. degradation, and its practice today is experiencing a resurgence. Similarly among the Yurok: Anthropologist John Salter describes the contemporary arrow-shooting part of the The Brush Ceremony, still held in ceremony: several of the traditional villages along the Klamath River requires the proper The archery shooting aspect of the scenic river qualities and the Pikiavish…. is a contest of shooting availability of river resources. As a Brush Ceremony unfolds over a four- at a small fork shaped target (yuxpit) day period it attests to the wealth that set in front of a screen of fir the riverine environment provides. branches and which is often hidden Baskets made of plant materials from the shooter behind brush or collected at the water’s edge are used to shrubs, requiring that the shot be hold food and ceremonial medicine. angled up sharply so that the falling , cooked in the baskets, are arrow will land vertically, as the converted to a nourishing mush that is goal is to “wake up the earth” for rendered by placing several hot rocks Pikiavish and the new year. The (cooking rocks), gathered off of specific occasion of arrow shooting is one of river bars, into the flour and prayerful concentration followed by water that is placed into the baskets. Regalia that adorn the ceremonialists is exuberant competition with small constructed out of various plant and bets being placed on each round. animal products that the riverine The winner of a match shoots first in environment provides. Ceremonial the subsequent match and then goes bathing in the River and its tributary

22 creeks is a requirement for some of the and its environs were determined eligible for participants. Ceremonialists also the National Register as the “Karok prepare themselves by listening to the Panamenic World Renewal District,” and River’s sounds. While many guests the Forest Service eventually abandoned the today arrive by car, many more arrive project. The tribe has now acquired by traditional transportation: boats65. Paniminik, restored the priestly sweat lodge, and re-instituted World Renewal ceremonies On the Trinity River, a major tributary of the there67. Klamath, the Trinity EIS reports that:

The Hoopa Valley Tribe continues to conduct many of their traditional religious ceremonies. The cultural significance of the Trinity River and its sacred localities is captured in many of these ceremonies. Religious sites on the river are ancient and were designated by spiritual deities at a time beyond living memory. Hupa ceremonies are of unique 68 importance not only to Hupa Priestly sweat lodge at Paniminik Indians, but to other Northwest The very fact that the tribes are California Indians as well. Prayers participating in the relicensing review, at the dances are directed toward the and in environmental review of other well being of everyone, and food projects in the area, regularly expressing served at the dances is shared with 66 the desire for dam removal and other all who attend . actions to restore the river, indicates that Although the tribes view the river as they do not view the river as having retaining its significance, they also irrevocably lost its integrity. In recognize that its integrity is forever under traditional historic preservation terms, attack. Tribal members regularly use terms the river seems to be analogous with a like “last hope” and “last chance” when fine old building that has been altered in referring to the possibility of maintaining the ways that are unsympathetic with its river’s place in their cultural lives. A vivid architectural value, but that is not behind example of the dangers the tribes must rehabilitation. Such a building would contend with, and their efforts to contend not be said to have lost its integrity of with them, occurred in the 1970s, when the condition; clearly the Klamath Karuk were confronted by a Forest Service proposal to build a bridge across the river at Riverscape has not lost such integrity in Orleans, impacting the World Renewal the eyes of the tribes – whose eyes are sacred site of Paniminik. As told to the the only ones that matter for purposes of author by Karuk Vice Chairman Leaf evaluating the riverscape as a traditional Hillman, the Karuk saw this proposal as the cultural property. The Klamath “last nail in the coffin” that would make it Riverscape must be viewed as retaining forever impossible to carry out ceremonies integrity of condition, despite the at the site. As a result, they strongly impacts it has suffered. opposed the project during Forest Service NEPA and Section 106 review. Paniminik

23 Step Three: “Evaluate the property times, and this fact has not been taken to with reference to the National Register justify regarding the entire city as Criteria” eligible for the National Register. Some more specific evidence of association is The core of any National Register required in order to demonstrate evaluation is application of the criteria eligibility. published in regulation by the National Park Service for use in making such The ethnographic reports provide evaluations69. If a property meets one or plentiful evidence of association more of the criteria it is eligible for the between the Klamath Riverscape and the Register70; if it does not, it is not. traditional history of the tribes, both in terms of specific traditional (often Traditional cultural properties are most “mythological”) events and in terms of often found to be eligible for the the ongoing patterns of traditional tribal National Register under Criterion “a,” life. “association with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad Traditional history. patterns of our history.” National Register Bulletin 38 specifies that: Tribal origin stories account for the creation of the riverscape, and for the The word “our” in this criterion may placement of a range of contributing be taken to refer to the group to elements, including specific geographic which the property may have features: traditional cultural significance, and the word “history” may be taken to When Wesona-me’getoL (the one up- include traditional oral history as above) created the world, the homes well as recorded history. … of the supernatural and the people “Events” can include specific were segregated. The ocean Pish moments in history or a series of kaL separated the two homes. The events reflecting a broad pattern or region on the other side is further theme71. divided into tsi’k-tsik-oL the home of money, culture hero Wopekamaw’s Thus the Klamath Riverscape may be home, Pulekuk, home of gambling, taken to meet National Register and the home of Koowetsik, the Criterion “a” if it is associated with dwelling place of Salmon. Salmon significant specific moments in or broad and humans were created to interact patterns of the recorded or traditional with one another and accordingly history of the Karuk, Yurok, Hupa, the River was created to provide a Shasta, and/or Klamath tribes. zone of interaction. There are Yurok On one level, it is obvious that the stories that reinforce the Yurok belief riverscape is indeed associated with the that the River was created in a traditional history of the tribes. It is, distinct way in order to provide after all, where all the tribes have lived Yurok people with the best of worlds. since time immemorial. But Boston is For example, Wopekamaw said, “let where all Bostonians have lived since the River run downstream” and that the city was established in colonial

24 is how the River came to flow the never caught anything so they made direction it does (Kroeber 1978)72. it so the salmon would come up both sides. A man from the village of The mouth of the River changes Welkwau (south side of the mouth of because it is supposed to be a lady. the Klamath River) wanted to learn She takes a position for a while, and how to fish at the mouth of the River when she gets tired, she changes so he went to Koowetsik and asked position and moves her legs. The two the headman to show him how to rocks at the mouth are sentinels. The harpoon fish. The headman agreed one on the upper side (north) is Or to show the man from Welkwau. egos (Tucker Rock). It looks like a When Nepwo came through the woman carrying a burden basket73. mouth of the River, the headman acted as if he was going to spear it. Much traditional belief and practice He would make thrusting motions surrounds the salmon – among the most with his spear but not actually important of the riverscape’s spearing it, at the same time, he was contributing elements: praying for more salmon to come up the River. These ritual actions When Wohpekamaw first came to the demonstrated to Nepwo that Yurok Klamath River, he saw that there were sincere in the proper treatment was no food for the people. There of salmon and Nepwo informed the were only two women who had other salmon that it was good to salmon. Wohpekamaw took the come into the Klamath River. More salmon from the women and let them salmon came up the River. The go. Wohpekamaw said the people headman speared some salmon and the man from Welkwau saw that he handled the fish in a particular way. The headman explained that if salmon was caught at the mouth, a man was not to use a wooden club to kill it; he was to use a stone to hit it in the head. But upstream from the mouth everyone else would use wooden clubs. If a salmon is caught at the mouth it must be buried with only its tail sticking out. People who

74 use a spear to catch fish at the mouth Or egos, from above must practice certain medicine before catching salmon. The would never catch the Great Salmon lamprey eel was also made at ). When Nepwo comes up, he (Nepwo Koowetsik and there are certain will swim in the middle of the River rules one must follow when catching so he isn’t caught with the nets. The them. This Yurok story is the Immortals (woge) only wanted explanation for the origin of the first salmon to go up on one side of the 75 fish ceremony . River to make sure they knew where they could get salmon. But they

25 Dance. The Jump Dance was held at the time when the spring salmon began their run and was initiated by the First Salmon Ceremony.

Powers gives the following account of the First Salmon Ceremony:

…They celebrate it to insure a good catch of salmon. The Kareya Indian [priest] retires into the mountains The Mouth of the River and fasts the same length of time as with multiple channels76 in autumn. On his return the people The first fish ceremony and associated flee, while he repairs to the river, ritual activities are of central importance takes the first salmon of the catch, to traditional tribal cultural life and eats a portion of the same, and with beliefs along the river. For example: the residue kindles the sacred smoke in the sudatory. No Indian may take The Karuk are known among Indian a salmon before this dance [used in tribes of the western as the sense of a ceremony] is held, nor for ten days after it, even if his family “the Fix-the-World People.” This 77 term is derived from the annual is starving (Powers p. 31) . Pikiavish Ceremonies, commonly referred to as the World Renewal The First Salmon Ceremony was Ceremonies. This sequence of conducted at the time of the summer ceremonies is shared by the Karuk salmon run, just before a day of with the downriver Yurok and Hupa communal fishing. …. The ritualist Tribes. The timing of the Pikiavish began by placing tobacco and herbs was related to the fall salmon run in resting pools along the rapids at and at the time approaching the Hamburg. He then fished at these acorn harvest. The dance cycle is places with a dip net late at night determined each year by a and early in the morning. As he ceremonial leader or headman who began to fish, word was sent to also appoints the Fatawanun for that neighboring villages, inviting them year. This appointment is at the same to come on the last fishing day of the time a source of honor and a great ceremony. …. Ten fish were roasted labor, as the Fatawanun is required for each village that attended. By to undergo a lengthy ordeal imbibing the salmon caught by the including fasting, praying, and First Salmon ritualist, the men of the tribe shared in fishing luck and now walking the Medicine Trails. 78 were granted fishing rights . Traditionally the Pikiavish was preceded by the Jump Dance held at Suppressed for many years, the the Dance Village of Amekiarum a traditional ceremonial activities short distance downriver from associated with the coming of the Katamin, site of the White Deerskin salmon and the renewal of the world

26 have been revived by the tribes in recent made everything. Then after a time years. Karuk practitioners say that he thought, “It is not quite right as I World Renewal ritual observances never have made it.” He put a screen of really stopped, but had to be held in brush at his fishing place. He secret. Public ceremonies recommenced concluded, “It is not right like that. at Inem, near Happy Camp, in about It is too far out in the stream. Let it 1968, at Katamin in about 1972, and move back a little toward the shore.” very recently (since tribal acquisition of Then he thought, “It is not right yet. key parcels of land along the river) at I do not think it will be good if I use Paniminik (Orleans)79. Among the brush. I do not want the salmon to go Yurok: through: I want them to go right where I am fishing with the net. Let I first saw a jump dance in 1988, the me make something flat and even.” third time it had been made since the So he made a weir (”dam”) of sticks Yuroks restored it in 1984 – forty- and tied them together with pounded five years after the last performance twigs (into a mat). Then he thought, in 1939. The dance struck me with “Now I think it is good as I have its sheer difficulty and demand for made it. Now when the people grow endurance and sacrifice as much as they will do that. It is a good way I with its extraordinary beauty. “It’s have made it now.” So now the not easy to fix the world,” said a people do like that. When they grew friend, a dancer and ceremonial they saw what he had made (“Karuk singer80. Myths,” Kroeber 1980 pp 71-72)81.

Traditional history also accounts for the Fish are not the only animals of the idea of building fish wiers to capture fish riverscape that figure in the traditional during the great spawning runs: history of the riverscape, and in the traditional beliefs of its people: Weirs were created by one of the immortals (Ikhareya) as an aspect of An indication of the close focus of creating salmon and preparing the Karuk life may be gauged from the structures and techniques that the aboriginal law that stories could humans to come would use in their only be told after the Acku-n, or capture: swamp robin (Varied Thrush) returned from it’s northern When he had made the salmon, this migration to winter in the Klamath ikhareya made what the Indians use: Basin. In the accompanying legend he made the scaffolding to fish from. the Tu-s, or yellow-breasted chat He made it of long poles. He bruised arrives in the spring and is grapevines with which to tie the welcomed as a true harbinger of poles and made it all good. He spring (pimnonahesh (pim=before; thought, “This they will do when nonahesh=summer). The thrush, Tu- they fish.” He laid a plank on the s, has the praise go to its head and poles to fish from, and on this he put begins singing late into the night so a little stool so that they could sit that by late summer people are while they fished. He thought he had commenting that that bird never

27 stops singing. The Tu-s goes into a of Yurok reverence for a creature huff and leaves which opens the way that provides sustenance to a people for the Acku-n to return (personal and way of life84. communication; Dwayne Allen 1997)82. In 1855, a letter was written to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs by Broad Patterns Special Agent Whipple, the first Indian Agent on the Klamath River The ethnographic reports document the Reserve. This letter is important following broad patterns of traditional because it clearly describes several cultural activity and belief associated aspects of Yurok land use and their with the Klamath Riverscape: relationship to the River. In recommending the reservation The relationship with salmon is at the boundaries extend five miles away core of the cultural systems of all the from the River, Whipple recognized Klamath River tribes. Obviously most the Yurok use of the entire watershed of the traditional historical material associated with the River. He quoted above deals with salmon and describes the salmon as “the staff of their relationships with humans. This life” for the Yurok Indians. He also reflects the central role that salmon describes the Lower Klamath as the played and play in the traditional lives of best salmon fishing grounds in the tribes. northern California. Whipple describes large alluvial terraces Salmon far exceeds other resources along the floodplain of the River that in its importance to the diet and were used to gather a wide variety of cultures of the Hoopa Valley, Yurok, plants, roots, and berries for food and other tribes who have and supplies (Whipple 1855)85. historically lived in the Klamath/Trinity Basin…. The Salmon and steelhead were not only United States Court of Appeals for sources of food, they were important the Ninth Circuit recognized in Blake parts of the spiritual environment. v. Arnett, 63 F.2d 906, 909 (9th Cir. Proper attendance to spiritual values 1981) (quoting U.S. v. Winans, 198 could bring the fish; wrong actions could U.S. 371, 381 [1905](, the primary make them stay away. The relationship importance of salmon to these tribes was symbiotic; people could use when the court concluded that the spiritual means to help the fish, just as fishery was “not much less necessary the fish brought spiritual as well as to the existence of the Indians than physical sustenance to the people. the atmosphere they breathed”83. A Yurok elder recounts how as a boy The English word ‘salmon’, denoting in the 1920’s he assisted in a several types of anadromous fish propitiating ceremony held at the does not readily translate into the mouth of the River during the Yurok word ‘ne po y’, “that which is summer. He recalls going down river eaten.” ‘Ne po y’ denotes more than in a traditional Yurok dugout canoe ‘fish’, but also includes connotations powered by an outboard motor and

28 guided by his father. As they then distribute to others whatever approached within five miles of the was left over87. coast they noticed that the River was backed up and stagnant because the Salmon, steelhead, and the other fish on sand buildup prevented the River which the tribes have depended are from flowing out to the ocean. obviously associated with the river. The Prayers and offerings were made on salmon and steelhead run (or ran) up the the sandbar. A day later a spirit river in vast numbers to spawn, and were guardian represented as a large rock (and to some extent still are) taken by granted the request and the River the tribes using wiers88, nets, and spears. broke through the sand bar, alleviate The pattern of salmon-human interaction flooding, and allowed fish to once is associated with the river from its again enter the River86. mouth to the farthest points upstream at which salmon spawn or spawned in the Salmon and steelhead continue to be past, and with the village sites, wier central to the way tribes relate to the sites, and other fishing sites along the riverscape environment, though their river and its banks. depletion and the impacts of modernity on the tribes have complicated the Ritual activities were and are largely relationship. Karuk elder Norman structured around the river and its Goodwin said: patterns of annual and seasonal change:

There used to be fish days, only so The ceremonial calendar of the many fish came up this run, not Yurok was tied to the River. The enough to feed all the communities First Salmon ceremony occurred at up to Happy Camp. Therefore Welkwau and the Fish Weir at Kepel. Indians speared fish, and had set The ceremonial calendar for Yurok nets and dip nets at Ikes and began with the first salmon run in Katamin. Now it is different. There is April and concluded in late turmoil and it is going to get worse September near the end of the fall since people are fishing at Katamin salmon run. The ceremonial cycle of for elders all over the place. This the Yurok was for the purposes of can’t work. There were fishing days world renewal or purification to and there were enough owners so a ensure good health, prosperity, and fish day came up every third day abundant food for the people under a family’s ownership. There (Kroeber 1976:53). In each of the were three fishing spots – two on this world renewal ceremonies, the side and one across the river. So Brush, the Deerskin, and the Jump there were three families fishing ceremonies, the River served an every day with a total of nine important function, either for families owning fishing days. Nine transportation, or purification. owners were a result of determining that that was all that could be taken The River played an important role out of the river without affecting the in Yurok funeral rites and stock of fish. If you owned a fish day purification rituals associated with you could take what you needed and death and the dead. Certain rock

29 features in the river were associated Indians, but to other Northwest with the proper handling of a corpse California Indians as well. Prayers and require strict adherence. At at the dances are directed toward the some localities, mourners purified well being of everyone, and food themselves after burial, a custom served at the dances is shared with that is still practiced today (Kroeber all who attend92. 1976:68-69)89. The River has a vital role in both Yurok settlements along the River Jump and the Deerskin ceremonies. fell into three ceremonial clusters. In the Jump Ceremony, two large From Bluff Creek down to Tule canoes are used for a boat dance Creek (Atsepar to Kenek), the that marks the climax of the confluence of the Trinity and ceremony. In the Deerskin Ceremony Klamath Rivers at Weitspus was held at Wetlkwau, ceremonialists considered the central location for from Turip, Rekwoi and Wetlkwau ceremonial matters. Similarly, from would dance in several canoes as Merip to Erner, Kepel was the they approached Rekwoi (Bearss central ceremonial location. Rekwoi 1969:6). The Yurok Tribe re- was the ceremonial center for introduced the Boat Ceremony on villages from Turip to the Pacific the Klamath River at Weitchpec in Ocean (Curtis 1924:40)90. 2002. The water level and river flow are critical elements of this ceremony. If there is not enough water in the River, it disrupts the ceremony by causing an unpredictable current. This occurred in 2002 and was attributed to low water causing a centering problem for the boats when they hit the rocky bottom and went off course. The Boat Ceremony in many ways represents the significance of the River in Yurok Ceremonial life and Rekwoi, still a major Yurok 93 91 world view . center. Or egos center-left

The ceremonial eating of the first The Hoopa Valley Tribe continues to caught salmon is a common feature conduct many of their traditional in all first salmon ceremonies. In religious ceremonies. The cultural Yurok, Hupa and Karuk cultures the significance of the Trinity River and first salmon caught was eaten by the its sacred localities is captured in medicine man (or formulist) and his many of these ceremonies. Religious assistant (Gunther 1928:148). sites on the river are ancient and Throughout the Pacific Northwest, were designated by spiritual deities salmon are believed to be people, at a time beyond living memory. who live similar lives to those on Hupa ceremonies are of unique land, while out at sea. The salmon importance not only to Hupa

30 have a chief or leader who leads them upriver and it is this being that The steep topography of the river canyon is honored in the ceremony. Proper itself was and is important in the respect for these beings must be strength and endurance training demonstrated in preparing and necessary to full participation in the conducting the ceremony in order to tribes’ intensive dance ceremonials: insure an abundance of salmon in the annual run (Gunther 1928:150). Winter is no time to be in the In the Yurok ceremony, the story of mountains, but it is the time to train the salmon leader, and his return to for strength – the dark, stormy time the sea is recounted (Gunther when the forces lending strength, 1928:152)94. bravery, and endurance are abroad in the world. A Hupa friend told me Spiritual activities involved and still that his own training, as a boy of involve all parts of the riverscape, nine or ten, began when his father including the slopes and ridges had him break the ice in the Trinity bordering the valley. During the World River and swim in the early morning. Renewal Ceremony, the priest travels up “That’s really starting ‘low,’” he the slopes and along the ridges, among said. Next came running up the bank other places, to reach places where holding a mouthful of water, and this prayers and rituals are carried out to seek man’s training has proceeded, the health of the salmon, the acorns, the virtually all of his life, uphill from people, animals, insects, and all other there. … (Some men), formally parts of the world95. committed to strength training, have practiced running up a mountain Hunting in the hills back away from the every day carrying a stone from the river has spiritual connotations: river below, slowly building a cairn of river rocks high in the hills as a Deer … were among the most prized testament to their efforts97. game. Their pursuit required many ritual acts of psychological, sexual Environmental stewardship was and is and personal purification designed an essential element of tribal culture in to prepare the hunter’s focus and the riverscape; the tribes maintained and intent. These acts included still believe in maintaining a healthy “sweating bathing, scarification and symbiotic relationship with the bleeding for luck, by smoking his riverscape’s plants, animals, water and weapons with herbs, and by fasting soil. For example, the tribes and sexual continence” (Bright, traditionally used fire as an important 1978 p. 181). Deer were so much a management tool to help maintain the part of Karuk life, legend and sense health of the environment: of correct cultural behavior that Bessie Tripp recalled her The Karuk use of fire as a land grandfather telling her that when management tool was complex and deer and bear came down to the multi-faceted. As with other river, the day of the Indian would be ceremonial and religious aspects of over forever96. Karuk culture, the role of fire was

31 one to be contemplated and learned pick up their acorns, and it from at the deepest levels. Born in generally never damaged much, 1904, Johnny Bennett was a Karuk because you could go to a forest, Indian and a lifelong resident of the great big old trees, like Salmon River country. In the redwoods, been burnt once, the following statement recorded in bark is black. One time there 1977, Mr. Bennett discusses his was fire there and the same way sense of an appropriate relationship in this country, when the of humans to the process of natural lightning hit they never put it out, succession. He considers the push them back, make a fire line, evolution of the forest as a complex let them go back up the process, not entirely comprehensible, mountain. Take sticks out there, but nevertheless subject to burn up against it.” penetrating study, one aim being to bring cultural processes into Johnny's discussion moves fluidly agreement with those of nature. This from metaphysics to warm personal non-dominating but purposeful memories, from the utilization of fire relationship to nature is enriched in his own boyhood back to the level and raised to the level of philosophy of generalization with recognition of by the contemplative quality of his the elemental qualities of nature as observations. These considerations an implacable total system. His of the relationship between lightning, defense of natural processes and biological evolution and cultural relationships is coupled with a practices reflect a uniquely Karuk mistrust of events and perspectives perspective which is simultaneously that tend to alter or slice through sacred and utilitarian. this complex system of relationships. From long observation of the self- “I'd like to know what the fires corrective process of the forest, a for. I'd just like to know what series of verities has been deduced was the fire for in a lightning, which may be formulated as follows: why did it have to burn? It's for all relationships, in human society as some cause now. It could storm well as in the natural ecology, exist without that, y'know, but it had to within a range of limits analogous to burn. I think about it many the cyclical limits observable within times. The old Indians say the nature, and are subject to the same Creator made it that way to clean processes of nurturement or out the forest. In places where it destruction as are ecological hit there would be a burn out, systems; understanding and harmony y'know, and they never put it out. with these enduring principles exist They'd push it back up the at levels which include the conscious mountain and it would burn, let it and verbal as well as the go. They wouldn't bother it unconscious and non-verbal. because they claim it was put Human life and society are affirmed there for some cause, and they as aspects of a more inclusive system said it was good because they of natural processes by these could sneak up on their game, conceptions of the forest and of the

32 place of the community in relation to as well as those that remain in this the forest98. world. There are several rocks in the mid section of the River that contain And more generally: rare petroglyphs that indicate instructions from the Creator to the We pray for the health of all the Yurok people. One such instruction animals, and prudently harvest and is a warning that when the River manage the great salmon runs and stops flowing it will mark the end of herds of deer and elk. We never the Yurok world. Some elders have waste and use every bit of the prophesied that the manipulation of salmon, deer, elk, sturgeon, eels, water flows through the dams is the seaweed, mussels, candlefish, otters, beginning of the end for Yurok sea lions, seals, whales, and other culture100. ocean and river animals. We also have practiced our stewardship of In summary, the Klamath Riverscape is the land in the prairies and forests intimately associated with the broad through controlled burns that patterns of tribal environmental improve wildlife habitat and enhance stewardship, spiritual life, and the health and growth of the tan oak relationships between humans and the acorns, hazelnuts, pepperwood nuts, non-human world. It is central to the berries, grasses and bushes, all of identities of the tribes, and of which are used and provide fundamental importance to the materials for baskets, fabrics, and continuance of their spiritual and utensils99. ceremonial lives. The connection between broad patterns of tribal culture Passage of the dead into the next world and the riverscape is particularly involves the river and landmarks along expressed through tribal relations with its course: the salmon. These associations as well as the way the river and other aspects of Just as children are born into the the riverscape figure in traditional Yurok world by being introduced in history justify regarding the Klamath various ways to the River and the Riverscape as eligible for the National culture that surrounds the riverine Register under Criterion A. way of life, so do the elderly depart from this world via the River and its Other National Register Criteria features. Rocks located in the River and at its edge are spirit people who A property need meet only one of the guide Yurok knowledge concerning National Register Criteria in order to be proper burial procedures. The eligible for the Register. Thus the deceased’s last worldly journey is a Klamath Riverscape’s eligibility under boat ride up-river. At each of Criterion A (as argued above) should be eighteen rocks from the mouth up to sufficient to justify FERC and the other Slate Creek and up the Trinity, consulting parties in regarding it as various burial rites and eligible. However, there may be some proscriptions are observed to assure merit in briefly considering the extent to the best departure for the deceased

33 which the Riverscape might meet any of found eligible, and landscapes are the other three criteria. typically classified as “districts” by the National Register. Following this logic, Criterion B provides that a property is the Klamath Riverscape can be eligible eligible if it is associated with the lives for the Register even if no particular part of persons significant in our past. of it – no specific site, structure, or National Register Bulletin 38 notes that object – is particularly “distinguishable.” as with Criterion A, “our” refers to the people who are thought to regard the Criterion D says that a property can be property as significant. It also says that: eligible if it has produced, or may produce, information significant in “(P)ersons” can be taken to refer history or prehistory. Sites excavated by both to persons whose tangible, archeologists in the Klamath Riverscape human existence…can be inferred…, have produced such information, and and to “persons” such as gods and others might if excavated. Moreover, demigods who figure in the the riverscape as a whole has been the traditions of a group.101” scene of fruitful ethnographic research, which continues to this day. Yurok traditionalists believe that the riverscape was made ready for the tribe Thus arguments could be made for the by the Spirit People, Wo’ge’,” and that eligibility of the Klamath Riverscape the Yurok themselves were placed on the under all the National Register Criteria, river by the Creator, Ko-won-no-ekc-on but like other traditional cultural Ne ka-nup-ceo102. Karuk believe that properties, the riverscape is most the Creator provides the fish and other obviously eligible under Criterion A. food that sustains the people103. The First Salmon is another significant Step Four: “Determine whether any of “person” associated with the river by all the National Register criteria the tribes104. The association of the considerations make the property riverscape with these traditional ineligible.” “people” should make it eligible under Criterion B. The “criteria considerations” in the National Register Criteria (36 CFR 60.4) Criterion C is usually applied to outline conditions under which a architectural properties; it provides that a property that might otherwise be thought place is eligible if it is an example of a eligible for the Register is not eligible, type or style or school, displays high because of – as the name implies – artistic value or is the work of a master. certain “considerations.” Most of the It would be a difficult criterion to apply “considerations” are obviously to a property like the Klamath inapplicable to the Klamath Riverscape, Riverscape. However, Criterion C also but one of them might be argued to specifies that a place can be eligible if it apply. represents “a distinguishable entity, the individual components of which may The “Religious Consideration” lack distinction.” It is under this subcriterion that “districts” are usually

34 Criteria Consideration AA holds that a community defines and speaks of it. To property is not eligible if it is owned by deny this historical importance simply a religious institution or used for because a non-local observer classifies religious purposes – except that such a its use or description as “religious” property may be eligible if it derives would be ethnocentric and biased. “primary significance from architectural or artistic distinction or historical Clearly, the tribes conduct “religious” importance.” National Register Bulletin ceremonies and rites along the Klamath 38 deals with the “religious River, and the river is understood by consideration” in some detail, warning tribal members to have great spiritual that: importance. There are particular places along the river that figure in vital ways Applying the “religious exclusion in tribal spiritual beliefs and practices. without careful and sympathetic These facts do not make the river consideration to properties of ineligible for the National Register; significance to a traditional cultural rather, they reflect the great historical group can result in discriminating importance of the river as the tribes against the group by effectively understand it – for which precise reason denying the legitimacy of its history the riverscape is eligible for the National and culture. Register.

The bulletin points out that the The other criteria considerations boundaries between “history” and “religion” are not clearly marked in Consideration B says that relocated many indigenous cultures, some of properties are not ordinarily eligible. which do not even have words for Clearly the Klamath Riverscape has not “religion.” It goes on to state flatly that: been relocated.

In simplest terms, the fact that a Consideration C excludes properties property is used for religious whose significance is based solely on purposes by a traditional group, their being the birthplaces or graves of such as seeing supernatural visions, important people. While important collecting or preparing native people have been born and interred medicines, or carrying out along the Klamath River, this fact is ceremonies, or is described by the marginal to the riverscape’s overall group in terms that are classified by significance. the outside observer as “religious” should not by itself be taken to make Consideration D excludes cemeteries, the property ineligible105. except where they are associated with historic events or meet certain other The bulletin’s rationale, in a nutshell, is criteria. The Klamath Riverscape that the “religious” use of a place by a includes cemeteries, but is not itself a traditional community, or references to it cemetery, and the cemeteries it does by the community in “religious” terms, contain are associated with the probably reflects the historical significant patterns of events that make significance of the place as the the riverscape eligible.

35 Conclusion Consideration E says that reconstructed properties are not eligible except under The above walk through the four-step narrowly defined circumstances. The evaluation process set forth in National Klamath Riverscape has obviously not Register Bulletin 38 demonstrates that been reconstructed. Some of the the Klamath Riverscape is eligible for traditional structures along the river, the National Register of Historic Places, such as the priestly sweathouses, dance and should be regarded as such during pits, and ceremonial grounds of the FERC’s compliance with Section 106 of Yurok and Karuk, have been the National Historic Preservation Act. reconstructed, but these constitute small (though important) parts of the overall riverscape. Furthermore, these structures might well be individually eligible for the Register, because Consideration E allows for the eligibility of particularly good reconstructions that represent types not preserved in original structures. One former Keeper of the National Register has also argued that where the nature of a structure is such that it requires frequent rebuilding, a reconstruction – even one reflecting Yurok drift netter and eel fisherman at the mouth considerable change from the original of the Klamath107 form – can be eligible for the Register because, in effect, it is the architectural and cultural tradition that counts, not the age of the materials of which the structure is built106.

Consideration F excludes commemorative properties from eligibility based on association with the events they commemorate. Obviously the Klamath Riverscape is not a commemorative property.

Consideration G says that properties achieving significance within the past 50 years are not eligible, unless they are “exceptionally significant.” Although the Klamath Riverscape has been regarded as significant within the past 50 years, and continues to be so regarded, its significance has far deeper roots.

36 The Effects of PacifiCorp’s and how many may be eroding around Klamath Hydroelectric Project the reservoir shorelines. Obviously one effect of the Project has been to inundate It appears inarguable that the Klamath at least some of these sites, erode them, Riverscape is eligible for the National and destroy them in other ways (e.g., Register of Historic Places, so the next through construction impacts and question that FERC will need to consider subsequent road building, maintenance, in the course of its compliance with etc.). If there are other sites in the area Section 106 is, what effects does that Bogus Tom Smith and Moffett operation of the PacifiCorp Project have Creek Jake did not know about or did on the riverscape? not choose to mention to Merriam, they have doubtless been suffering the same Under the Section 106 regulations, an fate. The same can be said of culturally action has an adverse effect on a historic significant locations that are not village property if it alters elements of the sites – for example, fishing sites, property that contribute to its eligibility petroglyph sites, and locations of for the National Register, in ways that spiritual importance. Destruction of diminish the property’s integrity. locations that contribute to the eligibility of the riverscape clearly alters such The effects of the Klamath Hydroelectric locations, and hence diminishes the Project within the Project footprint – that integrity of the riverscape as an eligible is, the reaches of the river on which the property. Project’s dams stand and which are flooded by its reservoirs – can be Coyote Point provides an example of usefully distinguished from those this kind of effect. This pinnacle, downstream of the Project’s most down- overlooking the flooded river behind river dam, Iron Gate. Effects upstream Iron Gate Dam, is associated with the from the reservoirs are addressed in a widespread story of “Coyote Steals separate report (Deur 2004). Fire,” as told by the Shasta. Two prominent rock outcrops on its slope are Effects Within the General Project called “the witch sisters,” who are said Footprint to have turned to stone when Turtle went into the river, because they thought he Within the project footprint, particularly would put out the fire. It is said that in the reservoir areas proper, village Coyote Point was determined ineligible sites, fishing stations, ceremonial sites, for the National Register by the Bureau and other locations associated with the of Land Management prior to its transfer ancestors of the Shasta and perhaps other out of federal ownership; if so, this tribes have certainly been inundated. determination was almost certainly in The Shasta Ethnographic Report, citing error, because the place is equivalent to the work of C. Hart Merriam, Bogus many, many other places that have been Tom Smith, and Moffett Creek Jake in determined eligible as traditional cultural the early twentieth century, lists twenty- properties. Coyote Peak has not been eight Shasta village sites within the destroyed, but it has certainly been Project boundaries; it is not clear how changed; a parking area and structures many of these may have been inundated have been cut into its flank, and the river

37 where Turtle entered it is deep Reservoir110; access to these resources underwater. Shasta tribal representative may mitigate the effects of blocked Mary Carpelan says that the Peak’s access to certain riverine resources, but significance has not been destroyed, but it does not undo those effects. only because “no matter what happens to it, it will always be where those things Finally, the reservoirs have modified the happened”108 It is difficult (for this natural environment of the riverscape author, at least) to believe that the within the Project’s boundaries in a wide changes imposed upon Coyote Point variety of ways, most notably by have not affected the integrity of its interrupting salmon runs and inundating association with the story of Coyote the habitats of non-anadromous fish and Steels Fire, and hence its eligibility for terrestrial wildlife. There are persistent the National Register. stories of deliberate eel poisoning at the dams, because the eels “mess up the turbines”111. The salmon, other fish, other wildlife, and their natural habitats are all elements that contribute to the eligibility of the riverscape, so such modifications constitute adverse effects.

Effects Downstream from Iron Gate Dam

Effects of the Project downstream from Iron Gate Dam are less straightforward Coyote Point. Witch Sisters than those within the Project area itself. center-right109 Such effects must be understood as parts The reservoirs have also the effect of of a complex of cumulative effects – keeping from accessing contributions to the overall the river and any specific places along transformation of the river from its the river within the Project area. Shasta natural condition to the way it is at people need access to the river for present. This complex of effects is the purposes of fishing, gathering culturally result of a variety of forces. Besides the important plant materials, and other PacifiCorp Project, contributors include purposes related to the river’s cultural the dams managed by the Bureau of significance. Thus blocking Shasta Reclamation (BOR), farming practices, access to the river constitutes an adverse particularly in the Klamath Basin effect on the riverscape, because the upstream from the Project, logging, relationship between the tribes and the mining, sewage disposal, and other river, including tribal use of the river for modern human activities along the river, cultural purposes, is an element that and offshore commercial and contributes to the riverscape’s recreational fishing that depletes salmon significance. Shasta basketmakers today and steelhead runs in the river. To these access willow stands and other resources contemporary impacts must be added the along Camp Creek and Jenny Creek, past impacts of hydraulic mining, which streams that flow into Iron Gate tore down riverbanks, altered

38 streamflow, and filled in fishing holes. o Release of insufficient It is beyond the scope of this report to water down the river, or detail all the effects of all these sources, releases at the wrong but it may be helpful to characterize times, or in the wrong them in general and then to consider amounts, to meet the what contribution the PacifiCorp Project biological needs of all may itself have to the overall pattern of fish species, at all life effects. stages.

The culturally significant character of o Release of water that has the riverscape is fundamentally been warmed (or cooled) controlled by the character of the river, by being held in which in turn is controlled by the reservoirs, creating an quantity and quality of water flowing unnatural and detrimental down it and the manner in which flows temperature regime for are regulated, whether by natural or fish. human agent. Insufficient water, or water that has been polluted, obviously o Release of water that is affects direct human consumption and polluted by agricultural other uses, but it also has a variety of runoff from above the damaging effects on the riverscape’s reservoirs, full of cultural values. Effects discussed in the chemical foam and algae, ethnographic reports and elsewhere, and making it unhealthy not by tribal consultants, include: only for fish but also for people to drink or bathe • Impediments to tribal river in. access, particularly just downstream from Iron Gate o Deposition of sediment in Dam. cold-water holes where fish congregate. • Blocking the passage of anadromous fish up the river – o Creation of a flow regime resulting from the simple in which periodic presence of the dams112. flushing flows (“freshets”) are replaced • Other impacts on fish – ranging by a flat flow punctuated 114 from catastrophic effects like the by flood events , failing massive 2002 fish kill to a to clear away sand and general decline in the populations gravel bars at the mouths of both anadromous and resident of tributaries and thus fish, and including the complete sealing off spawning or near elimination of particular ground and fish refugia. fish runs113., resulting from such factors as: • Through the same alterations in flow regime, causing erosion of culturally important areas along

39 the river, such as the World coastal plain that water is just barely Renewal site Katamin. moving. I don’t care how deep it is, it’s just barely moving116. • Through flow alterations, temperature changes, and Seventy-three year old Laverne Glaze or pollution, causing damage to the Orleans said: health of plants required for basketry and other cultural “I remember when I was 10 years purposes. old going eeling, there was a platform down at , all Such effects have obvious implications the eels that came out of that, I just for the relationships of the tribes to the couldn’t believe it. And now we can river, the fish, special places along the hardly get an eel. And that was 60 river, and other elements that contribute years ago117.” to the significance of the riverscape. If the salmon do not run, the First Salmon Based on the testimony of Norman Ceremony becomes meaningless. If the Goodwin, a 74-year old Karuk fisherman priest’s sweatlodge washes away, the at Katimin, the Karuk ethnographic priest cannot use it during the World report notes that: Renewal Ceremony. If the river is too polluted to bathe in, important The Karuk used to fish with spears purification rituals cannot be performed. on creeks, but now the runs are down If people cannot get enough salmon, or to a level where this is not feasible as steelhead, or lampreys, their connection spear fishing requires a lot of fish118. with the riverscape is diminished. The Yurok ethnographic report discusses Many of the consultants who contributed the observations of Desmond “Merkie” to the ethnographic reports, and who met Oliver, a renowned Yurok fisherman: with the author, commented on such effects. Shasta elder Roy Hall, Sr., for Candlefish … used to be a major fish example, reports that forty years ago species in the River. There used to be steelhead and salmon were thick in the millions that come up the River. Merkie irrigation ditches around Yreka, but this recounts that the last good run of candlefish happened in 1986. Since then has not been the case for a long time. a few trickle through between December Although the Scott River remains and February. He is not sure what has fishable, the Klamath itself becomes caused the decline in the Candlefish blackish brown and streaked with foam population. They used to catch them in not far below Iron Gate Dam, and is no dip nets and they would haul in a full good for fishing or the collection of catch. In 1996, he reported seeing only freshwater clams115. Farther two candlefish119. downstream, Karuk elder Grant Hillman said: Mr. Oliver reports that deep pools in the river where fish used to congregate have And this is the whole thing and they become filled in, and that islands have formed due to the relatively slow movement say how come the fish all died down of the water. The mouths of small streams there. Pretty simple, when it hits that that used to provide refugia and spawning

40 areas for fish have become choked with Now the water comes up and silts in gravel bars resulting from upstream logging, around them (willow) because there which are not flushed away by the river 120 are big bunch of them and sand because the water flows too slowly . comes in across these river bars. There used to be sand on the river bar at the end of Orleans Bridge. There wasn’t all those big gray willow trees. There was just clumps of little willows toward the edge. The basket weavers all started to complain in the Seventies that their willows were buggy. They weren’t sending out new shoots and they just got buggy and it’s because they were above the water line. The water had

Example of sediment buildup gone down. In ’76 the creeks all at tributary mouth121 started to get low and get sluggy looking, dark green oily looking. All Karuk elder Renee Stauffer said: over the river moss was growing123.

Now nobody swims in the river Tribal consultants view the water of the anymore. The water will give you river as polluted, too warm, too slow- parasites. It seems like even when I flowing, and full of algae. They report used to swim in it, like say this time significant decreases in a wide range of of the year, the river didn’t look like animals and plants, notably salmon and what it looks like now. Now it looks steelhead but also including other fish, like stagnant water there, even eels, and food and basket plants that though the water was lower, it still used to grow along the river. Their had movement. That was in the observations are broadly consistent with fifties. We’d swim down here by the those of environmental scientists124. bridge and it was all sand. There wasn’t the big willows growing The impacts of changes to the river on there. Now there is vegetation the spiritual/cultural uses of the growing up that didn’t used to be riverscape are obvious to consultants. there and the algae and stuff Karuk elder Grant Hillman said: growing in the river making access 122 hard . Everything about our ceremonies here on the river is about fish. Fishing and swimming are not the only Ninety percent of it has to do culturally important activities that are with fish. Bringing the fish up at affected by changes in the river. Access the right time and with the dam to plants needed for basket-making, one up there you can’t bring them up of Native California’s supreme art at the right time. And you can’t forms, is also affected. Karuk elder change fish. They have been Mavis McCovey said: coming up this river since time

41 began. So they ain’t gonna The Karuk ethnographic report sums up: change; they will die first125. A profound unity emerged from the Yurok elder Merkie Oliver showed the concerns of Karuk individuals with author many tributaries along the lower (the) core elements of water quality river whose mouths have become and fish at two levels. First, these clogged with gravel and sand. Although were issues that concerned every this sedimentation is said to result from person interviewed. Secondly, there poor logging practices in the upper was a remarkable consistency between watersheds of the streams, insufficient these Native concerns… and those of flows in the river are blamed for failing the technical experts addressing the to flush the sediment out and open the state of the Klamath River from the streams up for fish. perspectives of biologists, geomorphologists, and other Karuk Vice-Chairman Leaf Hillman, as professionals examining the same mentioned above, showed the author a range of issues127. number of ceremonial sites that have been affected seriously by erosion in In the context of the present study, the recent years, endangering and in some observations of tribal consultants and cases simply removing locations needed analysts, and the author’s own limited in the ongoing conduct of Karuk observations, not only support the well- traditional religious and cultural known conclusion that the river’s health practice. has been severely compromised, but indicate that the association of the tribes About ½ of with the riverscape, which gives the pit lost riverscape its cultural significance, is also at risk.

Relevance of Downstream Effects to PacifiCorp’s Project

But how much of this pattern of change Entrance for the worse is attributable to PacifiCorp’s Project? Many of the tribal consultants see very direct links128. Eroding sweathouse site at Amekiarum, Yurok elder Walt McCovey said: documented to have been in use through early 20th century126 I think Iron Gate has a lot to do with Upstream in Shasta country, Roy Hall the Klamath River because what it’s Sr. emphasized not only that the river doing is during these slack years below Iron Gate Dam has become too when there is less water, that algae polluted to use safely, but that tribal builds up in the bottom of swimming access to the river has been blocked by ponds, well that’s the same thing agricultural interests that have obtained that’s happening up there now and title to the land. we’re getting this fertilizer and stuff from them farms building up on the

42 floor of these little reservoirs. It is Karuk elder V. Grant Hillman spoke building up thick and then we get a similarly: little high water and they hold the water back. They hold the water I’ve noticed as a kid swimming down back because they’re trying to keep here, how the water fluctuated every their water level in the reservoirs afternoon. The river, you could go which cuts it short from going into down there swimming like at the ocean. Then it just builds up and noontime, the water’s going down. finally we get our weather and they Then around 4:30 or 5 o’clock, here say, ‘Okay, we hit our level,’ and comes the river back up – from the they turn it loose. Then they open the dam. Every single day. You could set gates and all we get is that slush and your clock by it. And I’m down there cow shit and debris from them swimming every day and this water reservoirs and it’s pouring into our is going up and down every day. water and there is that white foamy That was during the depression stuff on the top of the water and this years, like ’35, ‘34 or ’35. If you’re algae that is so thick you can’t even raising this water every day then walk in it and it’s no good for the dropping it, you could go along the fish. It’s no good for the wildlife. It’s shore when you’re swimming and no good for nothing. And anymore you see schools of these little bitty even if we do have a high water it fish, thousands of them all along the doesn’t flush it. It goes down the river banks. When this river raises little channels where the water is every day, then drops these fish are supposed to be and all this algae is caught because they are right along on the sides and it floats up and goes the shore where they are safe. These down to where the fish are and never were baby salmon and steelhead. goes away. There it is. That has a lot There was everything. I don’t believe of effect on our river. it really affected the eels because I’ve seen eels like in the sand, The River used to have high winter sandbars, y’know where the sand is flows. People would move around in the wet. They would be in there. But winter. The River would rise 40-50 feet these little fellows…they did it every every year in peak flows. Walt recalls day130. high water and flood events in 1955, 1964, and 1974. High water events Consultants do not fail to see other removed silt and sediments and large sources of impact on the river. Earl woody debris from the river. Now the Aubrey, Karuk, said: flows are not high enough to float out the big logs over the riffles or clear out the gravel and sediments that pile up at Our weather has changed. We ain’t the mouths of the creeks. The got the snow. We ain’t got the rain. construction of dams on the Klamath We ain’t got the water. And with and the Trinity Rivers had a big impact everybody taking water out of the on the River and its annual flow. Walt water that’s here, it even makes it stated that a significant decline in fish less water than we should have131. population was evident after the 129 construction of the dams .

43 Some even find good in the dams. variables that operate far upstream – Karuk Norman Goodwin said: both PacifiCorp and Bureau of Reclamation dams, the diversion of When I was young, the water flow water for agriculture, the input of would begin rising about two o'clock pollutants from agriculture and the in the afternoon. This was due to the growth of algae in over-warm water – Copco Dams operating on a and variables that operate below the schedule of 12 hours on and 12 dams, like logging, roadbuilding and hours off. In this situation, Iron Gate maintenance, and residential/commercial helped the fish due to evening out the development. The effects of long-past flow, this helped out the spawning. and abandoned practices like hydraulic With uneven water flows gravel bars mining may contribute to the situation as would be exposed which trapped and well. The effects of development and killed young fish. land use on the Klamath River are a classic example of cumulative impacts, However, he went on: which are notoriously difficult to sort out. FERC and other agencies are Even so, I don’t think the dams are responsible for considering such needed. If Iron Gate and the Copco impacts135, however, and it is hard to Dams were removed the salmon imagine that PacifiCorp’s dams are not would be able to spawn again in the parts of the cumulative impact equation. upper Klamath132. One clue to the dams’ contribution to Similarly, Shasta elder Roy Hall, Sr. cumulative impacts, or at least to that of advised the author that he favored the Iron Gate Dam, may lie in the timing of dams as a way to control flow down the reported impacts on the riverscape’s river, and saw agricultural pollution as a integrity. Roy Hall, Sr. reported that fish far bigger problem133. His daughter have not been seen in the irrigation Mary Carpellan, however, provided a canals below Iron Gate since about forty succinct assessment of the relationships years ago. Mavis McCovey said the between agricultural pollution and the creeks began to get “low and sluggy dams. The pollution, she said, flows into looking” in 1976. Ron Reed and Leaf the reservoirs and then “sits there and Hillman of the Karuk, men in their 40s, stews,” creating a rich, warm broth of reported that the heavy erosion of chemicals and algae that then is released ancient sites like Kataman has happened down the river134. in their lifetimes. Merkie Oliver said that an extensive island now present near The varying views of the tribal the mouth of the river had appeared consultants are not surprising, given the about twenty years ago136. These reports complexity of the system they have been collectively suggest that whatever had observing over their lifetimes. It is happened to the river earlier, some sort apparent that many factors interact to of significant change for the worse cause the river’s ongoing deterioration – occurred around 40 years ago. A including more or less natural, or at least cursory inspection of the historical large-scale, factors like regional and record reveals only one event in the even global weather/climate change, early 1960s that might have had such an

44 effect – construction of Iron Gate Dam Adversity of Effects Under Section 106 in 1962137. On the other hand, agricultural use of the Klamath Basin The Section 106 regulations specify that expanded in the decades following an adverse effect on a historic property World War II, and there may be other exists – factors that could have contributed to the reported changes. At the very least, -- when an undertaking may alter, however, the testimony of tribal directly or indirectly, any of the consultants suggests that Iron Gate Dam characteristics of a historic property has contributed to erosion, island that qualify the property for creation, and drastic reductions in fish inclusion in the National Register in populations. In the last context, it is a manner that would diminish the worth noting that low releases from Iron integrity of the property's location, Gate Dam are specifically implicated in design, setting, materials, the September 2002 fish kill on the workmanship, feeling, or lower Klamath, both by the U.S. Fish association140. and Wildlife Service138 and by the California Department of Fish and It appears, at the very least, that the Game. However, the water available for PacifiCorp Project – together with other release from Iron Gate is dependent on human actions in the Klamath Basin – is what is available from farther up the altering characteristics of the Klamath Klamath system, and the 2002 fish die- Riverscape that make it eligible for the off is only one, albeit spectacular, National Register, in ways that diminish example of the problems that beset the the integrity of its setting, feeling, and river. association with the cultural values of the Shasta, Karuk, and Yurok Tribes. What, then, would be the effect of relicensing the PacifiCorp Project? Significance of Effects Under NEPA Relicensing would perpetuate PacifiCorp’s contributions to the We have been considering the Klamath’s troubles, whatever those significance of the Klamath Riverscape, contributions may be. Absent some and Project impacts on it, largely in the remarkable showing that the dams context of FERC’s responsibilities under somehow are not part of the pattern of Section 106 of NHPA. Even if Section cumulative effects on the river, it has to 106 did not apply, however, FERC and be concluded that relicensing would other Federal agencies would have have an adverse effect on the Klamath responsibilities toward the riverscape Riverscape. Section 106 of the National under the National Environmental Policy Historic Preservation Act requires Act (NEPA). review not only of new effects but of continuing ones139; PacifiCorp’s The regulations governing compliance Klamath River Project is making a with the procedural requirements of continuing contribution, at some level, to NEPA), at 40 CFR 1508.27(b)(3) and cumulative impacts on the quality of the (b)(8), identify “cultural resources” Klamath River and the viability of its (distinguished from “historic resources” use by the tribes for cultural purposes. and from National Register eligible

45 properties) among the factors to be at least, to be happening along the river considered in judging the significance of in Karuk country – then if such sites are environmental impacts. Although most on Federal (e.g. Forest Service) or tribal of this report has focused on the (e.g. Karuk or Yurok) lands143 it would National Register eligibility of the appear that PacifiCorp and FERC would Klamath Riverscape, it should be evident be responsible for consulting with the both from the above discussion and from tribes to develop and implement a the ethnographic reports that the NAGPRA plan of action, or for Klamath Riverscape is the physical addressing each discovery individually cultural environment of the tribes, and as prescribed in the regulations. The that its health is intimately related to the difficulty in carrying out this health of their less tangible cultural responsibility, of course, would lie in institutions. The Klamath Riverscape, deciding the extent to which PacifiCorp the river itself, and its fish would be key action was responsible for the discovery. cultural resources for the tribes even if they were not eligible for the National Effects on Archeological, Historical, Register. To the extent the dams and Scientific Data contribute to the pattern of cumulative impacts on the riverscape, they have an The Archeological Data Preservation adverse effect on the integrity of these Act (ADPA), also known as the resources, which must be considered in Archeological and Historic Preservation project review under NEPA. Act, makes Federal agencies responsible for recovering “historical, archeological, Effects on Native American Graves and or scientific data” threatened by actions Cultural Items they propose to carry out, assist, or license. Such data may be in Section 3(d) of the Native American archeological (or other) sites that are Graves Protection and Repatriation Act eligible for the National Register, but (NAGPRA) prescribes how discoveries they need not be to qualify for of ancestral Native American graves and consideration under the ADPA. cultural items are to be handled on Federal and tribal lands. The regulations Certainly the ancient village, ceremonial, governing NAGPRA compliance specify and burial sites that are eroding along a rather elaborate process of tribal and the river, and that presumably lie under agency notification and consultation, and around the shores of the reservoirs, leading to the disposition of human contain the kinds of data that are the remains and cultural items discovered141. subjects of the ADPA, so FERC and They also permit agencies to avoid other agencies involved in the reservoirs undertaking such elaborate procedures or in management of flows down the with respect to each discovery if they Klamath may have responsibilities under have developed a “plan of action” in this act as well as under Section 106, consultation with tribes142. NEPA, and NAGPRA.

To the extent the PacifiCorp Project is causing erosion of tribal residential, ceremonial, and burial sites – as seems,

46 Effects on Traditional Tribal Religious religious practice. The logic of AIRFA Practice would also suggest that FERC should seriously consider doing what it can to Another law that is pertinent to tribal use undo damage done in the past, in order of the Klamath Riverscape is the to help the tribes regain the ability to American Indian Religious Freedom Act practice their religion in traditional (AIRFA), which articulates a policy of ways. respect for and protection of tribal rights to the practice of traditional religion. Effects on Indian Sacred Sites Although AIRFA provides little direction about how agencies are to carry Executive Order 13007 directs Federal out this policy, it has generally been agencies to try to avoid physical impact interpreted to require consultation with to “Indian sacred sites” on Federal and tribes when planning actions that might Indian land, and to avoid blocking tribal affect religious practice, and actions to access to such sites. Sites like avoid impact to such practice where Paniminik, owned by the Karuk Tribe feasible. and recognized as a place of great spiritual importance, qualify as such The tribes obviously use the Klamath sites; there may be sites meeting the River, its water, its fish, and other executive order’s definition on other elements of the Klamath Riverscape for tribal land or on land managed by the religious purposes. It is not at all to Forest Service, Bureau of Land much to say that the river is central to Management, or Bureau of Reclamation. the tribes’ religious practice. The A site need not be eligible for the Klamath Hydroelectric Project and other National Register to be a “sacred site” in projects in the Klamath Basin have terms of the executive order. FERC144 changed the river, and continue to and other agencies need to consider this change it, in ways that are deleterious to possibility in making decisions about the tribal religious practice. They do this by Klamath Hydroelectric Project and other altering the quality of the river’s water, actions along the river. which is traditionally used for purification rituals. They do this by Trust Responsibility for the Riverscape altering the habits and habitats of the fish that play central roles in religious Beyond the requirements of any specific belief. They do this by causing the law or executive order, the federal erosion of locations where key spiritual government has a broad trust activities must take place. They do this responsibility toward federally by fundamentally altering the character recognized Indian tribes, derived from of the river as an environment in which the Constitution, a great many treaties, people can touch the immortal. laws and policies extending back to the earliest days of the nation, and a massive Under AIRFA, FERC and other Federal corpus of case law. The trust agencies are obligated to consult with responsibility has most recently been the tribes and try to make decisions articulated in a government-wide manner about actions affecting the river in such in Executive Order 13175. a way as to avoid doing further injury to

47 Partly in response to this executive Karuk have retained rights to the order, FERC has acknowledged in Klamath’s fish as well. official polity that— Apparently using a broader definition, --as an independent agency of the the Trinity River EIS identifies not only federal government, it has a trust anadromous fish but “non-anadromous responsibility to Indian tribes and fish, water, wildlife, and vegetation” as this historic relationship requires it “trust-protected assets”149. to adhere to certain fiduciary standards in its dealings with Indian All this suggests that in order to tribes145. implement its policy on consultation with tribes, FERC must understand itself FERC goes on to pledge itself to to have a trust responsibility toward at working with tribes on a government-to- least tribal rights to anadromous fish in government basis to address the effects the Klamath Riverscape, and arguably of proposed projects on tribal rights and toward a broad array of the riverscape’s resources. Thus FERC has committed other contributing elements. itself to exercising the Federal government’s trust responsibilities Environmental Justice Considerations toward tribes Executive Order 12898 on Depending on its context, the term “trust “environmental justice” calls upon responsibility” with respect to Indian Federal agencies to do what they can to tribes and the United States government prevent disproportionate adverse is usually taken to connote either the environmental impacts on low income relatively narrow responsibility to and minority populations. The tribes – protect tribal interests in “trust assets” to both those that are federally recognized which a tribe has rights by treaty, statute, and those that are not – constitute such or outright ownership (timber, minerals, populations. fish)146, or the more general responsibility to be sensitive to and Guidance from the Council on represent tribal interests vis-à-vis other Environmental Quality, Environmental parties. Protection Agency, and Department of Justice indicates that agencies are to Taking the narrow definition first, it is comply with Executive Order 12898 by well established that the Yurok and identifying low income and minority Hupa Tribes have federally recognized communities that might be affected by rights to fish in the Klamath River and their actions, by involving such its tributaries147. The Karuk have not communities in their environmental been held to possess such rights, review work, and by working with such apparently because the tribe lacks a communities to identify and, if possible, treaty explicitly reserving them. avoid or mitigate disproportionate However, one of the central tenets of adverse effect on aspects of the Indian law is that tribes retain all rights environment that affect or are important not explicitly ceded148, so arguably the to low income and minority people. In the case of the Klamath Riverscape, all

48 the tribes (both federally recognized and The California Environmental Quality non-recognized) are minority Act communities, and probably low-income as well. FERC and such other federal agencies as the Forest Service, Bureau of Land It is evident from the preceding Management and Bureau of Reclamation discussion that the dams contribute to a are not required to comply with the pattern of cumulative effects on the California Environmental Quality Act cultural values and interests of the tribes (CEQA), but state agencies and – aspects of the environment that are of subdivisions are, so PacifiCorp is great importance to them. This would be doubtless subject to CEQA’s terms. the case even if the Klamath Riverscape CEQA is much like NEPA – it requires were found ineligible for the National an analysis of a project’s environmental Register, because whatever the impacts, and consideration of the results significance of the riverscape in the eyes of this analysis in decision making. of the National Register, to the tribes it is utterly central to their cultural identity. Among the resource types that must be considered under CEQA are “historical This being the case, it is equally evident resources” – defined as resources listed that the effects of the dams, together in, or determined eligible for listing in with the other contributors to the the California Register of Historical Klamath’s plight, fall disproportionately Resources150. Properties listed in or on the tribes. While others live within formally determined eligible for the the riverscape, travel through it, fish in it National Register are automatically and hunt in it, only the tribes have an included in the California Register. If a intimate cultural connection to the property is not included in, and has not riverscape going back to time yet been determined eligible for, the immemorial. Only to the tribes is the California Register, the State’s CEQA riverscape the core of their cultural guidelines imply, but do not very identity. Maintaining and reinforcing explicitly require, that the agency or this association is particularly important local government responsible for review today, as the tribes work to reestablish take steps to determine its eligibility151. their traditional belief systems and ways The criteria of eligibility for the of life. California Register closely parallel those for the National Register. This suggests that FERC and other federal agencies, in carrying out In CEQA review of a PacifiCorp (or environmental review of the Klamath other) project affecting the Klamath Hydroelectric Project and other actions Riverscape, it would almost certainly be along the river, should give special most efficient simply to regard the attention to effects of all kinds – riverscape as eligible for the State including cultural effects – that are Register and proceed to consider effects important to the tribes, including not on it. only the federally recognized Yurok, Karuk, and Hupa, but the non- The CEQA guidelines’ criteria of recognized Shasta as well. adverse effect are more narrowly defined

49 than those in the Section 106 One could certainly split hairs about regulations. A project must “demolish… whether the Klamath Riverscape’s or materially alter.. in an adverse manner eligibility for the National Register those physical characteristics of an would make it eligible for the State historical resource that convey its Register as well, and about whether an historical significance and that justify its adverse effect under Section 106 would inclusion in, or eligibility for” the necessarily equal an adverse change California Register152. under CEQA. To do so, however, would be at best inadvisable – not only because All of the elements identified in this it might deprive the riverscape of a report as contributing to the significance degree of consideration under the law, of the Klamath Riverscape have physical but because it would immensely characteristics. The river is a physical complicate the environmental review characteristic, the water in it is physical, process. The riverscape is significant as are the fish, the lands alongside the under multiple federal laws – NHPA, river, the plants that grow there, the NEPA, AIRFA, and others – whose specific fishing and living and application overlaps that of CEQA. ceremonial sites, and for that matter the Trying to tease these apart and treat people who use the river. Fish are them separately is a formula for certainly affected by being killed or kept confusion and frustration. It would be from spawning; World Renewal far wiser to acknowledge the manifest Ceremony sites are affected by being significance of the riverscape and the washed away. But is the riverscape, as a seriousness of effects on it, and look for physical phenomenon, affected by ways to address the latter in ways that something as intangible as the are sensitive to the former. destruction of the tribes’ cultural links to the river and its denizens?

One could certainly argue that it is not, but to do so would be to deny what must be CEQA’s central purpose. Perhaps, as some tribal people would probably argue, the riverscape itself is a sentient being that is pained by being adversely affected, but it is doubtful that the California Legislature had this in mind in enacting CEQA. It surely must be the case that CEQA was enacted because it was construed to have some value to the people of California. If this is so, it would be nonsensical not to consider the intangible cultural values that people ascribe to the environment when analyzing environmental impacts. Two of the Riverscape’s most important contributing elements: fish and culture153

50 Recommendations PacifiCorp remove all project facilities and restore the river to something The ethnographic reports and other data approximating its pre-dam condition, suggest that the Klamath Riverscape is would contribute to restoring the eligible for the National Register and riverscape’s culturally valued character that the operations of the Klamath and arresting the decline of its integrity. Hydroelectric Project, coupled with the An alternative short of this doubtless effects of other projects, are having controversial step would be to relicense adverse effects on it. These effects must the Project with the requirement that be addressed by FERC and others under Iron Gate Dam and the Copco a range of legal requirements, including complexbe removed. There may be Section 106 of NHPA, NEPA, other combinations of dam removal and NAGPRA, AIRFA, Executive Orders retention that would be helpful. Nothing 12898 and 13007, and the federal FERC causes PacifiCorp to do will be a government’s trust responsibility toward cure-all for the Klamath River’s tribes; nonfederal entities may also need problems, but FERC’s decision will to address them under CEQA. So what affect whether the river’s fisheries and can be done to reduce the adversity of riparian conditions – and hence its the effects? cultural integrity – can ever be restored.

Recommendations to FERC The Klamath Hydroelectric Project has been identified by tribal observers as The impacts of the Klamath serious contributors to the riverscape’s Hydroelectric Project on the cultural ill health. These conclusions should be integrity of the Klamath Riverscape respected – based as they are on an cannot be segregated from its effects on observational history extending farther the natural environment, including but into the past than that of any other party not limited to salmon and steelhead monitoring the river’s condition, and populations and other anadromous and supported as they are by current resident fish. No resolution to the scientific analyses. FERC should give project’s adverse effects on the serious consideration to not relicensing riverscape exists that is exclusively the the project and requiring removal of at domain of historic preservation, or least Iron Gate Dam. FERC must weigh exclusively under the purview of the the beneficial use of the River as a cultural resource legal authorities. What traditional Riverscape, along with the FERC decides to do about the project’s value of its fisheries to the tribes and for impacts on the natural environment will society as a whole, against the determine what it does about impacts on hydropower the project generates. The the cultural environment. In this case, burden of proof should be placed upon the natural environment is the cultural PacifiCorp to present and justify environment. alternatives to dam removal.

As a result, FERC’s historic preservation Recommendations to PacifiCorp responsibilities bear directly on FERC’s basic relicensing decision. Not When FERC relicenses a hydroelectric relicensing the project, and requiring that project, it characteristically requires the

51 applicant to prepare and implement a downstream from Iron Gate Dam, but “Historic Properties Management Plan” because the major actions that (HPMP) in consultation with tribes, PacifiCorp might take to alleviate State Historic Preservation Officers, impacts on the Riverscape would Tribal Historic Preservation Officers, necessarily be taken at the dams and other stakeholders. The HPMP themselves, by altering flow regimes, should follow guidelines issued jointly effecting fish passage, or removing by FERC and the Advisory Council on facilities. Historic Preservation154. Among the principles that the guidelines say should The guidelines go on to note that: guide HPMP development are that – The HPMP should be based on The scope of the HPMP should be sufficient studies to predict the likely clearly defined, and should establish effects of Project activities on historic an approach to address effects on properties, and should provide for the private lands155. conduct of additional studies that may be needed157. The discussion of this principle in the guidelines reminds applicants that “the As repeatedly noted above, it is difficult Project area is not necessarily the same to sort out precisely what the effects of as the area that is affected by project the Klamath Hydroelectric Project are operations and management,” and vis-à-vis those of other human activities directs that “the geographic scope of the in the Klamath Basin – notably the HPMP should not necessarily be limited Klamath Irrigation Project. It might thus to Project lands.” be argued that sufficient studies have not been done to predict the likely effects of PacifiCorp has recently written the tribes hydroelectric project activities. This and the California and Oregon SHPOs could be a formula for delay in doing proposing that the “area of potential anything to address what is clearly a effects” of the project is limited to the critical suite of impacts on the Klamath area within project boundaries. As this Riverscape. Granting that sufficient report hopefully makes clear, this studies may not yet have been proposition is in error. There are many completed, it is suggested that enough apparent downstream effects on the data exist to indicate that the Klamath Riverscape that must be taken hydroelectric project is having adverse into account in any PacifiCorp HPMP. effects on the riverscape. The acceleration of effects that tribal PacifiCorp may argue that it is not consultants say began around the time responsible for dealing with downstream Iron Gate Dam was constructed, and the impacts, pointing to the guidelines’ timing of erosion at Karuk ceremonial acknowledgement that “the HPMP sites, suggests that the hydroelectric cannot compel actions on private lands project is more than a minor contributor where the licensee has been denied to the overall pattern of cumulative access156.” Such an argument would be effects. Further studies may be useful, spurious, not only because PacifiCorp but their conduct should not be allowed has not been denied access to lands

52 to delay taking concrete steps to alleviate undertaking as defined in Section 301(7) impacts on the riverscape. of the National Historic Preservation Act160. Thus it requires review under A key principle articulated in the Section 106 if it represents a “type of guidelines is that: activity that has the potential to cause effects on historic properties161.” As the The HPMP should establish most important federal influence on the management priorities and steps to be health of the Klamath Riverscape, the taken to ensure long-term preservation Klamath Irrigation Project obviously not of historic properties158. only has the potential to cause effects, it most certainly is causing effects. A Presumably, PacifiCorp will propose cursory review of files maintained by the that at least some of its dams and Advisory Council on Historic reservoirs be retained in service, and it Preservation indicates that BOR has will prepare an HPMP for this conducted Section 106 review on a few alternative. This HPMP should establish specific project actions affecting as a high management priority the particular historic sites and structures, restoration of the Klamath Riverscape’s but has never subjected the Irrigation integrity, and it should establish steps Project as a whole to review. It is the that PacifiCorp will take to help achieve whole project that is affecting the this goal. Since an alternative available Klamath Riverscape, and BOR should to FERC is to require removal of the initiate Section 106 review on the effects dams by declining to relicense the outlined in this report as soon as project, PacifiCorp’s HPMP should seek possible. to demonstrate that its management approach will be at least as effective as Recommendations for Land dam removal in reducing impacts on the Management Agencies riverscape. Land management agencies like the Recommendations to the Bureau of Bureau of Land Management, Forest Reclamation Service, and Fish and Wildlife Service have control or influence over a wide Among all the federal agencies whose range of activities that contribute to actions affect or may affect the Klamath adverse effects on the Klamath Riverscape, the Bureau of Reclamation Riverscape, notably logging, (BOR) is the most significant. It is BOR roadbuilding, and grazing. Each timber that manages the Klamath Irrigation sale, grazing lease, or fire road may have Project, that decides how water will be only miniscule impacts, but collectively allocated, and that determines flow they contribute to river pollution and levels over Iron Gate Dam. If any single siltation, which in turn affect the health federal agency can be truly effective in of the river for fish, wildlife, and plants, reducing impacts on the Klamath which in turn affects the riverscape’s Riverscape, BOR can159. cultural qualities. The agencies should not ignore these effects simply because BOR’s operation of the Klamath they are not point-specific; they should Irrigation Project is obviously a federal undertake programmatic consultation

53 with the tribes, SHPOs and THPOs, and as eligible for the National Register will others under Sections 106 and 110 of the not make it so163. However, the same National Historic Preservation Act and logic that argues for its National Register the other cultural resource authorities, to eligibility suggests that it should be seek overall ways of protecting the regarded as eligible for California’s list Klamath Riverscape’s cultural integrity. of significant historic resources.

Recommendations to the California It is important to understand what Department of Forestry and Fire eligibility for either the State or National Protection (CDF) Register does and does not mean. Neither means that the riverscape is CDF regulates certain major operations sacrosanct, or that the federal or state of timber companies like Simpson government has suddenly developed a Timber, under the authority of the property right in it. Neither means that California Forest Practice Act. The projects that would affect the riverscape main context in which CDF can cannot be carried out. Both do mean influence such operations is in its review that the effects of such projects must be of Timber Harvesting Plans (THPs)162. considered during decision making by governments and government agencies In reviewing THPs, CDF should ensure to which the laws apply. that the tribes are fully and adequately consulted, and that the full range of The effects of land use and development possible impacts on the cultural value of on the Klamath Riverscape as a cultural the Klamath Riverscape are addressed. resource are closely linked to – indeed, These effects, of course, go far beyond they can be said to be the same as – their adverse physical effects on archeological effects on the riverscape’s natural sites; they include siltation and pollution character. But there is a tendency in effects on streams flowing into the river, CEQA analyses (as in those done under interference with traditional tribal access NEPA) to segregate analyses by routes between the river and the uplands, discipline, so “cultural resources” are and visual/auditory effects on traditional viewed as the business of archeologists, tribal religious practices in the high while the natural environment is taken country. care of by biologists. In the case of the Klamath Riverscape, review agencies Recommendations to Local (and project proponents) should attempt Governments and State Agencies a more holistic approach, recognizing that the natural environment of the Local governments and state agencies in riverscape, and such contributing California are responsible for CEQA elements as salmon, steelhead, eels and compliance, and hence with considering basketry plants, are themselves cultural the effects of actions they may undertake resources, whose cultural significance or permit on places included in or needs to be addressed in planning. eligible for the California Register of Neither archeologists nor biologists are Historical Resources. The Klamath necessarily equipped to analyze and Riverscape is not included in the understand such aspects of significance, California Register, and being regarded but consultation with the tribes will go a

54 long way toward putting them in proper understand that fish species are not perspective. Close consultation with the important only when and because they tribes is recommended in all CEQA are endangered, or because of their analyses dealing with projects in and economic or recreational functions; they around the Klamath Riverscape. are also important because of the central roles they play in the traditional culture, General Recommendations heritage, and religion of Indian tribes along the river. Restoring the health of What is really needed, of course, is a the Klamath River should be understood coordinated interagency and to be not only an ecological imperative, intergovernmental approach to but a vital cultural issue as well. The preserving and restoring the health of the survival of the tribes as cultural entities Klamath Riverscape. As Ron Reed of is as tied to the river’s health as is the the Karuk Department of Natural survival of the salmon. Resources said:

It’s not just PacifiCorp, there are other things going on out there upslope that need to be considered too if we are going to get back healthy fish populations. It’s sedimentation from Highway 96. It’s Forest Service management. My goal is to get all these agencies together in a holistic way to look at these issues164.

165 A great deal of intergovernmental, Yurok dip netting interagency, interstate, and interpersonal coordination is already going on in the Klamath Basin and along the river, by the Klamath Fishery Management Council, the Klamath Basin Fisheries Task Force, the Klamath Trinity Salmon Restoration Advisory Committee, the Klamath Basin Federal Working Group, the Upper Klamath Basin Working Group, various PacifiCorp relicensing working groups, and others. Still another group to look into cultural matters would probably not be useful. But the cultural values of the riverscape, the fish, and the people whose lives are tied up in the riverscape need to be factored in to the deliberations of the various working groups. For example, working group members should come to

55 Summary Conclusion for relicensing includes mechanisms for protecting and restoring the river below The evidence reviewed in preparation of Iron Gate Dam are at least as effective as this report indicates that the Klamath dam removal would be. Riverscape is eligible for the National Register under National Register Criterion “a” as a traditional cultural property. It also shows that the riverscape, regardless of Register eligibility, is a significant part of the tribes’ cultural environment. The riverscape has suffered a wide range of impacts, including but going well beyond those caused by the presence of PacifiCorp’s dams and reservoirs, and these impacts fall disproportionately on Sunset at the river’s mouth the tribes. Removing the dams as a Or egos in right-center166 result of FERC’s decision not to relicense the PacifiCorp Project would have positive effects on the riverscape’s condition and hence on its viability as a central element of tribal culture. However, the data reviewed for this report do not provide a basis for judging just how significant this positive effect would be in the absence of other actions to halt degradation of the river. Available data also do not provide a basis for evaluating alternatives to dam removal that might contribute to the health of the river and hence to preservation of the riverscape. Such alternatives, together with the option of removing the dams as part of an overall program of cooperative, holistic management, should be the subjects of ongoing consultation under Section 106 of NHPA and other legal authorities. FERC and all other federal agencies operating in and around the Klamath River Basin should ensure that such consultation takes place, and that such management is vigorously pursued. In the short run, PacifiCorp should ensure that its Historic Properties Management Plan for whatever alternative it proposes

56 Bibliography

Apple, Russell A., and Jerry L. Rogers Federal Energy Regulatory Commission 1976 Historical Integrity and Local (FERC) Significance in the Pacific Island 2003 Policy Statement on Consultation Context. Guam Reporter 1:33-36, with Indian Tribes in Commission Hagatna, Guam Proceedings. 18 CFR 2.1c, July 23, Washington D.C., July 23, 2003 Birnbaum, Charles A. 1994 Protecting Cultural Landscapes, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Preservation Brief #36, National Park (FERC) and Advisory Council on Service, Washington DC. Historic Preservation (ACHP) 2002 Guidelines for the Development Buckley, Thomas of Historic Properties Management 2002 Standing Ground, Yurok Indian Plans for FERC Hydroelectric Projects. Spirituality 1850-1990. University of Washington D.C., May 20, 2002 California Press, Berkeley. Hardy, Thomas B., and R. Craig Addley. California Department of Fish and Game Evaluation of Interim Instream Flow 2003 September 2002 Klamath River Needs in the Klamath River, Phase II Fish Kill: Preliminary Analysis of Draft Report, prepared for the U.S. Contributing Factors. State of Department of the Interior by the California Resources Agency, January Institute for Natural Systems 2003, Sacramento, CA Engineering, Utah Water Research Laboratory Utah State University Logan, California Resources Agency Utah 84322. November 21, 2001 n.d. CEQA Guidelines Sacramento, CA. Hillman, Leaf and John F. Salter 1997 Environmental Management: Daniels, Brian Isaac American Indian Knowledge and the 2003 Preliminary Shasta TCP Study Problem of Sustainability. Forest, (draft). Manuscript, Klamath River Trees, and People Newsletter # 34; Intertribal Fish and Water Commission. http://www.xlibris.de/magickriver/karuk.

htm, accessed 1/20/04 Drucker, Phillip A. 1936 World-Renewal Ceremony at King, Thomas F. Panaminik. University of California 1998 Cultural Resource Laws and Publications in American Archaeology Practice: An Introductory Guide. and Ethnology 35:4, University of AltaMira Press, Walnut Creek, CA. California, Berkeley, CA. 2002 Thinking About Cultural Resource Management: Essays From the Edge. AltaMira Press, Walnut Creek, CA

57 King, Thomas F. (cont.) National Park Service 2003 Places that Count: Traditional 1996 The Secretary of the Interior’s Cultural Properties in Cultural Resource Standards for the Treatment of Historic Management. AltaMira Press, Walnut Properties with Guidelines for the Creek, CA. Treatment of Cultural Landscapes, Cultural Resource Stewardship and Klamath River Inter-Tribal Fish and Partnerships, Heritage Preservation Water Commission (KRITFWC) Services, Historic Landscape Initiative, 2003. Goals Statement. Submitted Washington D.C. 1996 2/2003 to Steve Edmundson, National Marine Fisheries Service. National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) London's Found Riverscape Partnership 2002 Biological Opinion: Klamath 2000 London’s Riverscape, Lost and Project Operations. Southwest Regional Found. London’s Found Riverscape Office, NMFS, National Oceanic and Partnership and Fairview Limited. Atmospheric Administration, Redhill, Surrey, U.K. Department of Commerce, Long Beach, CA, May 31 2002. Markle, Douglas F. 2002(?) History of Klamath National Research Council County irrigation, the , 2003 Scientific Evaluation of and other important events leading to the Biological Opinions on Endangered and 2001 Water Allocation Decision, in Threatened Fishes in the Klamath River Endangered Species, irrigated Basin. National Academy Press, agriculture and rural communities: the Washington D.C. Klamath Basin Case. AREC507/FW599/PS507/SOC599, Parker, Patricia L., and Thomas F. King http://oregonstate.edu/dept/pol_sci/fac/st 1990/98 Guidelines for Evaluating eel/cl/ps507/history.htm, accessed and Dcumenting Traditional Cultural 2/12/04. Properties. Formerly National Register Bulletin 38, National Park Service. McClelland, Linda Flint, J. Timothy http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/publications/b Keller, Genevieve P. Keller, and Robert ulletins/nrb38/, accessed 2/18/04 Z. Melnick 1989/99 Guidelines for Evaluating Salter, John F. and Documenting Rural Historic 2003 White Paper on Behalf of the Properties. Formerly National Register Karuk Tribe of California: A Context Bulletin 30, National Park Service. Statement Concerning the Effect of Iron http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/publications/b Gate Dam on Traditional Resource ulletins/nrb30/, accessed 2/18/04 Uses and Cultural Patterns of the Karuk People Within the Klamath River Corridor. Karuk Tribe, Happy Camp, CA.

58 Sloan, Kate 2003 Ethnographic Riverscape: Klamath River. Yurok Tribe Ethnographic Inventory. Yurok Tribe Culture Department; draft November 2003, Klamath, CA.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 2003 Klamath River Fish Die-Off September 2002: Causative Factors of Mortality. U.S. Department of the Interior, Washington D.C.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Hoopa Valley Tribe, and Trinity County, CA 2000 The Trinity River Mainstem Fishery Restoration Environmental Impact Statement/Report. Compact Disk provided the author by KRITFWC.

Yurok Heritage Preservation Office 2003 Ethnographic Riverscape: Regulatory Analysis. Manuscript, Klamath, CA.

59 Endnotes weapon as an “archeological artifact” implies that their significance lies in their utility in 1 archeological research. Courtesy Tony O'Rourke, Yurok Tribe GIS & 12 Survey Mapping Division The compilations of data on which this report 2 Photo by the author is based, for example, are correctly called 3 “ethnographic reports.” Set forth in Federal regulation at 36 CFR 13 800.5-7 For further discussion of this point see King 4 2002:15-18, King 2003:139-40 Photo by the author. 14 5 Ethnographic Riverscape: Regulatory Analysis. “A landscape containing a variety of natural Prepared by Yurok Heritage Preservation Office and cultural resources that associated people for PacifiCorp, November 2003, Contract define as heritage resources. Examples are #P13342 (hereinafter “Regulatory Analysis”). contemporary settlements, religious sacred sites, 6 London’s Riverscape, Lost and Found. and massive geological structures. Small plant London's Found Riverscape Partnership communities, animals, subsistence and 13 Heathfield Drive, Redhill, Surrey RH1 5HL, ceremonilal grounds are often components.” Published with the support of Fairview Limited. Secretary of the Interior’s Guidelines p. 4; Preservation Brief 36: 2 The Regulatory Analysis (p. 12) noted similar 15 perspectives in U.S. National Park Service See documentation on the St. Croix National Scenic http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/publications/bulletins/n rb30/ Riverway and the Buffalo National River. 16 7 Found in The Secretary of the Interior’s Why NPS has issued several sets of guidance Standards for the Treatment of Historic dealing with historic/cultural landscapes that Properties with Guidelines for the Treatment of organize and define categories of landscape in Cultural Landscapes, p. 4. National Park different ways, without even explaining how they relate to one another, is a mystery. Service Cultural Resource Stewardship and 17 Partnerships, Heritage Preservation Services, See National Register Bulletin 38, page 1. See Historic Landscape Initiative, Washington D.C. also King 2003:Chapters 1, 2, 6. 18 36 CFR 60.4 1996; see also NPS Preservation Brief 36, 19 Protecting Cultural Landscapes, by Charles A. Thomas Buckley, in his recent study of Yurok Birmbaum, ASLA, NPS 1994 spirituality (Buckley 2002:200-201) has 8 The term “cultural resource” is understood here criticized use of the National Register to to mean “those parts of the physical environment characterize tribal spiritual areas for purposes of – natural and built – that have cultural value of land use planning, in the process sniping rather some kind to some sociocultural group,” together gratuitously at Bulletin 38. This author agrees with “social institutions, … beliefs,… with Buckley that the Register is a poor accustomed practices, and … perceptions of instrument to use for such purposes, but alas, it is what makes the environment culturally the instrument that is available. It would be comfortable” (King 1998:9). It embraces the wonderful to change the law to address tribal cultural aspects of the environment that must be spiritual and cultural values more appropriately, considered in planning federal actions under a but until this happens, tribes and others are stuck with the law we’ve got. number of legal authorities – not only the 20 National Historic Preservation Act, but also the Few would probably argue with this premise, National Environmental Policy Act, the Native but what is a “river?” Merriam-Webster defines American Graves Protection and Repatriation “river” as “a natural stream of water of usually Act, the American Indian Religious Freedom considerable volume.” This definition does not Act, the Archaeological and Historic take us very far, but as soon as we go farther we Preservation Act, and Executive Orders 12898, begin to tread on shaky ground. A natural 13006, 13007, and 13287. stream would not remain a stream if it did not 9 Secretary of the Interior’s Standards, p. 4 have banks and a bottom, so are the banks and 10 Merriam-Webster online dictionary; bottom of the river parts of the river? If we say http://aolsvc.merriam-webster.aol.com/home- “yes,” then how thick do we take the banks to aol.htm be? Does the “river” include the entire 11 In the same way that referring to an ancestral floodplain? Terraces left by earlier stands of the site as an “archeological site” or a tool or river? Everything out to the bases of the surrounding hills? For the purposes of this

60 report it does not much matter, since the lands 51 Yurok ethnographic report:10 along the river are themselves obviously parts of 52 Yurok ethnographic report:50 the riverscape, whether or not they are viewed as 53 Karuk ethnographic report:69 parts of the river itself. 54 Yurok ethnographic report:10 21 Yurok ethnographic report p. 20 55 Yurok ethnographic report:10 22 Except in the Los Angeles basin, where 56 National Register Bulletin 38:10 different definitions apply. 57 Yurok ethnographic report:8 23 Karuk ethnographic report, p. 22 58 Yurok ethnographic report:9 24 “Vegetation features” are identified in the 59 Yurok ethnographic report:9 Secretary of the Interior’s Guidelines for the 60 On-site personal communication by Leaf Treatment of Cultural Landsapes (p. 15) as Hillman and others. typical character-defining landscape features. 61 Yurok ethnographic report:46-49 25 Hillman and Salter 1997:5 62 Karuk ethnographic report:37 26 P. 15: “Character-Defining Features of the 63 Karuk ethnographic report:67-8 Landscape” 64 Karuk ethnographic report:29 27 Alvis Johnson, quoted in Hillsman and Salter 65 Yurok ethnographic report:16 1997:10. 66 Trinity EIS:3.216 28 Photo by Arnold Nova. 67 Leaf Hillman, personal communication 2/6/04; 29 Shasta ethnographic report, p. 7-11 eligibility determination confirmed by National 30 Trinity EIS, p. 3-414 Register Information System (NRIS). It is 31 Photo by the author interesting to note that this determination 32 The Karok Panamenik (sic) World Renewal occurred in 1978, twelve years before issuance District, determined eligible in 1978 by the of National Register Bulletin 38. USDA Forest Service, is listed in the National 68 Photo by the author. Register Information System (NRIS). Other 69 36 CFR 60.4 eligibility determinations were reported by the 70 Subject to the application of “criteria tribe but have not been confirmed. considerations” that may render an apparently 33 Yurok ethnographic report:11 eligible property ineligible; these will be 34 National Register Bulletin 38:18 discussed below. 35 See 71 National Register Bulletin 38:11 http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/publications/bulletins/n 72 Yurok ethnographic report:14 rb30/nrb30_8.htm 73 Yurok ethnographic report:49 36 King 2002:117-9; 2003:169-74 74 Photo by the author 37 48 Federal Register 44720 75 Yurok ethnographic report:14-15 38 King 2003:174 76 Photo by Arnold Nova 39 This follows one of eight non-exclusive 77 Karuk ethnographic report:28 possibilities listed in the Regulatory Analysis 78 Shasta ethnographic report:22 (pp. 18-19), none of them particularly happy 79 Leaf Hillman, personal communication 2/6/04 ones. 80 Thomas Buckley: Standing Ground, Yurok 40 Such adjustments would be needed to avoid Indian Spirituality 1850-1990. University of excluding major river-related sites like the Karuk California Press, Berkeley, 2002, page 4. town of Katamin, which extends upslope onto 81 Karuk ethnographic report:23 terraces that are well above the 500-year 82 Karuk ethnographic report:9 floodplain. 83 Trinity River EIS:3-213 41 Courtesy Tony O'Rourke, Yurok Tribe GIS & 84 Yurok ethnographic report:14 Survey Mapping Division 85 Yurok ethnographic report:12 42 Section 301(5): 16 USC 470w(5) 86 Yurok ethnographic report:11 43 See King 2003:17n6 87 Karuk ethnographic report:43 44 National Register Bulletin 38:10 88 The great fish dams or wiers of the past are not 45 Yurok ethnographic report:7 in use at the present, but the Yurok commercial 46 Karuk ethnographic report:10 fishing enterprise at the mouth of the river is in 47 Yurok ethnographic report:10 some ways their functional and social equivalent. 48 Karuk ethnographic report:16 89 Yurok ethnographic report:24-25 49 Yurok ethnographic report:14 90 Yurok ethnographic report:24 50 Yurok ethnographic report:14 91 Photo by the author

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92 Trinity River EIS:3-216 120 Merkie Oliver, personal communication: 93 Yurok ethnographic report:25 1/4/04 94 Yurok ethnographic report:27 121 Photo by author 95 Leaf Hillman personal communication 2/6/04 122 Karuk ethnographic report:72 regarding contemporary practice. For historical 123 Karuk ethnographic report:54 practice see, for instance, Drucker 1936. 124 See, for instance, Thomas B. Hardy and R. 96 Karuk ethnographic report:25 Craig Addley. Evaluation of Interim Instream 97 Buckley 2003:92 FlowNeeds in the Klamath River, Phase II Draft 98 Karuk ethnographic report:12-14, quoting Report, prepared for the U.S. Department of the from Salter 1981 Interior by the Institute for Natural Systems 99 Preamble to the Yurok Tribal Constitution; Engineering, Utah Water Research Laboratory Yurok ethnographic report:7 Utah State University Logan, Utah 84322. 100 Yurok ethnographic report:23 November 21, 2001; National Marine Fisheries 101 National Register Bulletin 38:11 Service (NMFS), Biological Opinion: Klamath 102 Preamble to the Yurok constitution; Yurok Project Operations. Section 8.6, “ ethnographic report:8 Critical Habitat,” Long Beach, CA, May 31 103 Karuk ethnographic report:37. 2002; National Research Council: Scientific 104 Shasta ethnographic report:21-2, Karuk Evaluation of Biological Opinions on ethnographic report:68, Yurok ethnographic Endangered and Threatened Fishes in the report:14 Klamath River Basin. 2003, National Academy 105 National Register Bulletin 38:13 Press, Washington D.C.; California Department 106 Russell A. Apple and Jerry L. Rogers: of Fish and Game: September 2002 Klamath “Historical Integrity and Local Significance in River Fish Kill: Preliminary Analysis of the Pacific Island Context.” Guam Reporter Contributing Factors. State of California 1:33-36, Hagatna, Guam Resources Agency, January 2003; U.S. Fish and 107 Photo by Arnold Nova Wildlife Service: Klamath River Fish Die-Off 108 Mary Carpelan, personal communication on- September 2002: Causative Factors of Mortality. site, 2/7/04 U.S. Department of the Interior, 2003. 109 Photo by the author. 125 Karuk ethnographic report:47 110 Mary Carpelan, Betty Hall, personal 126 Photo by author communication on-site 2/7/04 127 Karuk ethnographic report:82 111 Personal communication by multiple tribal 128 As does the KRITFWC, whose 2003 Goals consultants, 2/4-7/04 Statement (KRITFWC 2003) identifies the 112 See KRITFWC 2003. Karuk and Yurok Copco I and Iron Gate dams as “solely consultants disparage the extent to which responsible for the termination of anadromous hatcheries can make up for this blockage, fish runs of salmon, steelhead and lamprey into reporting that hatchery fish are very different the Upper Klamath Basin.” from wild fish – softer, spongier. Shasta 129 Yurok ethnographic report:48 consultants did not make this distinction but 130 Karuk ethnographic report:44 reported similar differences between wild and 131 Karuk ethnographic report:39 farmed salmon, and all consultants commented 132 Karuk ethnographic report:42 on the problem of competition between hatchery- 133 Roy Hall, Sr., personal communication 2/7/04 raised fish and wild fish, arguing that the wild 134 Mary Carpellan, personal communication 2/5 population is endangered by the release of & 2/7/04 hatchery fish. 135 Under NEPA, see 40 CFR 1508.7, 1508.25, 113 For summary statistics from Federal 1508.27; under Section 106 of NHPA, see 36 government sources, see Karuk ethnographic CFR 800.5(a)(1); under CEQA, see California report:77-8 Resources Agency CEQA Guidelines Sec. 114 See, for instance, Karuk ethnographic 15355. report:57-8 136 Personal communications, 2/4-7/04 115 Roy Hall, personal communication: 2/7/04 137 See, for instance, “History of Klamath County 116 Karuk ethnographic report:47 irrigation, the Klamath Project, and other 117 Karuk ethnographic report:41 important events leading to the 2001 Water 118 Karuk ethnographic report:43 Allocation Decision, by Douglas F. Markle, in 119 Yurok ethnographic report:47 Endangered Species, irrigated agriculture and

62 rural communities: the Klamath Basin Case. 155 FERC and ACHP Guidelines: Principle 2, AREC507/FW599/PS507/SOC599, page 11 http://oregonstate.edu/dept/pol_sci/fac/steel/cl/ps 156 FERC and ACHP Guidelines: 11 507/history.htm, accessed 2/12/04. 157 FERC and ACHP Guidelines: Principle 3, 138 “This analysis supports the conclusion that page 11 2002 featured an unique combination of low 158 FERC and ACHP Guidelines: Principle 5, discharges (especially from Iron Gate Dam) and page 12 high run size” (USFWS, Klamath River Fish 159 BOR bases its decisions on the biological Die-Off:34); “September flow releases from Iron opinion issued by the National Marine Fisheries Gate Dam in 2002 … were the lowest on record Service in 2002, apparently without compliance when returning numbers of fall Chinook salmon with Section 106. NMFS would doubtless argue were at average or above average levels” that in issuing such an “opinion” it lacks the (California Dept. of Fish and Game, September discretion to consider impacts on the cultural 2002 Klamath River Fish Kill:54). environment, but in fact the opinion establishes 139 McMillan Park Committee v. National “reasonable and prudent alternatives,” Capital Planning Commission, 759 F. Supp. 908 “reasonable and prudent measures,” “terms and (D.D.C. 1991), rev’d; 968 F.2nd 1283 (D.C. Cir. conditions,” and “conservation 1992) recommendations” that certainly are 140 36 CFR 800.5(a)(1) discretionary (NMFS 2002). 141 See 43 CFR 10.4 and .5 160 “Undertaking” means a project, activity, or 142 43 CFR 10.5(e); this alternative is specifically program funded in whole or in part under the made available only for discoveries on Federal direct or indirect jurisdiction of a Federal land, but it is hard to imagine some similar agency, including— approach not being acceptable for discoveries on (A) those carried out by or on behalf of tribal lands as well. the agency; 143 Tribal lands are defined as all lands within the (B) those carried out with Federal exterior boundaries of reservations, so all land on financial assistance; the Yurok reservation would be included, (C) those requiring a Federal permit, regardless of actual ownership. license, or approval; and 144 The applicability of executive orders to (D) those subject to State or local independent agencies like FERC is uncertain, but regulation administered pursuant FERC’s Tribal Policy Statement promulgated to a delegation or approval by a July 23, 2003 includes Executive Order 13175 Federal agency. among its authorities, suggesting that FERC 161 36 CFR 800.3(a) views itself as obligated to be responsive to such 162 Practices like site preparation and pre- orders. commercial thinning are not subject to CDF 145 FERC Tribal Policy Statement: 18 CFR oversight, however. Thanks to Dan Foster of 2.1c(b) CDF for a quick lesson in CDF authorities. 146 25 CFR 900.6 163 Hans Kreutzburg, California Office of 147 Trinity River EIS:3-208; The primary Hupa Historic Preservation, personal communication rights are to fish in the Trinity, one of the 2/18/04. The linkage between the National and Klamath’s main tributaries. State Registers if formal listing and 148 The “Reserved Rights Doctrine,” see U.S. v. determinations of eligibility. Winans, 198 U.S. 371 (1905). 164 Karuk ethnographic report:68 149 Trinity River EIS: 3-205 165 Photo by Arnold Nova 150 California Resources Agency, CEQA 166 Photo by Arnold Nova Guidelines, Section 15064.5(a)(1) 151 CEQA Guidelines, Section 15064.5(a)(5) 152 CEQA Guidelines, Section 15064.5(b)(2)(A) 153 Photo by Arnold Nova 154 FERC and ACHP: Guidelines for the Development of Historic Properties Management Plans for FERC Hydroelectric Projects. Washington D.C., May 20, 2002

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