Black Lives Matter has emboldened a younger generation of the Klamath Tribes, who are now speaking out on their treatment on the parched Oregon-California border.

Living in a city, it's easy to forget about colonization and the indigenous struggle. The climate change to fascism pipeline is chugging along as planned

The chud says:

“They illegally seized our water without due process of law, no court order, no nothing,” Nielsen said, standing inside the tent, lined with banners extolling the 5th Amendment of the Constitution. “The government promised [the tribes] water that’s not theirs. The government doesn’t have any water rights. ... That’s just the federal government bullying the frickin’ people.”

  • LangdonAlger [any]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Excerpts:

    The Native Americans who have lived here for thousands of years say that a giant serpent once menaced them from the high desert hills that surround Upper Klamath Lake, a marshy expanse of water north of the Oregon-California border. It slithered down from remote crags to hunt people until the creator, G’mok’am’c, butchered it with an obsidian blade. He cast the pieces into the lake, where they became c’waam, a variety of suckerfish that can live up to 50 years and has become the ecological and religious heart for the tribes that call this place home. G’mok’am’c told the people that their fate was tied to the fish — if it perishes, so will they.

    To ward off extinction, federal regulators have cut off every drop that normally flows from the lake to fields — but are still providing huge pulses of water to help another protected variety of fish, a salmon, down river. Native Americans don’t control the water but hold senior legal rights to it through a treaty that guarantees them the ability to hunt, gather and fish on the land of their ancestors. They’ve long argued that poor lake conditions are decimating the fish and their government-given rights.

    When farmers last lost their water during the 2001 drought, the situation grew so ugly that the elder Gentry felt uncomfortable visiting Klamath Falls from Chiloquin, a rural area about 10 miles north, where many tribespeople live. A person spat upon one of the tribal leaders. When tribal members went into restaurants, they sometimes were not served water, he said.

    A bumper sticker with a c’waam being urinated on appeared on vehicles, with the tag line, “Here’s your water, sucker” and a group of men drove through Chiloquin firing weapons. For years, BB holes pocked the sign at the elementary school.

    Recently, Gentry has seen signs of that era returning. A few weeks ago, a nonnative man with a gun pulled up to his grandson’s car, he said, threatening him.