Dam Construction and Its Effects on the Traditional Foods and Cultural Practices of the Klamath Tribes

Presenter: Anthony Kollmorgan

Mentor: Kathy Lynn, Environmental Studies

Oral Presentation

Major: Sociology 

According to the Klamath EIS/EIR the Klamath people have been without salmon for over 95 years as of 2010. Historically, the Klamath tribes had depended on the salmon in the Klamath River for subsistence and for cultural practices linked to their ancestral fishing sites. As a result of the installation of dams on the Klamath River, water quality was drastically altered resulting in the loss of salmon in the rivers and the loss of ceremonial practices for
the Klamath people. In this paper I examine the ecological effects that dam installations have had on the waterways in and surrounding the Klamath Basin and how this has impacted salmon and other native fish species. In doing so, I also analyze the impacts that dams have had on Klamath peoples’ traditional practices and how the absence of salmon in the Klamath River severely threatens the cultural survival and continuance of the Klamath tribes. This paper also provides a brief description of the way in which the Dawes allotment act of 1887 and termination in 1954 impacted the tribes in order to contextualize their current struggle for cultural survival and the right to subsist off their land.