Learning Through Listening:
Native American Issues
In Rural Oregon Communities
Oregon State University
ES 599/SOC 599
March 25-March 30, 2007
Chiloquin City
Hall
Crater Lake National Park
Klamath Falls Mural
The Course
On March 25, two
vans full of students and instructors left the Oregon State University Campus to
Eugene and then on to the small rural town of Chiloquin in Klamath County to
participate in the Learning Through
Listening Course. The course asked students to
engage community members, ask questions and
actively listen to about their perspectives, priorities, concerns
and visions for the future for a sustainable future. There have
been some
tensions in the community, particularly between tribal and agricultural
interests and it was suggested to us that this relationship is
being
repaired. While there may not have been complete agreement on
where and what was sustainable,
they were unified in trying to build a place that was home to them.
Students were
able to learn from leaders in financial institutions, agricultural land owners, Klamath
Tribal members, businessman, law enforcement officers, Latina community members,
the news media, social service agency represenatives and educators.
This cross section of
individuals told of a community which like any community, has its conflicts and
challenges, yet are working to move the area forward for a sustainable and diverse future.
We learned of
alternative energy development, removal of the
Chiloquin Dam for endangered species, innovative hospital expansion at Merle
West Medical Center, collaborative social service delivery (between
agencies and the Klamath Tribes) and the devastating impact the Termination had on
the Klamath Tribes.
Through our
conversation with community stakeholders, I had an opportunity to
meet a broad range of people I would not have otherwise. The
preparation and the practice of this course was a good reminder that
it is important to not bring a set of assumptions to each stakeholder
meeting,
pre-filtering their responses to questions.
This course broadened my understanding of the
Klamath Community, a community which is diverse ethnically,
economically and in their perspectives.
Active listening
was an important skill to not only utilize with community stakeholders
but also with fellow classmates.
After
debriefing, the collective input and perspective of the entire class
served to build an understanding of the information we had received
from the stakeholders. While there were long hours and much
information to process, the team
was able to build a better understanding of the community as well as a
presentation for the community.
Lost River Sucker
Shortnose
Sucker
Water
Water was a
constant theme during our community interviews. In the Klamath Basin, most agree, water
demand and rights to
that water exceed supply. The struggle
to meet that demand amid different uses has led to conflict. One
of the major uses of water in the basin is for agriculture. The
US Bureau of Reclamation initiated construction of an irrigation system
with the construction of the Klamath Project
in 1909. This project now provides water to more than
240,000 acres in the Klamath Project, where farmers grow potatos,
alfalfa, mint and other crops.
The Lost
River and
Shortnose suckerfish (cw’aam and qapdo in the Klamath language) have
provided spiritual and dietary sustenance for the Klamath Tribes for thousands
of years. Both fish, whose habitat is the Lake and the rivers
feeding the lake, were listed as endangered
in 1988. This listing led the US Fish and
Wildlife in a plan to protect the fish, require more water in the Upper Klamath Lake.
This plan and a drought in 2001, led the federal government to shut
off water to many Klamath Irrigation Project farmers. Farmers and
supporters staged what was one of the largest demonstrations of civic
action in
Klamath Falls history, the Bucket Brigade, in which thousands of people
passed water from the Lake Ewauna to a dry A canal on the project.
As if in a downward
spiral of
water crisis, in 2002 there was a
die-off of between 30-60,000 spawning
salmon on the Klamath River which led in 2003 to the closure
of the
pacific coast fisheries over all of Oregon and Northern California.
While these
conditions have certainly brought forth significant environmental,
economic consequences and water conflict, there have efforts with
participants throughout the basin to emerge from the conflict
with more sustainable water practices, collaboration and cooperation.
Another issue which still looms over all else regarding water is
adjudication. This is the administrative process in
which water rights established prior to the adoption of the Oregon Water
Code in 1909, are quantified and recorded. More
than 90% of these claims have been adjudicated in the Klamath Basin.
DAMS
One example of
collaboration is the planned removal of the Chiloquin
Dam.
The Dam, originally constructed for Klamath Tribes in 1918 by the
Bureau of Indian
Affairs, crosses the Sprague River near Chiloquin. The
Sprague River, along with the Williamson and Wood Rivers, serve as the
headwaters of the Klamath River. These rivers flow into Upper
Klamath Lake, supplying water to the Klamath Irrigation Project.
After leaving the project, the water eventually joins the Klamath
River, passing through four hydroelectric dams which are up for
relicensing by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The Chiloquin Dam, an irrigation diversion
dam, now owned by the Modoc Point Irrigation District (MPID), blocks 95%
of endangered suckerfish habitat. Through a nine month process in
which stakeholders (federal, state and local agencies, Klamath
Tribes, MPID irrigators and community members) studied the best
alternative for fish passage and provision of irrigation water to MPID
members, removal of the dam was selected. MPID irrigators will
have pumps installed and a fund established to pay for the cost of
electricity for those pumps, to continue their water
deliveries. Removal is slated for
2008.
Sprague River Watershed
Chiloquin Dam
Building Iron Gate Dam
Klamath River
The Four Hydroelectric Dams on the Klamath River, which are owned and
operated by Pacific Corps are barriers to Coho Salmon, which were
listed as threatened by the US National Marine Fisheries Service in
1992. The current relicensing process has brought together a
broad coalition of stakeholders (irrigated agriculture, tribes,
fisherman and environmentalists), who are engaged in confidential
negotiations is support of dam removal. These stakeholders
contend that dam removal is the best alternative for fish passage,
while Pacific Corps is still considering construction of fish ladders
for fish passage. The
federal government has required that Pacific Corps provide for fish
passage.
Collaboration
Collaborative
and cooperative measures have been initiated by organizations which
have sprung up in the wake of 2001 (while others had been working prior
prior to 2001), to promote and implement water conservation
agricultural practices, as well as habitat restoration. While
water conflict has been a theme, water cooperation in the Klamath Basin
has been in motion as well. To learn more about these efforts,
please visit these websites:
Klamath
Basin Rangeland Trust
Klamath
Basin Ecosystem Foundation
Hatfield Upper
Klamath
Basin Working Group
Other
sites of interest:
Water
User Groups
Klamath
Water Users Association
Family Farm Alliance
Adjudication
Oregon Water
Resources
Department
Other
Bureau of
Reclamation
Oregon Water Enhancement Board
Deschutes Conservancy
Crater Lake National Park