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Recreational Miners Attack Traditional Indian Fishing
The Karuk Tribe today responded to a move by recreational gold miners to shut down the Tribe's last dip net site on the Klamath River.
Karuk Tribe
P R E S S R E L E A S E
For Immediate Release: March 3, 2009
For more information:
Craig Tucker, Spokesman, Karuk Tribe, cell 916-207-8294
Recreational Miners attack traditional indian
salmon fishing
Miners file vengeful petition asking state officials to shut down Karuk Tribe’s last dip net site
Happy Camp, CA – Since the arrival of miners in the mid 1800’s the Karuk Tribe has lost nearly everything. Once the lone occupants of over 1.4 million acres of the Middle Klamath Basin, the Karuk had over 100 villages and associated fishing sites. A peaceful society blessed with an abundance of acorns, fish, and game, early observers described the Karuk as the wealthiest people in North America. Today, nearly 90% of Karuks living in ancestral territory live below the poverty level and Tribal members have access to only one fishery. Yesterday, a recreational gold mining club called The New 49ers challenged the Tribe’s right to fish there.
Karuk fishermen use traditional dip nets to fish for migrating salmon as they navigate the rapids at Ishi Pishi Falls near Somes Bar, California. Salmon are harvested for subsistence and ceremonial use only and the Tribe rarely harvests more than 200 fish. This falls far short of meeting the Tribes’ needs as there are 4,200 members.
In a press release, the miners charge that the Karuk Tribe is guilty of “widespread and wanton” killing of salmon.
“These accusations are ridiculous,” responded Leaf Hillman, Vice-chair of the Karuk Tribe. “Our fishery is gear limited. This means that because we use traditional dip nets, we can only catch a very small percentage of fish that are coming up the falls. This is by design. The creator taught us to use dip nets in order to not over harvest fish. We would not have survived here for thousands of years had we abused this privilege granted to us by the Creator.”
Although many Tribes in the Pacific Northwest use gill nets that are strung across the river, the Karuk do not. Karuk fishermen stand on rocks and dip large nets on poles into the river to catch fish. Hillman noted, “Our fishery is non-lethal. This allows us to selectively harvest fish. In other words, we release ESA listed Coho and smaller chinook back into the river unharmed and we eat the rest. It also provides opportunities to tag fish for purposes of conducting scientific studies.”
The New 49ers’ petition to Fish and Game comes in retribution to the Tribe’s recent effort to restrict suction dredge mining in areas that serve as critical habitat for ESA listed coho and other fish listed as ‘species of special concern’ under the California ESA. This includes Pacific lamprey and green sturgeon.
Suction dredges are powered by gas or diesel engines that are mounted on floating pontoons in the river. Attached to the engine is a powerful vacuum hose which the dredger uses to suction up the gravel and sand (sediment) from the bottom of the river. The material passes through a sluice box where heavier gold particles can settle into a series of riffles. The rest of the gravel is simply dumped back into the river. Often this reintroduces mercury left over from historic mining operations to the water column threatening communities downstream. Depending on size, location and density of these machines they can turn a clear running mountain stream into a murky watercourse unfit for swimming.
Suction dredging is a recreational activity that has been popularized in recent years by hobby groups and clubs such as The New 49ers.
In 2005 the Karuk Tribe sued Fish and Game for allowing the practice of suction dredge mining to occur in areas known to be critical habitat for endangered and at-risk species. At the time, Fish and Game officials submitted declarations to the Court admitting that suction dredge mining under its current regulations violates CEQA and Fish and Game Code §§5653 and 5653.9 (the statues which authorize the Department to issue permits for suction dredging under certain conditions) because the activity causes deleterious harm to fish – including endangered fish, such as the Coho salmon.
The suit ended in a court order directing Fish and Game to conduct a CEQA review and amend its regulations by June 20, 2008. Fish and Game has yet to initiate the process to change rules. Earlier this year the Tribe sued Fish and Game again in an effort to force immediate protections for fish.
The miners’ suit over the Karuk fishery is retaliation for the Karuks’ efforts. "Rather than address the issue head on, the miner's attorney has resorted to threats and intimidation," said Zeke Grader, of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations. "People would not tolerate someone ripping up their yards or their crops in the field, but that's exactly what the miners are doing to the salmon the tribes and fishermen depend on. It's got to stop."
“We just want to do what we where doing when the first wave of miners showed up in 1850 – fish and feed our families. Over the last 150 years miners have taken nearly everything from the Karuk People. We will not allow them to take our last fishery,” concluded Hillman.
To date, Fish and Game has made no public comment regarding the miners’ petition.
# # #
Editor’s note: for a picture of a suction dredge or a Karuk dip net fishermen in action, email request to ctucker [at] karuk.us
Recent press releases and documents related to this issue can be found at: http://www.karuk.us/press/mining.php
P R E S S R E L E A S E
For Immediate Release: March 3, 2009
For more information:
Craig Tucker, Spokesman, Karuk Tribe, cell 916-207-8294
Recreational Miners attack traditional indian
salmon fishing
Miners file vengeful petition asking state officials to shut down Karuk Tribe’s last dip net site
Happy Camp, CA – Since the arrival of miners in the mid 1800’s the Karuk Tribe has lost nearly everything. Once the lone occupants of over 1.4 million acres of the Middle Klamath Basin, the Karuk had over 100 villages and associated fishing sites. A peaceful society blessed with an abundance of acorns, fish, and game, early observers described the Karuk as the wealthiest people in North America. Today, nearly 90% of Karuks living in ancestral territory live below the poverty level and Tribal members have access to only one fishery. Yesterday, a recreational gold mining club called The New 49ers challenged the Tribe’s right to fish there.
Karuk fishermen use traditional dip nets to fish for migrating salmon as they navigate the rapids at Ishi Pishi Falls near Somes Bar, California. Salmon are harvested for subsistence and ceremonial use only and the Tribe rarely harvests more than 200 fish. This falls far short of meeting the Tribes’ needs as there are 4,200 members.
In a press release, the miners charge that the Karuk Tribe is guilty of “widespread and wanton” killing of salmon.
“These accusations are ridiculous,” responded Leaf Hillman, Vice-chair of the Karuk Tribe. “Our fishery is gear limited. This means that because we use traditional dip nets, we can only catch a very small percentage of fish that are coming up the falls. This is by design. The creator taught us to use dip nets in order to not over harvest fish. We would not have survived here for thousands of years had we abused this privilege granted to us by the Creator.”
Although many Tribes in the Pacific Northwest use gill nets that are strung across the river, the Karuk do not. Karuk fishermen stand on rocks and dip large nets on poles into the river to catch fish. Hillman noted, “Our fishery is non-lethal. This allows us to selectively harvest fish. In other words, we release ESA listed Coho and smaller chinook back into the river unharmed and we eat the rest. It also provides opportunities to tag fish for purposes of conducting scientific studies.”
The New 49ers’ petition to Fish and Game comes in retribution to the Tribe’s recent effort to restrict suction dredge mining in areas that serve as critical habitat for ESA listed coho and other fish listed as ‘species of special concern’ under the California ESA. This includes Pacific lamprey and green sturgeon.
Suction dredges are powered by gas or diesel engines that are mounted on floating pontoons in the river. Attached to the engine is a powerful vacuum hose which the dredger uses to suction up the gravel and sand (sediment) from the bottom of the river. The material passes through a sluice box where heavier gold particles can settle into a series of riffles. The rest of the gravel is simply dumped back into the river. Often this reintroduces mercury left over from historic mining operations to the water column threatening communities downstream. Depending on size, location and density of these machines they can turn a clear running mountain stream into a murky watercourse unfit for swimming.
Suction dredging is a recreational activity that has been popularized in recent years by hobby groups and clubs such as The New 49ers.
In 2005 the Karuk Tribe sued Fish and Game for allowing the practice of suction dredge mining to occur in areas known to be critical habitat for endangered and at-risk species. At the time, Fish and Game officials submitted declarations to the Court admitting that suction dredge mining under its current regulations violates CEQA and Fish and Game Code §§5653 and 5653.9 (the statues which authorize the Department to issue permits for suction dredging under certain conditions) because the activity causes deleterious harm to fish – including endangered fish, such as the Coho salmon.
The suit ended in a court order directing Fish and Game to conduct a CEQA review and amend its regulations by June 20, 2008. Fish and Game has yet to initiate the process to change rules. Earlier this year the Tribe sued Fish and Game again in an effort to force immediate protections for fish.
The miners’ suit over the Karuk fishery is retaliation for the Karuks’ efforts. "Rather than address the issue head on, the miner's attorney has resorted to threats and intimidation," said Zeke Grader, of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations. "People would not tolerate someone ripping up their yards or their crops in the field, but that's exactly what the miners are doing to the salmon the tribes and fishermen depend on. It's got to stop."
“We just want to do what we where doing when the first wave of miners showed up in 1850 – fish and feed our families. Over the last 150 years miners have taken nearly everything from the Karuk People. We will not allow them to take our last fishery,” concluded Hillman.
To date, Fish and Game has made no public comment regarding the miners’ petition.
# # #
Editor’s note: for a picture of a suction dredge or a Karuk dip net fishermen in action, email request to ctucker [at] karuk.us
Recent press releases and documents related to this issue can be found at: http://www.karuk.us/press/mining.php
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In Canada at the mouth of the Sto Lo river, or otherwise known as the Fraser River, the deptment of fisheries and oceans or DFO decided to scrape the river bottom for sand and gravel for various cronstruction projects in the area. Trouble is the area that was dredged was a pink salmon spawning ground that produced a couple of million fish per spawn. No one was given prior knowledge and what aroused the curious after the fact was the tremendous stink from millions of spawn fingerling killed from the dredging. The DFO is an appointed beaurocracy from Ottawa that is famous for appointing cronies that have little or no knowledge of the fisheries, oceans, and waters they are appointed to regulate. They have devastated the west coast wild free salmon, herring grounds, olichans etc. and on the east coast of Canada were the ones that set the quotas higher than the cod fish could sustain and destroyed the cod fishery and the east coast Atlantic salmon and then in an act of genocide blamed the harbour seals, and other sea mamals for the destruction of the fishery. Now the Canada Seal Slaughter has got the seals on the ropes and they are an endangered species down in number to about twenty percent of their original population. Still the DFO and its backers blame the seals for the fish disapearing, instead of the Commerical fishery catich more fish than nature can sustain. It is complained about by the fishers of Canada who the reactionary governments of Canada have the nasty habit of excluding the workers from making the laws that would conserve and protect the industries that they have best knowledge of. Disaster after disaster has taken place and all because the government is anti-working class and thinks it knows better than the fisher folk and the other workers in industry. No wonder the no nothing governments who exclude the worker politicians have caused a world wide disasterous depression. The workers are the core majority in each and every country. They know best what to do to stop pollution and to preserve and sustain the wildlife for future generations. These local natives on the Klamath river, the Kanuk Tribe should be respected and allowed to set the natural laws for the protection of the future generations and the sustainability of the fish in that area of the river, their last and only fishing spot. End pollution wars, not endless wars for more pollution. Elect class concious worker politicians so the best ways can be taken throughout industry.
My two cent vote would be a ban on suction dredging and reintroduction of gold panning open to the public on area rivers. That means no more mining leases for rivers, restoration of each riverbed as public domain and potential for individuals to pan for gold on their own..
This would accomplish several goals;
1) Save salmon health by preventing increased water turbidity from suction dredging. The suction dredge operates by literally dredging the riverbed bottom through the suction, and emitting water clouded with sediment and debris into the downstream flow. This increased turbidity is bad for the salmon eggs and fry that need clear oxygen rich water for their survival..
The only turbidity from gold panners would be from their feet and hands shuffling through the river bottom, and the physical effort required to pan for gold would discourage large amounts of hands and feet ever shuffling through the stream bed at one time. Even twenty people panning for gold at one single place along the river would cause less turbidity than one single suction dredge..
background on suction dredges;
"
“Scientific, peer-reviewed research studies conclusively show that suction dredging for gold can adversely affect or harm both the reproduction of spawning fish and rearing habitat for juvenile fish, particularly trout and salmon,” according to California Trout. These findings were reaffirmed in the Karuk lawsuit by DFG and by eminent expert fishery biologists like Dr. Peter Moyle of UC Davis and Dr. Walt Duffy of Humboldt State University.
According to Moyle, "suction dredging should be banned in tributaries of the Klamath River, 500 meters above and below cool-water refuge areas (stream mouths) on the mainstream of the Klamath River, the Klamath River from the Trinity River confluence to Green Riffle, Canyon Creek and all other Scott River tributaries, and the Salmon River including the north and south forks and all tributaries."
Dr. Moyle contends that “Suction dredging represents a chronic unnatural disturbance of natural habitats that are already likely to be stressed by other factors and can therefore have a negative impact on fishes that use the reach being dredged. All anadromous fishes in the Klamath basin should be considered to be in decline and ultimately threatened with extirpation. Section dredging through a combination of disturbance of resident fish, alteration of substrates, and indirect effects on heavy human use of small areas, especially thermal refugia (side creeks), will further contribute to the decline of the fishes."
"
entire article @;
http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2007/10/fish_groups_and.html
also;
"The mineral-rich Klamath-Siskiyou region of Northern California and southern Oregon has become a prospecting hotspot. But environmentalists contend these hobby miners threaten waterways and the fish that depend on them for habitat. The local Siskiyou Regional Education Project catalogs damage done by dredgers: eroded stream banks, excavated gravel beds, increased water turbidity, destroyed vegetation, litter.
"Most of this in-stream mining actually takes place in the most sensitive parts of the stream," says Barbara Ullian, conservation coordinator for the nonprofit Siskiyou Project. Dredging can destroy nests, or redds, where salmon lay their eggs, and smother the eggs in fine silt, she says."
article @;
http://www.hcn.org/issues/321/16269
2) Open riverbeds to public access, end the mining leases that effectively privatize public riverbeds for individuals, preventing the public from access to the same resource we're all paying taxes on..
3) Greater access for lower income people to pan for gold, as gold panning kits can be as simple as a pie tin with holes. Of course people should not litter and send their pit tins floating downstream after they are finished!!
Even the fancy gold panning kits available online are far cheaper than an actual suction dredge..
"10 1/2" Gold Pan
To begin panning for gold all you really need is a good gold pan. Our gold pans are 10 1/2 " tough black plastic with riffles for better gold retainment. Each gold pan comes with a suction pipet and display vial.
Item#: GPA Price: $5.95 "
http://www.infowest.com/life/goldprod.htm
So go ahead and be an ol' fashioned gold panning pirate like Yosemite Sam and take your gold pan up to the riverbed and pan for gold right in front of a suction dredge miner! Show them that anyone can pan for gold and be far less destructive to the riparian ecosystem than they are with their suction dredges and mining leases. Just say that you are using your rights as a member of the public to the riverbeds of our collectively shared National Forests, and that you do not believe in mining leases!!
Of course removing the lower four Klamath dams will also help the salmon, though that is another issue!!
This would accomplish several goals;
1) Save salmon health by preventing increased water turbidity from suction dredging. The suction dredge operates by literally dredging the riverbed bottom through the suction, and emitting water clouded with sediment and debris into the downstream flow. This increased turbidity is bad for the salmon eggs and fry that need clear oxygen rich water for their survival..
The only turbidity from gold panners would be from their feet and hands shuffling through the river bottom, and the physical effort required to pan for gold would discourage large amounts of hands and feet ever shuffling through the stream bed at one time. Even twenty people panning for gold at one single place along the river would cause less turbidity than one single suction dredge..
background on suction dredges;
"
“Scientific, peer-reviewed research studies conclusively show that suction dredging for gold can adversely affect or harm both the reproduction of spawning fish and rearing habitat for juvenile fish, particularly trout and salmon,” according to California Trout. These findings were reaffirmed in the Karuk lawsuit by DFG and by eminent expert fishery biologists like Dr. Peter Moyle of UC Davis and Dr. Walt Duffy of Humboldt State University.
According to Moyle, "suction dredging should be banned in tributaries of the Klamath River, 500 meters above and below cool-water refuge areas (stream mouths) on the mainstream of the Klamath River, the Klamath River from the Trinity River confluence to Green Riffle, Canyon Creek and all other Scott River tributaries, and the Salmon River including the north and south forks and all tributaries."
Dr. Moyle contends that “Suction dredging represents a chronic unnatural disturbance of natural habitats that are already likely to be stressed by other factors and can therefore have a negative impact on fishes that use the reach being dredged. All anadromous fishes in the Klamath basin should be considered to be in decline and ultimately threatened with extirpation. Section dredging through a combination of disturbance of resident fish, alteration of substrates, and indirect effects on heavy human use of small areas, especially thermal refugia (side creeks), will further contribute to the decline of the fishes."
"
entire article @;
http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2007/10/fish_groups_and.html
also;
"The mineral-rich Klamath-Siskiyou region of Northern California and southern Oregon has become a prospecting hotspot. But environmentalists contend these hobby miners threaten waterways and the fish that depend on them for habitat. The local Siskiyou Regional Education Project catalogs damage done by dredgers: eroded stream banks, excavated gravel beds, increased water turbidity, destroyed vegetation, litter.
"Most of this in-stream mining actually takes place in the most sensitive parts of the stream," says Barbara Ullian, conservation coordinator for the nonprofit Siskiyou Project. Dredging can destroy nests, or redds, where salmon lay their eggs, and smother the eggs in fine silt, she says."
article @;
http://www.hcn.org/issues/321/16269
2) Open riverbeds to public access, end the mining leases that effectively privatize public riverbeds for individuals, preventing the public from access to the same resource we're all paying taxes on..
3) Greater access for lower income people to pan for gold, as gold panning kits can be as simple as a pie tin with holes. Of course people should not litter and send their pit tins floating downstream after they are finished!!
Even the fancy gold panning kits available online are far cheaper than an actual suction dredge..
"10 1/2" Gold Pan
To begin panning for gold all you really need is a good gold pan. Our gold pans are 10 1/2 " tough black plastic with riffles for better gold retainment. Each gold pan comes with a suction pipet and display vial.
Item#: GPA Price: $5.95 "
http://www.infowest.com/life/goldprod.htm
So go ahead and be an ol' fashioned gold panning pirate like Yosemite Sam and take your gold pan up to the riverbed and pan for gold right in front of a suction dredge miner! Show them that anyone can pan for gold and be far less destructive to the riparian ecosystem than they are with their suction dredges and mining leases. Just say that you are using your rights as a member of the public to the riverbeds of our collectively shared National Forests, and that you do not believe in mining leases!!
Of course removing the lower four Klamath dams will also help the salmon, though that is another issue!!
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