REBUILDING A TRIBAL HOMELAND
Quadrants
The Klamath Tribes of central Oregon—made up of
Klamaths, Modocs, and the Yahooskin Band of Snake Paiute
people—once controlled 22 million acres in south-central
Oregon and northern California. Over the years those lands,
along with the economy they supported, were stripped from
them through white settlement and federal policy. Now a
small fraction of that land will be restored to the tribe, as they
begin to rebuild a tribal homeland and strengthen their land-based culture and economy.
Twice the Klamath Tribes have lost land, each time with
drastic effects on their cultural and economic well-being.
Their original way of life was based on hunting, gathering, and
harvesting the rich runs of salmon in local rivers. But white
settlement led to decades of hostilities and land loss. Fisheries
suffered as rivers were diverted for agriculture and later
blocked by hydroelectric dams. Tribal members were denied
access to important cultural and sacred sites. In 1864, the
tribes’ land base was slashed 90 percent as it ceded all of its
traditional homeland except a 2. 2 million–acre reservation.
Over the next century, the industrious tribes continued their
traditional hunting and gathering and rebuilt their economy,
CHARLES SAMS III
HAROLD WEAVER/BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS
using reservation lands for cattle ranching and sustainable timber
harvesting. By the 1950s, they had one of the highest standards
of living of any U.S. tribe, primarily due to the massive stands of
timber on the reservation. Then, in 1954, even the reservation
lands were seized as part of a disastrous and now discredited federal policy known as “termination.” The goal was to end relations
with tribal nations, force the assimilation of Indian people into
mainstream American culture, and seize valuable landholdings
and assets. Termination and the land seizure devastated the
Klamaths, tripling the number of individuals living below the
poverty line and leading to lowered life expectancies and
increased infant mortality.
The termination policy was reversed in 1968, and the
Klamath Tribes regained federal recognition in 1986. But they
did not get back their reservation and have long been dedicated
to regaining at least a portion of these ancestral lands.
In December, working with TPL, the tribes signed an
option to buy the 90,000-acre Mazama Forest from the latest
in a series of commercial timber operators that have owned
the land since it was taken from the tribes. The parties expect
to complete the transaction this fall. The forest’s rich and varied landscape is home to antelope, bears, fish, and other
wildlife. Reacquisition will serve as a building block for the
tribes’ innovative plans to manage the forest sustainably and
provide access to key sacred sites, helping to restore tribal
member’s economic health and spiritual wholeness.
Restoration of the Mazama Forest to the Klamath Tribes
is the most recent effort by TPL’s Tribal & Native Lands
Program, which since its founding in 1999 has helped 72
tribes or Native groups protect or secure 200,000 acres
in 16 states. For more information on the Mazama Forest
project or TPL’s Tribal & Native Lands Program, go to
www.tpl.org/tribal.
