Yurok Tribe (USA) Resolution: rights of the Klamath River

Summary

In 2019, the Yurok Tribe drafted and passed a resolution declaring that the Klamath River “possesses inherent rights to exist, flourish, and naturally evolve.” The resolution further directed the Tribal Council to establish an ordinance enabling the river to be represented in court as a legal person, capable of initiating legal actions to protect its own rights.

This resolution came to be after many years of environmental struggles and legal advocacy due to low water levels in the river, harming the river’s salmon population. The Yurok people depend on the Klamath River—particularly the Chinook and Coho salmon runs that sustain tribal lifeways and the land’s local ecology. In the early 2000s, severe droughts and dam operations led to dangerously low water flows and high river temperatures. In 2002, due to low water flow from a dam known as Iron Gate, the “Klamath River Fish Kill” occurred and resulted in the death of more than 34,000 adult salmon, one of the largest ecocides in U.S. history. By 2018, monitoring data from the Yurok Fisheries Department showed that returning Chinook salmon numbers were less than 8% of their historical average.

Studies showing that reduced water flows, pollution, and toxic algal blooms had reached critical levels in several stretches of the Klamath proved that currently-existing regulatory mechanisms managed by the state of California and U.S. federal agencies, failed to uphold the health of the river ecosystem. In response to these ecological crises, Yurok leadership began exploring the rights of nature framework as a legal tool to protect the river. The resolution was passed unanimously in 2019 and declared that the Yurok Tribal Council would later be responsible for adopting an ordinance based on the resolution. More information about the ordinance can be found in the “Related Initiatives” section below, under “Yurok Tribe (USA) Ordinance: Rights of the Klamath River.”

Related Initiatives