Tribes celebrate removal of dam, revival of community along Klamath River

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00:00For more than a century, a number of dams had blocked the salmon run in the Klamath River

00:06and shut down the livelihood of communities of Indian tribes living near or along its banks.

00:12With the removal of the last dam, hopes are shining bright for the revival of the Indians' livelihood,

00:18as we hear more from VOA's Matt Dibble.

00:23It was a moment those gathered here have hoped for for decades.

00:31Last week, a demolition crew broke through the Iron Gate Dam,

00:35the last of four hydroelectric dams being removed on the Klamath River,

00:39which stretches for 400 kilometers from the state of Oregon to the California coast.

00:45The dam breach is part of the largest river restoration project ever undertaken in the United States.

00:51The goal is to revive an ecosystem that once supported indigenous communities

00:56from the headwaters to the Pacific coast, but has suffered during the century that dams were in place.

01:02Our communities have always fought for the protection of the sacredness of our Mother Earth

01:06and the sacredness of our waterways, so it's an exciting day to see this move forward

01:12and to watch that water pour over.

01:14Salmon migrate between the ocean and fresh water.

01:18They were once abundant throughout the Klamath Basin,

01:21but after dam construction, salmon were blocked from reaching the upper river,

01:26water temperatures rose, and toxic algae bloomed.

01:30Salmon populations dropped below 10 percent of what they once were.

01:34We lost salmon into our homelands 107 years ago.

01:39Myself, personally, I've been involved with this issue since 1980.

01:44I hope to live long enough to see a salmon come swimming by my home in Chillipoint.

01:51Klamath tribes led a decades-long battle to remove the dams,

01:55traveling great distances to protest at meetings of the corporation that owned the dams.

02:00We could not afford to lose in the battle for the protection of this river and its resources

02:07because that's who we are as Yurok people.

02:10Ultimately, the dam's owner, Pacific Corp., accepted a deal to remove them

02:15rather than pay for costly environmental upgrades.

02:19Draining of the dam's reservoirs began in January and has uncovered over 1,100 hectares of land,

02:25land the state of California has pledged to return to the Shasta Indian Nation, which once lived there.

02:31This year, teams of mostly tribal members have been planting native seeds in the former lake beds

02:37and restoring habitat for returning fish.

02:40And the river's people, who have sometimes clashed over the precious resource of water in this arid region,

02:47will also be making a fresh start.

02:50So now people have to reestablish those relationships that have been severed by these dams

02:58and recognize our common reliance on one another to fix the world.

03:07Many in the crowd, while taking a moment to celebrate,

03:12acknowledge that a restored Klamath ecosystem is still many years away.

03:17Matt Dibble, VOA News, Hornbrook, California.

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