Anna V. Smith’s report on the Klamath River fish kill in the July edition (“Ongoing fish kill on the Klamath River is an ‘absolute worst-case scenario,’” July 2021) mentions the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement, which failed to pass Congress. The report failed to note that, if it had become law, it would have locked in Klamath River flows.
Since the 1980s, both Republican and Democratic administrations have orchestrated and Congress has approved over 30 tribal water settlements. While each is unique, tribal governments have generally given up or agreed not to exercise senior water rights. In exchange, tribes receive funding for water infrastructure, sewage systems and tribal government operations.
But who in their right mind would sell or compromise a senior water right in the West?
I believe historians will look back at the current settlement period as the second big rip-off of the Indigenous peoples of North America: First, they took the land and tried to exterminate the people; now they are taking the water, with the acquiescence of tribal governments that are themselves colonial creations.
Felice Pace
Klamath Glen, California
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Fish kill on the Klamath.
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