Censored News Special Edition: Modoc Nation: Statement on UN Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Censored News Special Edition: Modoc Nation: Statement on UN Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Opinion: Vote Yes on Klamath County Measure 18-80

KC Measure 18-80 is a non-binding advisory measure intended to inform the Klamath County Commissioners as to whether the voters of the County want Klamath County to remain involved in the implementation of the Klamath Basin Restoration Act (KBRA) and the Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement (KHSA). 

Pintails take flight at Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge (photo USFWS)

The wording of the measure has stirred up controversy because if you are for the KBRA/KHSA you must vote "No," which will advise the Commissioners to remain involved in their implementation.  On the other hand, if you don't like the KBRA/KHSA and would like to see their implementation slowed or stopped, you must vote "Yes," as in "Yes, I want the County Commissioners to pull out of the KBRA/KHSA implementation process."  This mangled wording of the measure is very likely to mislead a lot of voters opposed to the KBRA/KHSA into voting "No" when they really need to vote "Yes." 

One can often learn more about a proposed measure by looking at who supports it than by trying to decipher its actual language or separate fact from propaganda in the advertising surrounding it. Both the Herald & News and the Klamath County Chamber of Commerce are urging a "No" vote on KC Measure 18-80.  So too is the "Klamath Bucket Brigade."

The Herald & News has always been politically aligned with the arch-conservative wing of the Republican Party, which means that it caters to big business.  Big business in this case means the large agribusiness interests in the Klamaths Basin, whose advertising dollars make up a large part of the newspaper's revenue stream.  Native Americans, ducks, geese and fish don't run very much advertising in the paper, so their views and interests are largely ignored.

The Klamath County Chamber of Commerce is supported and influenced by its membership, which, these days more than ever, is dominated by corporate farms and ranches, farm equipment dealers, fertilizer and pesticide sellers, crop storage and distribution companies and other related agribusiness interests.  The Chamber is pro-business, regardless of its impact on Native Americans, wildlife, climate and environment, or even the viability of entire ecosystems.  Their only interest is in helping their members make more money - period.

Klamath Bucket (photo by Michael McCullough, Flickr)

The Klamath Bucket Brigade has urged people to vote "No" on Measure 18-80.  Remember them?  They are the people who formed a mob in 2001 and committed federal crimes by breaking into the headgates on Link River and turning water into the "A" Canal.  Incredibly, no one was arrested or prosecuted. In fact, they were treated as "heroes," and their disrespect for law and order was memorialized by that monstrosity of a sculpture known as "The Bucket" that stands at the entrance to the Klamath County Government Building.  To the Modoc people, that bucket is a constant finger in the eye.

All of these groups either are or represent the large farmers and ranchers and related agribusiness interests in the Klamath Basin who are trampling Modoc treaty water, hunting, fishing and gathering rights and who will deprive us of them forever if the KBRA is implemented. 

Forget about the KHSA – everyone knows the dams will not be removed under the terms and conditions of the KHSA because there are just too many poison pills and obstacles built into it.  It is just the carrot on the end of the stick needed to get people to go along with the KBRA transfer of water rights from the Modoc Nation to a handful of wealthy and politically influential large-scale farmers who are farming our ancestral homelands on or near the Lower Klamath and Tulelake National Wildlife Refuges, using our water, and receiving taxpayer funded  subsidies to purchase electricity at below market rates to run their pumps.

Yes, it is true that a “yes” vote would be advisory only.  But it would send a powerful message to the Commissioners that the taxpayers no longer support the KBRA/KHSA as written and approved last February 18, 2010.  They would ignore such a vote at their own political peril.  The same message would spread up the political food chain to higher levels of government:  "Political support for the two measures is splintering and beginning to fall apart."  If I were a resident of Klamath County (and I was for more than 50 years), I would vote “yes” on Measure 18-80 to send that message. 

As a Modoc citizen I want to see the dams taken out - but not just some of them, all of them - so that the abundant life and beauty of our ancestral homelands can be restored to their former glory.  Furthermore, I am committed to stopping the implementation of the KBRA because it takes away our water rights and our rights to sue the federal government for failing to live up to its trust obligation to protect our treaty water, hunting, fishing and gathering rights, which have been ignored since 1912, by which time the Klamath Reclamation Project had completed construction of the main "A" Canal, Clear Lake Dam and the Lost River Diversion Dam.  Since that time, our sacred wetlands, which were supposed to have been protected and preserved as the Lower Klamath and Tulelake National Wildlife Refuges, have been 80% "dewatered."  Twenty-two thousand acres of these two wildlife refuges are being leased to a handful of wealthy farmers, so they can grow crops like potatoes and sugar beets - crops that are notoriously wasteful of precious water.

The Farmers Want Every Last Drop of Modoc Water
(photo by voices.washingtonpost.com)

That's right, folks.  The same farmers and ranchers who wrap themselves in the American flag, and proclaim on their Bucket Brigade website "Let Freedom Ring - Let the Water Flow," and who profess to be against "big government," have used big government and the taxpayers to fund, build and operate the Klamath Reclamation Project, which restricts the freedom of the Modoc people and restricts the free flow of water.

By saying one thing and doing another, they have managed to steal 80% of the water the Creator intended for our sacred wetlands which are able to support an ever decreasing population of waterfowl, fish, eagles and other wildlife.  Still, the few are not satisfied.  They want it all, and that's just what they will get if the KBRA is implemented.  Indeed, that is the very purpose behind the several years of secret, closed-door meetings that resulted in the KBRA/KHSA.

Send the right message to the politicians up the line.  Vote "Yes" on Klamath County Measure 80-18.  

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Movie in Klamath Falls on Modoc War screening

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Modoc Nation moves forward in break with the Klamath's

Modoc Nation moves forward in break with Klamath

August 25, 2010

Associated Press

August 25, 2010

KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. -- The recently created Modoc Nation, formerly The Modoc Tribe have broken away from the Klamath Tribes. They are working to create legitimacy among other Indian tribes and government agencies.

Earlier this summer, Modocs declared their independence from the Klamath Tribes.

Tribal officials told the Herald and News in Klamath Falls that nearly 100 adults, including 30 enrolled Klamaths, have obtained voting memberships.

Officials said the goal of the Modoc Nation is to become completely self-sufficient in 15 years and end any reliance on federal funding.

They say the only long-term relationship will be to ensure that hunting, fishing, and gathering rights are recognized.

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137th Anniversary of the Modoc War this year.

Great report on KDRV.com  News Watch 12 TV from Ron Brown.
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