Hundreds of people, including scores of school children from Native American Tribes and local communities along the Klamath and Trinity Rivers teamed up to complete a 260-mile relay up the Klamath and Trinity Rivers today.
The rivers and streams along the route once provided top-notch salmon habitat and hosted the West Coast’s third largest salmon run.
The 2015 Salmon Run reached its destination at noon on June 1 and was followed by a traditional salmon bake at 1 p.m. at the Chiloquin Community Center, in Chiloquin, Oregon.
What started with school children running a relay to deliver a hand carved salmon up the Trinity River, the Klamath’s largest tributary, has grown into a decade-long Inter-Tribal tradition involving hundreds of children, their parents, and dedicated fish advocates from Yurok, Hoopa, Karuk and beginning this year the Klamath Tribes.
In an effort to remove dams along the Klamath River that block fish passage and ruin water quality, Tribes have united with strong conviction, at a time when juvenile salmon are facing extreme health impacts.
According to the Klamath Fish Health Assessment Team, one hundred percent of juvenile Chinook salmon in the Klamath River carry the C. Shasta virus, a deadly illness that is exacerbated by the dams in the Klamath.
2015 Salmon Run organizer Crispen McAllister, a Karuk Tribal member who personally ran much of the distance bridging the mouth to the headwaters of the Klamath, attended public event at the end of the race. The gathering and feast featured a traditional salmon bake, provided by lower river tribes that still have access to the spring run Chinook that historically inhabited Chiloquin.
This the first time the Klamath have joined with the lower river tribes to bring the run past the dams that currently block the salmon.
The 260 Mile Salmon Run began at the Pacific Ocean on May 29, 2015. It finished in Chiloquin, Oregon on Monday, June 1st, 2015 at Noon.
For more information, contact:
Dania Rose Colegrove, (707) 499-3110
Taylor David: taylor.david@klamathtribes.com
Crispen McAllister: ckarukc@gmail.com
Klamath Fish Health Assessment Team, Sara Borok: (707) 822-0330