Oregon: Klamath tribe gets 5% of their reservation back

A landmark agreement to be announced Thursday will return to the
Klamath Tribes about 90,000 acres of their one-time southern Oregon
reservation that the federal government sliced up and sold off more
than 50 years ago. The government’s strategy at the time was to
integrate the tribes into mainstream society. But the opposite
happened: The once-prosperous tribes descended into poverty, with many
members giving up school and dying alcohol-related deaths.

The land
deal scheduled for unveiling Thursday restores only a small slice of
the tribes’ former 2.5-million-acre reservation. But it’s one of the
largest pieces of land to be returned to Northwest tribes that once
controlled it. And it gives tribal members renewed control over some
of their historic resources — and their destiny. The Trust for Public
Land brokered the land agreement between the tribes and Cascade
Timberlands, a timber company controlled by Fidelity National
Financial. The next step will be for the tribes to purchase the land
at an undisclosed price that must be confirmed by an appraisal. The
tribes will get $21 million in federal funds toward the purchase
through a previously negotiated deal to resolve water and other
disputes across the Klamath region. Congress must allocate the funds,
but Chuck Sams of the Trust for Public Land said he’s confident
lawmakers and the new administration will do so. The Trust for Public
Land will raise any additional money needed for the purchase, he said.
Returning the land to the tribes assures its conservation and will
also “right a historic wrong,” said Nelson Mathews, Northwest program
director for the trust. The Klamath Tribes — composed of the Klamath,
Modoc and Yahooskin — once occupied a 23 million-acre homeland, but
the U.S. government eventually limited the tribes to a reservation
about one-tenth the size. Even then, the tribes were largely
self-sufficient, bringing in revenue from reservation timber, ranching
and farming. http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2008/12/land_deal_returns_slice_of_kla.html

Posted via email from Deane’s posterous