The young indigenous young people recover their river: historic kayak crossing in the Klamath (free from the dam after 100 years)

A historic journey by removing from the sources of the Klamath river in the south of Oregon to his mouth in the Pacific Ocean, just south of Crescent City, in California. For the first time in a century the descent was possible, for the first time after four dams were removed, allowing the river – finally – to scrollly scroll.

The most significant and important thing about all this is that the river is healing – the local natives tell. The river remembers. The fish are returning to lay the eggs in the places where they have not been able to return for over a hundred years. The fish remember. We, as a river system, are healing.

The Klamath was once the third largest river for the production of salmon on the west coast of the United States. But between 1918 and 1966, the electrical service company California Oregon Power Company (which later became Pacificorp), built a series of hydroelectric dams along the course of the river, which cut the path upstream for the migration of the salmon, and the tribes lost this cultural and commercial resource.

But, on October 2, the largest damages of dams in the United States, along the 423 kilometers of river, ended last: an event, expected for decades, which allowed the river to resume its natural flow and to the salmon Chinook to return to trace its waters after more than a century.

And now the indigenous teenagers celebrate this reconquest

On June 12, of the young Kayakists, aged between 13 and 20, they left to travel the river in his sources in his sources in the south of Oregon in Kayak, and on 11 July they realized the dream long awaited by the tribes of the Klamath region, entering the mouth of the river.

A unique program of its kind, the first in history, which participated by young people from the Klamath, Yurok, Karuk, Quartz Valley, Hoopa Valley, Warm Springs and the Tohaon O’ODHAM nation.

There were generations of individuals and tribes that have fought this battle – they say -. Our ancestors guaranteed them security during the trip. We are really enthusiastic and we want them to feel that we are honoring them, because they brought international and national attention to our river and the importance of having a free river. They inspired millions of people to defend their rivers and lands.

More than three years between Chile, Costa Rica, Canada and Africa to train and get loaded at this moment, to learn how to navigate in white waters with instructors of the Paddle Tribal Waters program, part of the No-profit Ríos To Speles organization.

While the mothers helped their children dressing with traditional Yurok clothing – deer leather skirts decorated with mother pearl and shell files, putting on their hair the typical Yurok straw hats – the sound of drums and songs mixed with people’s applause on the shore, while the kayak with bright neon colors emerged from the fog, guided by two traditional wooden canoes of Sequoia.

It wasn’t a kayak trip and it’s not just a descent for us. This journey is truly a letter to our community. It is a love letter, the love that has been shown to us for our whole life, the love that we can show to ourselves and to each other that has been enclosed on this journey. This is what he built this trip, knowing that we were loved enough to be supported in a company like this.

We also see it as a promise letter, the promise that these young people will do everything that is necessary to protect their free river.

Sources: NYT / OPB / Ríos To Rivers

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