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MONDAY, AUGUST 26, 2002

Two northern California tribes are caught in a battle over fish, water, treaty rights and angry white farmers.

The Hoopa Valley Tribe and the Yurok Tribe depend on the Trinity and Klamath rivers. Neither tribe has gotten the water it deserves.

After years of going without, the tribes in December 2000 were promised extra flows from the Trinity River for fish. A court case has delayed the water.

Similarly, water was being restored from the Klamath River. But after about 1,200 non-Indian farmers protested, the allocation was cut back.

Now, a new threat has emerged. The two rivers are warming, which could kill off more fish.

"Broken promises were the hallmark of relations between the U.S. government and the Indian tribes of the West in the 19th and early 20th centuries," The Los Angeles Times writes in an editorial about the injustice.

Get the Story:
Tribes face new threat to salmon (The San Francisco Chronicle 8/25)
Editorial: Respect Tribe's Water Rights (The Los Angeles Times 8/25)

Related Stories:
Calif. tribes still waiting for water (8/22)
Interior sued over river plan (1/10)
Plan would help restore salmon to river (12/20)