The case against restoring the reservation

There are many examples of Klamath tribal members trying to dispose of reservation assets and lands for cash

Save the Winema & Fremont Forests

Proposal to Create Tribal Reservation Is Contrary to the Public Interest

Lynn Bayona is President of The Basin Alliance to save the Winema and Fremont National Forests, 2575 Campus Drive, Suite 346,Klamath Falls, OR, 97601, phone(541) 880-2606, many Alliance members worked on this article. The much publicized negotiations between the Klamath Tribes, federal representatives and a select group of private landowners have highlighted the contentious issue of establishing a Tribal reservation in the Winema and Fremont National Forests. These negotiations propose to give the Klamath Tribes 690,000 acres of our prime forestlands.

The problem with this scenario is the Reservation was bought and paid for already by American taxpayers. This would be as if the French claimed that Thomas Jefferson coerced them into the lucrative Louisiana Purchase and that we should return those Southern states to French sovereignty.

An additional justification for having 690,000 acres given to the Tribes is the assertions of mistreatment and the forced transformation to a European society 150 years ago. This argument is questionable considering many tribal members are over 50% European ancestry, and some tribal members are only 1/16^th Native American (Federal Register Nov 21, 1957).

We encourage everyone to take a full and in-depth look at history.

The historical record is replete with examples of the Klamath Tribal Members actively trying to dispose of their Reservation assets and lands in exchange for a cash payment. The following are excerpts from Tribal documents received by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Klamath Tribes currently archived in the regional National Archives repository in Seattle.

Finally in 1950, the furor of tribal members wanting to sell their share of the reservation compelled the Tribal Council to act. In the 1950 tribal council meeting, the Klamath Tribes voted to introduce the voluntary withdrawal act in Congress, allowing their members to sell their share of the reservation for cash. The voluntary withdrawal act did not pass Congress but evolved into the Act Providing for Termination of Federal Supervision of the Klamath Tribes allowing the Tribes to sell the reservation in exchange for cash, for the withdrawing members.

While the Tribes insist they did not receive adequate representation during the passing of the Termination Bill, the Council minutes speak for themselves. In 1954 the two elected delegates from the Tribe, Boyd Jackson and Jesse Kirk were in Washington, D.C. They, along with Wade Crawford who claimed to represent 307 members of the Tribe, testified before the Senate Committee.

Wade Crawford spoke before the Council: " . . .Mr. Jackson and Mr. Kirk had a meeting on these amendments that are now a law, and that’s public record . . .Mr. Jackson agreed to that bill. . .The parties representing you agreed to this law, don’t let them give you anything about they wanted to change it."

In the same meeting a letter was read into the transcript from Congressman Sam Coon:

As reported at the July 29, 1954 General Council meeting the elected Tribal delegates, wrote the following about the Termination Bill:

The Klamath Tribes were not terminated. Federal Supervision (control) was all that was terminated. This point is very clearly stated in the Klamath Tribes 11/25/2000 constitution

Both the reservation and the Klamath Tribe existed after termination. Tribal members were given a choice of whether they wanted to stay in the Tribe, or withdraw from the Tribe and get their share of the reservation in cash.

Following Termination of Federal Supervision, 1,659 tribal members voted to withdraw for a cash payout, 80 voted to remain and 394 did not vote, or presented invalid ballots. Those who did not vote or presented invalid ballots were considered remaining members for a total of 474 remaining members. Source: The Federal Register and the list of Persons Electing to Remain.

According to the Klamath Tribes’ own calculations, The Tribes were paid $220,647,000 in termination payments between 1961 and 1980 (Economic studies in support of Klamath Tribes self sufficiency and impacts of Termination). In today’s dollars, these payments ranged between $318,613 and $762,787 per person, when adjusted for inflation, utilizing the American Institute for Economic Research’s inflation calculator.

The remaining members received substantially more money than the withdrawing members. The remaining members received payment when the US bank trusteeship was dissolved at a later date, and the remaining reservation was liquidated.

In 1986 Congressman Bob Smith introduced legislation to restore federal supervision of the tribes, which entitles tribal members to receive health, education, and welfare benefits.

According to the Herald and News June 16^th 1986 Congressman Smith made it abundantly clear how Congress stood.

"Smith Said the bill would not restore the Klamath Tribe’s reservation nor would it suggest that the federal government should ever provide land for a reservation…If it is the Tribal (chairman’s) intention to reconstruct a reservation in the future that must be done through the same land acquisition methods available to any American"

The water battle continues to be long and divisive. The tribes have filed for claims to essentially all the surface water in the upper Klamath Basin. If successful; these claims would result in the shut down of most agricultural producers.