On July 11, several dozen indigenous youth from the Klamath Basin and beyond completed a historic 310-mile, month-long source-to-sea “first descent” of the recently undammed Klamath River. They began their journey in Oregon and ended at the mouth of the river on the Yurok Reservation. Rios to Rivers, a nonprofit conservation group, observed that “as the youths approached the sand spit adjacent to the Klamath’s mouth in their bright-colored kayaks, tribal elders, family members, friends and supporters waved and cheered them on.” … The young paddlers trained up to three years to run whitewater with kayak instructors from the Paddle Tribal Waters program, which is operated by Rios to Rivers. The program includes teens from the Klamath, Yurok, Karuk, Quartz Valley, Hoopa Valley, Warm Springs and Tohono O’odham tribes. Four hydroelectric dams owned by PacifiCorp had blocked the river for over a century, preventing once-abundant salmon and steelhead runs from ascending into their native habitat.

Related article:

• The Oregonian: Indigenous voices: Tribal kayakers describe why Klamath voyage was ‘not just a river trip’