Racial tension builds in Klamath Tribes water, drought crisis
For decades, an agonizing war over [water] has divided indigenous people and the descendants of settlers of [the Klamath basin], which like much of the American West, is now plagued by drought. Family farmers often describe the conflict as one that pits them against federal bureaucrats who protect the suckerfish, imperiled as the lake grows more inhospitable. That portrayal, say members of the tribes, dismisses a tougher truth … about race, equity and generational trauma to a people whose history includes slaughter, forced removal of children, federal termination of their tribal status and loss of land …