In an Article, the NY Times Ties Opioid Crisis Among Yurok, Karuk, and Hoopa Tribes to the Decline in the Salmon on the Klamath

Traditional bbqing of Salmon

For the first time in the event’s 54-year history, the Yurok Tribe had to remove salmon from the menu at the 2016 Klamath Salmon Festival, because of the record low fish run. [Crop of a photo provided by the Yurok Tribe in a press release about the event]

A lushly photographed and richly written article in today’s New York Times links the health of the Klamath River and its salmon inhabitants to those of the native people whose traditional lands line its banks and who in part depend on it for food. The author of a Sick River: Can These California Tribes Beat Heroin and History?, Jose A. Del Real, a reporter for the Times on California issues, writes,

Salmon runs reached historic lows last year, destabilizing an already fragile subsistence economy for thousands living along the river. Without salmon in this region, where unemployment can reach 80 percent in some areas, families risk hunger and destitution.

At the same time, a surge of heroin has intensified problems with opioid addiction that first began with painkillers like OxyContin in the early 2000s and began to worsen in 2014…

Earlier today Del Real tweeted, “Between 1999 and 2015, Native Americans saw a 519 percent increase in overdose deaths nationally. They are the hardest-hit demographic in an overdose death epidemic that has affected every corner of the country.”

He explained, “Yurok tribal leaders hope a combination of medication-assisted treatment, i.e. buprenorphine, can be expanded alongside culture-based rehabilitation programs, like “wellness” villages where recovering users can get back in touch with traditional practices.”

Read the entire piece here.

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Emeral
Guest
Emeral
5 years ago

Bogus, they live in poverty and have very little community within, has nothing to do with the salmon, I fish trinity and klamath great and beautiful always enjoy myself, bullshit.

Guest
Guest
Guest
5 years ago
Reply to  Emeral

So, fishing the river makes one an expert on Yurok culture? Can you hear my fucking laugh?

VHDA
Guest
VHDA
5 years ago
Reply to  Emeral

Do you rely on that for sustenance?

pt
Guest
pt
5 years ago
Reply to  VHDA

they get a shit load of government assistance , there are generations of welfare indians , the white man created the problem by taking away their land and instead of them assimilating into society they were handed welfare as a sorry. thus we have the lazy, poorly educated natives of today. It has little to do with salmon.

The misadventures of bunjee
Guest
The misadventures of bunjee
5 years ago
Reply to  pt

Wow, that’s a misguided, colonialist statement. Assimilation is destruction of a culture and this opioid problem, et al came from it. We have so many culrures in the US that exist just fine. Tribes too. What exactly do they have to assimilate for? Is that old world forced-religion doing the talking for you? Accept this or die?

R -DOG
Guest
R -DOG
5 years ago
Reply to  pt

The reason the people get government assistance is because the government whiped evert thing out to try to starve the people out so the people have to rely on government assistance thats one of the ways of the government used to control people so they have more power over them

Road Weary
Guest
Road Weary
5 years ago
Reply to  pt

If this involved just the taking a land, your ‘lazy Indian’ argument might hold some water. This, of course, obviously overlooks a long series of genocidal massacres, enslavement, rape, kidnapping women to provide ‘brides’ for white men. Tearing children away from families and sending them to boarding schools where they were punished for speaking the language, in other words, cultural genocide. The historical trauma inflicted cannot be understated. You comment is deeply racist and offensive. If someone murdered your mother and father, raped your daughter, then offered you welfare as a sorry, would you, then, call yourself stupid and lazy?

💯
Guest
💯
5 years ago
Reply to  Road Weary

Welly said💯👍

Dan
Guest
Dan
5 years ago
Reply to  pt

WHat gov assistance?

In my 1911 I trust
Guest
In my 1911 I trust
5 years ago
Reply to  Dan

Wow I didn’t know that was still happening? I thought that ended over a hundred years ago, your mother, father, and daughter huh? You should press charges that shouldn’t happen in today’s society. On another note, I know plenty of natives in Big Lagoon that get over $20,000 a month. I live off $20,000 a year, so that must be pretty nice….

Muddy Black Dodge
Guest
Muddy Black Dodge
5 years ago
Reply to  Emeral

Emeral, You think you know everything. Pretty silly of you. I don’t trust anything a person who thinks they know it all.

Tribal member
Guest
Tribal member
5 years ago
Reply to  Emeral

There isnt any work for them and the nearest town is C.City 22 miles away. Growing up disavantaged without a vehicle would make it super hard to make something of yourself without massive help. So the declining salmon is tied to poor fishing regulations for our tribal members with lack of enforcment and knowledge, logging, dirt roads, sewer run offs, drainages, illegal dumping, farming/agriculture, and those damn Dams is just a few off the top of my head…

Joe dirt
Guest
Joe dirt
5 years ago
Reply to  Tribal member

The headwaters of the Klamath is the South slopes of Crater Lake Klamath area poor snow pack for many years Timber harvesting lot of Agriculture and Cattle in a Headwaters area is very bad causing a rise in the water temperature and algae blooms then there is the dams we are hearing that the ducks and migratory Birds having problems with a type of botulism bacteria which is related to droughts and hot then average times the Rivers have been struggling with the diversion from the trinity a lot of the water goes down the Sacramento Valley and they have been having to go to court with the delta-mendota Water District to keep some of the water flowing in the Trinity towards the ocean for the fish in the drought years in years of lower returns the commercial and sports Fisheries still go Full Tilt some of the tribal shut down their Fisheries due to low returns some of the answers are not easy to deal with we pray that you keep it together in these troubling times we pray for your salmon returns and keeping your families together

Coletta A Hughes
Guest
Coletta A Hughes
5 years ago
Reply to  Emeral

[edit] Apparently you know very little about the salmon die off. There’s many reasons for the die off, but one of the leading reasons is the theft of water from our rivers. I would much prefer salmon over the overpriced wine grapes and artisan farms that most people can’t afford to eat.

Now go back home [edit]!

rivi
Guest
rivi
5 years ago

Its the grape farming and not blown up weed scenes that are stealing the water?

Old mendo fart
Guest
Old mendo fart
5 years ago
Reply to  Emeral

Emeral, you think because you fish the Klamath and Trinity you know what the Indian experience is on those rivers? You think that because Indians don’t include you in their community that they don’t have community? It is not just about catching a fish and your worldview is what’s bogus. [edit]

J-Mac
Guest
J-Mac
5 years ago
Reply to  Emeral

You have no idea about which you speak!

LuckyPunk
Guest
5 years ago

Whats this talk about hachr giving out needles to kids at art festivals or something? Maybe loose work gossip. Will there be an article later? Thx

local observer
Guest
local observer
5 years ago
Reply to  LuckyPunk

I flipped through littlej’s facebook and found he is in a serious conflict of interest with anti-harm reduction rants and blames dating way back. at this point I very much doubt someone at harm reduction gave his 8 year old the pin.

LuckyPunk
Guest
5 years ago

I can see how having everything taken away could cause despair and increased use,especially with increased availability.

Concerned Trinity County Resident
Guest
Concerned Trinity County Resident
5 years ago

Seriously???? Hogwash.

Slugzilla
Guest
Slugzilla
5 years ago

Emeral is suffering from white privilege.

In my 1911 I trust
Guest
In my 1911 I trust
5 years ago
Reply to  Slugzilla

White priveledge is a myth and racist.
Go put your head in a hole. Its funny you ass-u-me emeral is white. Doesn’t matter your skin color, anybody can end up in poverty. Doesn’t matter your skin color, anybody can end up rich. Doesn’t matter your skin color, anybody can end up an addict. Doesn’t matter your skin color, anyone can end up a criminal. Doesn’t matter your skin color, anyone can assume and look like an idiot.

Dan
Guest
Dan
5 years ago

A myth? based on what? Yes, white privilege is racist. The fact is, based on thousands of studies, that white-skinned people are treated differently in almost all of our public and private institutions. That doesn’t mean there are not poor, white people, it means things are incrementally more difficult for non-white people.

In my 1911 I trust
Guest
In my 1911 I trust
5 years ago
Reply to  Dan

I’d like to see these supposed studies. Maybe 20 or even 10 years ago, but a lot has changed in this country and that is not necessarily the case. There are poor demographics of every skin color and life is equally as hard for them. Fact is, there are many social programs nowadays to help non-white colored people that exclude white colored people. Now, the fact is all that shit is just color, no different than a white dog from a black dog. They are still just dogs. Just like we are still just people. There is only one race and that is our human race, doesn’t matter the color. Remember race=species and last time I checked there is only one species of human left on this planet, homo sapiens. If you are really so petty to try to create a divide of species where there is none, all over skin color, then you should get a little education about basic biology and anthropology. [edit]

Mudgie Mccovey
Guest
5 years ago

I call bullshit. Talk about prejudicial. This is the most idiotic article I’ve ever seen.

Guedt
Guest
Guedt
5 years ago
Reply to  Mudgie Mccovey

Exactly what did you find prejudicial? It was 90% comments from tribe members, not that it mean any two of tribe members agree.

Emeral
Guest
Emeral
5 years ago

No they have netted the river to no return assholes common sense have you seen the nets at mouth or weitchpec or hoopa or johnsons or Blake’s riffle yall dont know shit do you. The August run has al.ost been wiped out entirely the spring salmon get netted from April to July so do some research it ain’t the white man that has netted the river dry of fish. They even have a harvesting weir at tish tang campground for the “elders” I get first hand I front of my 2 eyes the mayhem and havoc the over netting has done, that’s what happens when the tribal game warden is your family there is no restrictions and nobody follows rules, they have netted the river dry in the name of money, sleep in the bed you made or move

tatonka
Guest
tatonka
5 years ago
Reply to  Emeral

Amen to that!

Dan
Guest
Dan
5 years ago
Reply to  Emeral

Bullshit. You have no idea what you are talking about. Racist BS is all you have.

Steve
Guest
Steve
5 years ago
Reply to  Dan

I call bullshit Dan, 5 years ago there was a write up, one gentleman got caught in OAKLAND CA. With 21,000 lbs of salmon trying to sell it. That year the nets were all the way across the river leaving no escapement for any fish including steelhead and salmon.

Dan
Guest
Dan
5 years ago
Reply to  Steve

BS. That doesn’t mean the fish were caught illegally it only means he was trying to sell illegally. The Tribes monitor their fisheries a lot more than CDFW monitors commercial and recreational on the ocean or in the river.

Steve
Guest
Steve
5 years ago
Reply to  Dan

Once again I call bullshit DAN, IF THE NETS ARE ACROSS THE WHOLE WIDTH OF THE RIVER IT IS ILLEGAL! End of discussion, get a friggin clue.

Dan
Guest
Dan
5 years ago
Reply to  Steve

You get a clue [edit] show me a pic of nets strung across the entire river.

Redwood Dan
Guest
Redwood Dan
5 years ago
Reply to  Steve

2013 was a huge year at the mouth! A massive return of fish an an irresponsibly high quota and limit set by fish and wildlife. The limit was 3 adults and 1 Jack and catch and release was ok, so guys would cherry pick 20+ pounders to take home. I laughed hearing The old white guys complain about the natives and vise versa. The old farts and tourists were yanking out fish so fast, some were left forgotten on the beach in the sun all day. They left lots of trash and fishing line left on the beach too that I would pick up. Over 3 days I filled a gallon ziplock bag stuffed full of discarded line. Many days I was the first one on the spit to find footprints and drag marks in the sand from netting the mouth all night. Going up river I found several dead, sometimes skinned seals with bullet holes. Lots of trash and styrofoam along the banks. Abandoned nets on stumps log jams. The natives and non natives drink the same, pollute, and rape that river the same too. Nobody is innocent. There are people who genuinely care, but unfortunately not enough.

R -DOG
Guest
R -DOG
5 years ago
Reply to  Redwood Dan

Thar is no chiefs left. The young have no respect no more. Money has become first over everything. People have become alcoholics ,addicts and have lost thar way you cant play both ways your ether in or out you cant be a warrior on drugs you cant be leader and expect others to explain things to you if soom people are that stupid anymore they cant finger it out after all these years well i really dont know what to tell you

Sheesh!!
Guest
5 years ago
Reply to  Dan

Humans were genetically engineered by the Anunaki. No one is more indigenous to earth than anyone else. We are all an invasive species. Time to end special dispensation to the tribes.

TRUMPTASTROPHE for the GOP in November
Guest
TRUMPTASTROPHE for the GOP in November
5 years ago
Reply to  Sheesh!!

Humans were not “genetically engineered” by Zachariah S.’s imaginary extraterrestrial 👽 🛸 overlords to serve as a slave species in order to mine gold for our E.T. masters or for Sumerian warlords, or whatever nonsense you heard on late-night AM radio 📻. Been probed much? OUCH!

According to THE BIBLE 📖 😇🙏🏻, male angels 👼🏽 took proto-human females as concubines, because the angels thought our ladies were hot 🔥 💋, and knocked them up thereby creating a hybrid hominid/angel species now known as Homo Sapiens after much multigenerational dilution of the angel bloodlines over the millennia. (I’m not kidding – this is basically what’s in the Old Testament, if you’ve ever been bored enough to actually read it.) No cold calculated clinical genetic engineering according to “the word of God”, just some straight up wooing and screwing 🔩. 🛏

local observer
Guest
local observer
5 years ago
Reply to  Emeral

the difference between a native American weir and a white mans weir is milled lumber. the mad river.
http://library.humboldt.edu/humco/holdings/collection_images/palmquist/large/2003010239.jpg

Dan
Guest
Dan
5 years ago
Reply to  local observer

Actually, the difference is the white man’s weir is overlooked and promoted while the Native’s is criticized. People that think the Yurok’s are taking the fish don’t understand fisheries management and ignore the 3-5 years white people have to fish on Klamath River fish in the ocean before they even enter the river. The Tribe’s are allocated 50% of the harvestable surplus. They take their fish over a very short period of time which looks to the ignorant as them catching more than their share. Often, the Tribes “leave fish on the table” rather than fish during times of low abundance (e.g., last year) despite harvest in the ocean.

In my 1911 I trust
Guest
In my 1911 I trust
5 years ago
Reply to  Dan

Anybody can fish for those fish in the ocean. Not just white people. Pretty much anyone who owns a boat or is friends with someone who owns a boat or can walk out on a jetty and/or beach. But, just goes to show, having been with a Yurok woman for 4 years and been on the rez aplenty, natives are some of the most racist people I know.

local observer
Guest
local observer
5 years ago

i wonder how many natives rented boats at EZ Landing Marina for the annual Salmon Derby that spanned decades with no limits?

Anti troll league
Guest
Anti troll league
5 years ago
Reply to  local observer

Get in your time travel DeLorean and rush immediate back in time to berate them. BTW a lot of local tribe members were winners over the years.

local observer
Guest
local observer
5 years ago

sometimes its hard to imagine without see it. I trolled all over with very little luck this year. In the 40s you didn’t even need to go past the jaws. the fisheries failure on the west coast is no different than on the east coast. out there they are currently blaming the return of the grey seal, which has nothing to do with it but sounds like a nice scapegoat. the grist mills wiped out the Atlantic salmon and brook trout. the pilgrims wiped out the Atlantic Halibut and horseshoe crab to fertilized sand to grow corn. luckily both have made a come back with a little effort to solve the problem.
http://library.humboldt.edu/humco/holdings/collection_images/shuster/large/2001011148.jpg

Dan
Guest
Dan
5 years ago

Maybe they are treating you the way you treat them? I was married for 12 years to a Yurok woman and never experienced anything approaching the racism I hear from white people regarding Yurok people.

In my 1911 I trust
Guest
In my 1911 I trust
5 years ago
Reply to  Dan

Are you upset because no one has invited you to fish in the ocean for the klamath salmon with them? Would you be happier if I invited you out on my boat to go fish for salmon Dan? I’ve let natives borrow my boat so they could stretch those nets (supposedly) across the river. Would you be happier if you were included in those activities?

💯
Guest
💯
5 years ago

True, Id say white ppl are too because they are the only race without complection so they automatically feel their different and other people are strange. But it gets even deeper than that. It would take forever to really get to the real route why racism exists. Probably boils down to mental illnesses, fear, power and lack of knowledge, and manyyyy more!!! When it boils down to it a person crossed with every ethnicity would have the strongest and best Gene’s. Rasism is fake and a way to seperate us as a people to make us easier to control… we are slaves. Indigenous groups who were wiped out we’re the ones who didn’t want live the way the Shot Callers of the world wanted them to..

Anti troll league
Guest
Anti troll league
5 years ago
Reply to  local observer

Well, dig them all out of their graves and charge them with crimes against the future!

farce
Guest
farce
5 years ago
Reply to  Emeral

I’m not agreeing with your tone. But I do know that nets are stretched across and fish are over-harvested. And if you have a connect to the right persons in the tribe you can trade drugs or cash for lots of salmon. My friends did that for years, probably still do. I ate some but I didn’t want to play. The tribe has special rules so they can sustain their culture- not sell it for drugs. And the fish need help, not over-harvesting for drugs. I respect the elders and the Indians trying to hold on to their cultural identity and wish them strength and health.

Dan
Guest
Dan
5 years ago
Reply to  farce

How do you know they are overharvested? Do you know what escapem,ent targets are? do you know how many fish harvested vs. allocated. Do you know they don’t fish everyday and there are times when they can’t fish because of conditions e.g., outgoing tide fills nets with algae. The fish are not their source for drugs. As with all impoverished communities, especially minority communtities who also fight racism and white supremacy, drugs are used to medicate. Obviously, this doesn’t make it ok, but to ignore the reasons people use is to embrace ignorance.

farce
Guest
farce
5 years ago
Reply to  Dan

Dan- I say the fish are over-harvested because the species is faltering on the edge of extinction. I say the fish are over-harvested because my white friends were buying them and trading for them when the harvest was supposed to be for the natives consumption. I’m not sure what you are defending? I am only saying that there are bad players. Not all are bad.

In my 1911 I trust
Guest
In my 1911 I trust
5 years ago
Reply to  Dan

Hey Dan I believe there was an article posted earlier this year reporting on how the Hoopa way way way over harvested salmon last year. It was illegal because there wan’t supposed to be any salmon harvest! You comment on here but do you not recall the article just a couple months ago that refutes every single thing you are saying?

Guest
Guest
Guest
5 years ago
Reply to  Kym Kemp

Found this – http://www.myoutdoorbuddy.com/articles/132000/salmon…will-we-have-a-salmon-season?.php
“I attribute the “Over Fishing” of Klamath Fall Chinook salmon to the Hoopa Tribe harvesting 10 times their allotment. The National Marine Fisheries Service sent a letter to the Hoopa Tribal Chairman asking why the Tribe harvested 1,660 salmon when their allotment was only 163 Fall Chinook salmon while all Ocean Commercial, Ocean Sport and In-River Sport fishing was curtailed. ”

And http://www.klamathbasincrisis.org/tribes/hoopa/hoopatribewent10timesoverlimit032318.htm

It’s only blogs but may open searching to see if true.

In my 1911 I trust
Guest
In my 1911 I trust
5 years ago
Reply to  Guest

Bingo, thats exactly what I was talking about. Maybe it was in LOCO, I could have gotten mixed up.

Jaekelopterus
Guest
Jaekelopterus
5 years ago
Reply to  Emeral

So is the fishing great on the Klamath like you claim in your first post, or lousy like you claim in this one?

Tribal member
Guest
Tribal member
5 years ago
Reply to  Emeral

Yea poor tribal regulations for sure which is still regulated by the government in some way down the line and mostly the white peoples logging, logging roads,mining,over fishing from whites in past when they’d pull hundreds of thousands of pounds of salmon a day, and the giant dams all up the klamath and the main tributary rivers.. so do your research and quit being so ignorant. Its not anyones fault but the shot callers of society!! Dumb rascist pig..

racer x
Guest
racer x
5 years ago

The salmon are using OxyContin ?

racer x
Guest
racer x
5 years ago
Reply to  racer x

Chinook are party animals.

TRUMPTASTROPHE for the GOP in November
Guest
TRUMPTASTROPHE for the GOP in November
5 years ago
Reply to  racer x

No, that’s Rush Limbaugh. 🐘💊

Emeral
Guest
Emeral
5 years ago

There have been interesting articles many fish around the world test positive for painkillers and antidepressants to a low parts per million, do some research folks or smoke a other one.

In my 1911 I trust
Guest
In my 1911 I trust
5 years ago
Reply to  Emeral

As far as nets go we all know the dams are what kills rivers. Outdated sources of energy that are NOT renewable. Diversions to pipe water to farmers and ranchers who already over produce food and barely spend any money in the economy. There is no free market because ranchers and farmers are subsidized by the gov’t so none of them go out of business like they should. What do we end up with? A bunch of wasted food, dry dead rivers, and farmers and ranchers that are old cling ons because the gov’t prevents them from going under.

Sparklemahn
Guest
Sparklemahn
5 years ago
Reply to  Emeral

Do not smoke. Vaporize.

researcher
Guest
researcher
5 years ago
Reply to  Emeral

The scientific research done for unnatural substances found these days in fish covers everything from pesticides, nonylphenols and other numerous toxic man made chemicals to antibiotics (and other prescription drugs) and plastic residue. All of these research projects dealt with fish downstream from large urban areas or major industrial sites. I doubt the Klamath fish runs have the same type of exposure, and if they do its coming from upstream, not locally.

But seriously, what does that have to do with the article.

Just Sayin.
Guest
Just Sayin.
5 years ago

Absolute Bullshit. As a native , it really comes down to what the community immulates now. Glorification of gang life, narcos, and outright lawlessness. They Bring these people into our culture , breed with them and this is what you get. The article in itself ignores reason. Heroin and meth use is up 500% around the nation becuAse narcos can’t profit off marijuana anymore and push poison. A 50 ton meth shipment was just busted in Mexico. Pot operations have turned to poppy production. How about they start writing the truth then live in a fanciful leftist world who thinks Mexico largest import isnt the destruction of the U.S. culture as a whole.

TRUMPTASTROPHE for the GOP in November
Guest
TRUMPTASTROPHE for the GOP in November
5 years ago
Reply to  Just Sayin.

Ryan Sundberg, you lost. The voters have spoken. Get over it already.

Dan
Guest
Dan
5 years ago
Reply to  Just Sayin.

What is U.S. culture?

Jaekelopterus
Guest
Jaekelopterus
5 years ago
Reply to  Dan

I believe he’s talking about the social byproducts of the War on Drugs (crime, drug proliferation, gang culture, ect…) You’d think we would have learned the first time we tried prohibition.

Guest
Guest
Guest
5 years ago
Reply to  Dan

That’s like saying “what air” just because you never notice it until it’s gone. Of course the US has a culture, even though it’s a much derided thing. But being that very derision is tolerated and comes mostly from Americans themselves is a good thing. We are vocal, patriotic (except for having no respect for ourselves and saying so), enthusiatic, optimistic, energetic, etc. If you are in a sticky situation overseas, believe me you will be able to locate a fellow American in a crowd. It will not matter if they are a Yurok or a Cajun or even a bloody New Yorker, you will know.

Scooter
Guest
Scooter
5 years ago
Reply to  Just Sayin.

The claim that HumCo weed grows are turning to poppies is BS.

Just Sayin.
Guest
Just Sayin.
5 years ago
Reply to  Scooter

The claim is Mexican weed grows numb nuts.

gold guy
Guest
gold guy
5 years ago

Maybe if those folks who are affected would buy food instead of drugs ( expensive), it might go a long way to helping the situation.

In my 1911 I trust
Guest
In my 1911 I trust
5 years ago

30-40% of the food produced in the United States is wasted. Which is about 133 billion pounds of food or 161 billion dollars worth of food. From usda.gov>food waste>faqs. That means we could lose 30-40% of all the farmers and ranchers in the US and we would be fed just the same. That means 30-40% of the water being diverted from our rivers doesn’t need to be. Imagine how much healthier our country would be if the gov’t quit subsidizing and just let those parasites go under.

Oblivious
Guest
Oblivious
5 years ago

No mention of USFS involvement in poverty and despair.

Tribal member
Guest
Tribal member
5 years ago
Reply to  Oblivious

Straight up… fuck corrupt politicians and government workers

TRUMPTASTROPHR for the GOP in November
Guest
TRUMPTASTROPHR for the GOP in November
5 years ago
Reply to  Tribal member

Do you mean corrupt TRIBAL politicians and government workers? How’s Ryan Sundberg doing by the way? Has he stopped crying yet? 😭 Or he did he already take more than enough bribes from local casinos and timber corporations already?

Sparklemahn
Guest
Sparklemahn
5 years ago

(say like Texas cowboys on Pace Picante Salsa commercial):

“NEW YAWK?!?”

Local girl
Guest
Local girl
5 years ago

Did anyone commenting actually read this article? It’s not saying the fish are full of opioids it’s saying that the decline in fish and it’s income is leading to poverty and dispair in which people turn to drugs and alcohol to cope. And the over prescription of meds and opioids is also to blame. Right or wrong the article is spot on for the Natives and some of their struggles. I wish people could read instead of glancing at headlines and summaries and assuming. Nothing at all suggestion the fish are drugged …big picture people. 🙄

racer x
Guest
racer x
5 years ago
Reply to  Local girl

Ohhhh, so the salmon are growing cannabis without permits?

Flatgirl
Guest
Flatgirl
5 years ago

Classic victim blaming, eh? The tribes have had to repeatedly sue the gov’t to get water back in the rivers. The decline of the salmon would be happening if every native person was gone forever. They have only tried to restore the salmon run.
This “study” should be discredited quickly.

Dan
Guest
Dan
5 years ago
Reply to  Flatgirl

“Like”

Guest
Guest
Guest
5 years ago
Reply to  Flatgirl

What study?

Bozo
Guest
Bozo
5 years ago

Hmmm… I thought the Opioid crisis was national.

Northern California. No rain = No salmon. Klamath/Trinity Dams probably don’t help the situation either.

>”… one gentleman got caught in OAKLAND CA. With 21,000 lbs of salmon trying to sell it.”

I thought tons of Klamath salmon were discovered in a landfill in Hawaii.
Apparently rotted in transit. That may have been a different time tho.

Blue dog
Guest
Blue dog
5 years ago

Natives, like others in our community and across the nation are suffering from opioid abuse perpetuated by profit hungry big pharma and their deceptive marketing practices. Open your eyes to the real problem.

Sheesh!!
Guest
5 years ago
Reply to  Blue dog

Personal responsibility.
Stop blaming society, or Big pharma.
Blame the Junkies.

Mendocino Mamma
Guest
Mendocino Mamma
5 years ago

T.V. video games, horrible nasty derogatory music, texting vs COMMUNICATING! We have all lost the human touch and kindness. The show of support from family or community and how to bounce back from difficult situations. Without the ability to bounce back we doom ourselves native or not. Opioids are killing us all whether native, white, black, yellow, brown, purple, 2 legged, 4 legged , feathered or finned!!! 🤤

the misadventures of bunjee
Guest
the misadventures of bunjee
5 years ago

It’s not even a study. It’s a writer far removed from the action that looked up a few demographic factoids, made a phone call and wrote a whole story about it. This is the NYT we’re talking about. One step above the Natuonal Enquirer. The comments on the site are all over the map, and this article panders to that.

The13thFroggy
Guest
The13thFroggy
5 years ago

I believe this and actually talked about this with some elders from all parts of the river(s) and hill(s) -the oppressed learn and act out the traits of their oppressors- take away a means for someone to live and watch them die…I remember being able to fish for one night a week and be saitified for a few weeks to process the fish and distribute, when only a few fished hardcore all year round, that doesn’t exist now it’s seems like more fishing or attempts to fish, because the numbers haves declined the efforts increase right? Thanks to disease, water temperatures, ocean fishing, by catch, logging. At the same time if the fishkill was almost the same time oxy80 (they was 20$ then)was distributed for pain on the Rez (I was in high school) and on a few different occasions Hoops was the place people: nererners, pechiclah, poolicah, and yamondil came to get pain meds, I want to say next to arson, this area had the highest class two narcotic prescriptions in the Nation- accidentally? Hmmmm- The age group I’m in and ones below have the highest drug rates and have less culture I see being practiced, some can agree or not, I ain’t talking about the summer time injuns and grasshoppers, people now care like a yamondil only if they look purdy or smell purdy or drive that car or know that rap song won’t do as much fishing and hunting because it is a dirty job and it’s now something only regularly practiced by the sober poor/middle class, . I personally preferred my education, chainsaw, ol Betsy and ol Charlene, to a bag of dope or a few pills, weed, social media and Xbox, some almost all don’t care anymore. The Age of full assimilation is near. They are winning. We grow their dope and eat their shit. LOL

Dave Kirby
Guest
Dave Kirby
5 years ago

The Coho population has crashed on the Eel . The Salmon runs on every northcoast river are way down. Don’t think injuns are the problem. Some years back I was camped on the bar at Johnsons right next to a harvesting net. First of all they don’t ‘go “across the river” and they were not slaying a lot of fish. And the whole frickin country has a serious opiod problem……even New York.

Guest
Guest
Guest
5 years ago
Reply to  Dave Kirby

Everything you said it true. But the minute “groups” (whether based on race, religion, income levels, etc) of people are identified, it becomes easy to to take every statement from every group member as some sort of universal truth of the group. And the battle lines are drawn based on that assumption rather than the more complex and difficult but real issues.

Is anyone surprised that a lawyer suing over river issues would publicly make the link, which is the opening salvo in the article, between that and every evil under the sun? That is what all lawyers do- make noise that supports their cause and diverts attention away from things that harms their cause. They are professional partisans, whether they believe their own rhetoric or not. But this is far from the only idea in the article.

The sadest thing in the article IMO was Peggy O’Neill’s statement about so many homeless Indians. ““You didn’t used to see homeless Indians. Someone would take you. That’s not happening anymore because people can’t deal with it,” Ms. O’Neill said. “It’s really, really hard to deal with a family member that is addicted to drugs.”” There in a nutshell is what drug addiction does to any people, Indian or otherwise. It makes drug addicts parriahs because they, in their total selfish preoccupation, they ruin the lives around them.

In my 1911 I trust
Guest
In my 1911 I trust
5 years ago
Reply to  Dave Kirby

Sadly, it seems very few people actually care about the Eel. The Eel is a prime example of what dams and water diversions do. There are no nets on the Eel and it is in far worse shape than the Klamath. The place is just about a dead river. We can thank the greedy ranchers and farmers in the Central Valley for that. If we cut the wasted 30-40% of the production of farms, which is subsidized by our own tax dollars (kind of a double f%$@ you since we then have to pay for the food at the store too), then 30-40% of the water in all diversions across the nation could be restored to their rivers. Think of how awesome the Eel and Klamath would be if they had 30-40% of their water back? Be a lot of food for everyone and lots of money would be brought into the local economy from all the fishermen that would come up here.

Guest
Guest
Guest
5 years ago

We kept voting for and supporting every bit of nonsense from those from the other side of the river diversion. What else can be expected. Our questionable representatives quietly supported PG&E rate increases in our area because there are less people here so it costs more to deliver power. While they put little resistance into objecting to the south taking whatever it wants without recompense.

What they should do is provide compensation for what they take. Real compensation by locating employment opportunities here, no matter how much their constituents down south object. People need to pay for what they use, even if it hurts, otherwise they don’t respect it.

💯
Guest
💯
5 years ago

One time they were taking 90% of the klamath river or the trinity. I forgot but i know its a fact

Life is Good
Guest
Life is Good
5 years ago

Whenever we vacation in Sedona we always take a side trip to the Navajo nation. The bottle gardens are quite artistic especially at night when the headlights shining on them create a beautiful aura of magnificent sparkling color. I’ve often thought a talented photographer could publish a remarkable coffee table book of the spectacle.

Mendocino Mamma
Guest
Mendocino Mamma
5 years ago
Reply to  Life is Good

Doing a bottle wall now life is good! Very beautiful!

Testes, testes, one two...three?
Guest
Testes, testes, one two...three?
5 years ago

Bullshit article in too many ways.

Jeffersonian
Guest
Jeffersonian
5 years ago

I don’t believe anything I read in the New York times. What does the salmon decline have to do with opiods. The salmon have been declining for over one hundred years due to man, including the tribes. The opiod problem is everywhere. All the money the feds have given to the tribes has done little good. The local Indians that grew up off the reservation did just fine. Most of the ones who stayed had problems. Does that tell you anything.

Guest
Guest
Guest
5 years ago
Reply to  Jeffersonian

The article is a fairly neat compendium of the various opinions of tribe members regarding the river and social issues, especially drug addiction. It tells readers what those people see and think. Reading it, you would find some echoes of your own statements with other statements contradicted. That it covers thoughts of the people involved and should be enlightening to those who make assumptions that are way too easy to make.

Testes, testes, one two...three?
Guest
Testes, testes, one two...three?
5 years ago
Reply to  Guest

That’s got nothing to do with it being a bullshit article. But by all means, spraypaint the bullshit whatever color you like.

Guest
Guest
Guest
5 years ago

If a person stinks, everything smells bad to them. At least read it before condemning it. If you then have an objection, quote what you are objecting to.

paul r. jones
Guest
paul r. jones
5 years ago

As I read this article, this mess can be laid at the feet of politicians-state and federal; a number of politician myths-state and federal-are being touted, that under the United States Constitution, there are no enumerated powers for their existence and here is why:
1. As of the passage of the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, there are no more “Indians” within the original meaning of the United States Constitution…only U.S./State citizens with “Indian ancestry/race” entitled to no more and no less than every other non-Indian U.S./State citizen
2. There are no enumerated powers in the United States Constitution to create: A. The Bureau of Indian Affairs B. Indian reservations c. Government to government relations between We, the People and other We, the People, because of the ‘others’ Indian ancestry/race.’
3. There are no enumerated powers in the United States Constitution for We, the People, to have ‘treaties’ with ‘other’ We, the People, because of the ‘others’ Indian ancestry/race.

Lastly, no politician-state and federal-has answered this question…a question so simple, it is hard:
“Where is the proclamation ratified by the voters of the United States to amend the United States Constitution to make the health, welfare, safety and benefits of a select group of U.S./State citizens distinguishable because of their Indian ancestry/race?”

TRUMPTASTROPHE for the GOP in November
Guest
TRUMPTASTROPHE for the GOP in November
5 years ago

Here’s a question that many consider taboo – are reservations’ days numbered? Will the reservations that are less poor and in some cases very wealthy thanks to legalized gambling eventually be privatized by popular consent of the tribal members themselves?

I could see some of the poorest, most geographically isolated reservations remaining as hyper-corrupt paleo-communist collectives preaching “the old ways” (which, let’s be honest, have very little to do with anything REAL these days) for another century or two. But as for any of the relevant reservations, I predict they will be privatized in the next few generations by free democratic choice of the majority of tribal members themselves.