Driving north in the rain from Arcata early Saturday morning, the prospects for the 60th annual Klamath Salmon Festival didn’t look good. But by the 9:30 a.m. start of the parade, the rain had stopped, the sun came out from behind the clouds and this year’s festival celebrating tribal elders (because the event was turning […]
Klamath Salmon Festival
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With a ‘Heavy Heart,’ Yurok Tribe Says Klamath Salmon Festival Will Go On Without Its Namesake
The Yurok Tribe, with a “heavy heart,” has announced that the namesake of the annual Klamath Salmon Festival will not be served at this year’s Aug. 19 event due to record low runs that also led to the closure of the California fishery. Now in its 59th year, the festival will include cultural and basket-weaving […]
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Photos from the 57th Klamath Salmon Festival
Given the last few years of wildfire smoke-filled skies, it was a relief for a large crowd of attendees to only smell smoke from the traditional salmon fire pit at the 57th annual Klamath Salmon Festival on Saturday, Aug. 17. This year’s theme was “Skue’n ‘Owook, Can’t Wait for Tomorrow,” which linked Yurok Tribe plans […]
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Photos from the 56th Klamath Salmon Festival
The tasty smell of fresh Klamath River salmon cooking the traditional way over an open fire mingled with the tangy smell of smoke from wildfires at the Yurok Tribe’s 56th annual Klamath Salmon Festival on Sunday. The Yurok tribe had canceled serving salmon in 2016 and 2017 due to low fish runs. The event’s annual […]
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For Second Year in a Row, No Local Salmon at Klamath Salmon Festival
For 53 years, the Klamath Salmon Festival was a celebration of the river’s bounty and the traditions of the local Yurok Tribe, with Indian card games and stick game tournaments. The games and demonstrations will return this year, but the locally caught salmon that took center stage for over half a century will not, for the […]
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Salmon(less) Festival
For the first time in the event’s history, the Yurok Tribe made a difficult decision to not have the traditional salmon lunch, cooked in the traditional way over an open fire, at this year’s 54th annual Klamath Salmon Festival on Saturday, Aug. 20. Instead, the large crowd that attended had to make do with food […]