The Yurok Tribe has filed a federal lawsuit against 20 manufacturers and distributors of prescription opioids, alleging the companies are responsible for spreading the scourge of drug use on the reservation and across the country. “The only difference between these companies and drug cartels is the fact that legal purveyors of prescription opioids have protection […]
Yurok Tribe
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Trinidad Memorial Lighthouse Moved
After several hours of staging and prep, and thanks to several weeks of negotiations, protests and meetings that capped nearly a year of handwringing about how and where to move the Trinidad Memorial Lighthouse before the crumbling cliff dumped it into the ocean, a giant crane delivered the monument safely to a truckbed so it […]
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Protesters Try to Block Lighthouse Move
A handful of protesters scaled the Trinidad Memorial Lighthouse before daybreak this morning in an effort to block its scheduled move next week. The historic lighthouse, which is on unsteady ground in the midst of an active landslide and in danger of tumbling to the rocky shoreline below, has long been a point of contention […]
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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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In ‘Crisis,’ Yuroks Suspend Commercial Salmon Season
For the second year in a row, the Yurok Tribe will not have a commercial fishery — a devastating blow to the tribe’s culture and economy. “We are in crisis mode,” said Yurok Tribal Chair Thomas O’Rourke in a press release that lamented poor conditions on the Klamath River that have led to historically low […]
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The Return of the California Condor
The Yurok Tribe led a major effort to restore a bird that hasn’t been seen on the North Coast for over a century. The Tribe teamed up with a number of agencies, including PG&E, The National Park Service, U.S. Wildlife and Fisheries and the National Park Foundation to restore the California condor population. “The condor […]
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Yurok Tribe Blames Feds for Salmon Die-Off
SAN FRANCISCO — The federal government was hit with a second lawsuit this week claiming its bungled management of waterways allowed a deadly parasite to infect 91 percent of endangered juvenile coho salmon on the California-Oregon border. The lawsuit from the 5,000-member Yurok Tribe comes four months after the 2,700-member Hoopa Valley Tribe in Humboldt […]
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Klamath Dam Removal Takes a Step Forward
The newly formed nonprofit Klamath River Renewal Corporation and dam owner PacifiCorp filed applications Friday with federal regulators to decommission the four hydroelectric dams that clog the Klamath River. The filings were hailed by proponents of dam removal as a milestone in refurbished plans to see the lower Klamath River dams removed in 2020. The […]
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Tribes Threaten Lawsuit Over Klamath Flows
The Karuk and Yurok tribes have both put the federal government on notice that they intend to sue, alleging the feds have violated the Endangered Species Act by failing to ensure adequate water flows for Coho salmon on the Klamath River. Citing a disease infection rate of 90 percent for juvenile salmon last year, spurred […]
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TL;DR: Five Things You Need to Know About This Week’s Cover Story
Busy week? We get it, and we’re not judging. Here are some highlights from “Until the Sun Sets” to get you caught up. On April 6, federal, state and tribal officials descended on Yurok Tribal land to ink a new pact to remove four hydroelectric dams that have choked the Klamath River for decades. It […]
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Yurok Tribal Chair Resigns in the Shadow of Old Murder Case
Yurok Tribal Chair James Dunlap resigned today, as a dark period from his past bubbled into public view. Early in the day, social media reports began to surface that Dunlap — elected to chair the tribe last year — had fatally stabbed his 3-month-old daughter in San Mateo back in 1988. Within hours, a press […]
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Yurok Tribe Declares Emergency After Rash of Suicides
The Yurok Tribe has declared a state of emergency after seven young tribal members took their own lives over an 18-month span. The tribe is working with tribal, state and federal agencies and developing a “broad, collaborative plan to identify the root causes of this epidemic,” according to a press release. All of the suicides […]