The newest posting at KlamBlog is now available

[Felice Pace]

The new post is titled:

The Modoc Nation makes a bid for recognition…and to protect the Modoc
Homeland.

Here are a few excerpts:

A group of about 100 Modoc Indians has broken away from the Klamath
Tribes and seeks independent federal recognition. Calling themselves
the Modoc Nation, the group has drafted a constitution and established
a government structure. The Modoc Nation opposes the KBRA – the
Klamath Water Deal – which they say sells out part of their homeland –
the Lower Lost River and Lower Klamath Lake areas – to agricultural
interests.....


.....According to Modoc Nation Secretary of State Perry Chesnut, the
government of the federally recognized Klamath Tribes - which includes
members of Klamath, Modoc and Yahooskin origin - is dominated by
Klamath people whose traditional lands lay to the North of Upper
Klamath Lake. Modoc and Yahooskin people are numerical minorities in a
tribal government which is one of the main promoters of the KBRA Water
Deal.

Chestnut claims that the interests of the Modoc and Yahooskin have
consistently been sacrificed by the numerically dominant Klamath
members of the tri-tribal government and that the KBRA Water Deal was
the last straw. This is why he and other Modocs broke away and formed
their own tribal government.....


.....Tribal issues can be complex and confusing. There are currently 6
federally recognized tribes in the Basin – the Yurok, Hoopa, Karuk and
Klamath Tribes, the Resighini Rancheria and the Quartz Valley Indian
Reservation (QVIR). Other Indigenous groups – including at least two
groups claiming to represent the Shasta people – also seek
recognition as federal tribes. Only three of the currently recognized
federal tribes have signed the KBRA; the Hoopa Tribe and Resighini
Rancheria oppose the Deal; the QVIR has not taken a position on it.
According to the Hoopa Tribe, the KBRA attempts to involuntarily
terminate tribal claims to Klamath River water originating in Upper
Klamath Lake and the Upper Basin generally......


.....The Modoc Nation is trying to do something similar to what the
Yurok accomplished earlier. The Modoc want to break off from the
federally recognized Klamath Tribes. Recently the US government
adopted the Universal Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples. The Declaration appears to support the Modoc Nation’s bid
for independent government status. Of particular relevance are
Articles 3, 4 and 5 of the Declaration:

· Article 3: Indigenous peoples have the right to self-
determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their
political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural
development.

· Article 4: Indigenous peoples, in exercising their right to
self-determination, have the right to autonomy or self-government in
matters relating to their internal and local affairs, as well as ways
and means for financing their autonomous functions.

· Article 5: Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain and
strengthen their distinct political, legal, economic, social and
cultural institutions, while retaining their right to participate
fully, if they so choose, in the political, economic, social and
cultural life of the State......



.....The long view of US government relations with the Indigenous
peoples of North America reveals that divide and conquer has been a
recurrent if not constant government stratagem. Some Indigenous groups
have always found favor with federal officials while others have been
ruthlessly oppressed, suppressed or extinguished entirely.

The KBRA Water Deal is a creation of the federal Department of
Interior. It has caused new divisions among the Indigenous peoples of
the Klamath River Basin and their governments. Divide and conquer is
playing out again on the Klamath; KlamBlog fears that does not bode
well for the Klamath River or for the welfare of the Basin’s
Indigenous peoples......



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