Rivers Ran Free

Vast marshlands covered the Klamath basin, flocks of birds filled the air, schools of fish swarmed our lakes, and our rivers ran free. That was before the fur trappers, before the trappers and their diseases. Our rivers once ran free three hundred miles to the sea. That was before the miners, who destroyed the creeks for gold, who brought smallpox to innocent people, who burned our villages, and killed for their convenience. Our rivers once ran free three hundred miles to the sea. That was before the Donation Land Act, before the wagon-trains, before the homesteads of settlers with their habits of taking and destroying land that didn’t belong to them. Our rivers once ran free three hundred miles to the sea. That was before the army, who revenged settlers with machine guns, and hung the leaders of our rebellions. Our rivers once ran free three hundred miles to the sea. That was before the Klamath Basin Project, the so-called National Reclamation Act, with its dams, dikes, canals, and drainage ditches. Tule and club-rushes for breeding waterfowl, swans, uncountable ducks, eggs in their nests, rich breeding waters of the Lost River sucker, millions of baby salmon and steelhead growing in the shadows of the reeds. Before Lower Klamath Lake was drained, before Tule Lake was drained, eighty-five thousand acres of wetlands reduced to a pond. Our rivers once ran free three hundred miles to the sea. That was before they dammed the rivers, destroyed the gentle banks and graveled beds, and stopped salmon and steelhead from returning to their homes. Our rivers once ran free three hundred miles to the sea.