Understanding how sense of place if the Klamath Basin has become a unifying force during the collaborative process is important to understand the functions of culture in collaboration. Because it is in place that politics and the motivations for political behaviors are born, such as the Wise Use Movement or Indigenous Rights Movements (Agnew 1987 p.49). Place-based struggles over environmental resources often serve as particular sites of negotiation where competing representations of place and nature intersect (Wilson 1999). The first press release from the Klamath Settlement Group, the predecessors of the Coordinating Council, demonstrates the shared importance of the waters of the Klamath as a unifying force between parties.
“The people of this region are bound together by the Klamath River's economic, ecological, and cultural importance to their communities.”
(Klamath Settlement Group, July 24, 2007) For the four tribal nations that claim part of the basin as their home, there has been a century of rebellion and revolt against colonialism for the right to hunt and fish in their former territories in the basin (Most 2006). Prior to colonization, tribes had very …show more content…
Water rights themselves are an attempt to quantify and allocate resources for uses which are deemed economically beneficial by American colonial standard; these constructs are meaningless in the context of the tribal traditions (Smith 1997). The Klamath Tribe, who was targeted under the Termination Act of 1953 and as a consequence had their land rights removed, were granted their treaty water rights (over 150 years late) but are still denied access to their traditional land in the Upper Klamath (Most
“The people of this region are bound together by the Klamath River's economic, ecological, and cultural importance to their communities.”
(Klamath Settlement Group, July 24, 2007) For the four tribal nations that claim part of the basin as their home, there has been a century of rebellion and revolt against colonialism for the right to hunt and fish in their former territories in the basin (Most 2006). Prior to colonization, tribes had very …show more content…
Water rights themselves are an attempt to quantify and allocate resources for uses which are deemed economically beneficial by American colonial standard; these constructs are meaningless in the context of the tribal traditions (Smith 1997). The Klamath Tribe, who was targeted under the Termination Act of 1953 and as a consequence had their land rights removed, were granted their treaty water rights (over 150 years late) but are still denied access to their traditional land in the Upper Klamath (Most