Masters Thesis

The importance of place-based fisheries to the Karuk Tribe of California : a socioeconomic study

The Karuk Tribe of California, with an ancestral home on the Klamath and Salmon Rivers, was once one of the wealthiest tribes in California. Access to abundant salmon and Pacific lamprey fisheries allowed the Karuk to develop a highly specialized subsistence economy dependent on complex systems of ecosystem management that provided for the health of the people, the forest, and the fisheries. In the mid-1800s, with the discovery of gold in northern California, the Karuk way of life was forever disrupted. Subsequent mining, logging, up-river irrigation, and the damming of the Klamath River have led to the decline of the fisheries that was both a way of life and religion for the Karuk. The Karuk Tribe, though the second largest in California, has no reservation and limited rights to fish, hunt, and manage natural resources on their ancestral territory. The Tribe has systematically been denied access to subsistence and cultural resources by federal and state governments. This study uses data from archival records, in-depth interviews, and the 2005 Karuk Health and Fish Consumption Survey to describe the economic and social impacts to the Karuk Tribe of California from the loss of healthy fisheries and denied access to subsistence and cultural resources.

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