TO THE EDITOR
KLAMATH SLUDGE
News reports that BIA lawyers are pursu-
ing a plan to trade away Indian treaty rights to
Klamath Basin fish, along with the water
needed to sustain suckers and salmon, are
deeply disturbing. The lawyers want to trade
these treaty rights for some low quality forest
land, which will then be managed by the BIA
“on behalf of” the tribes. In every instance in
which the BIA has taken over management of
forest land, the forest has been clearcut and
most of the proceeds disappeared into the
maw of the BIA without ever being seen by
any Indian.
The lawyers insist that the Indians must
have federal timber land, not private land in
the Klamath Basin. They insist that the deal
must protect farmers in the Klamath Basin
who are sucking the life out of the lake and
marshes and decimating wildlife by using
most of the water and dumping polluted irri-
gation run-off into the lake.
This deal, proffered by lawyers suppos-
edly working for the tribes, but actually serv-
ing the federal government and special inter-
est groups like the farmers, threatens the
Klamath Basin water supply, wildlife such as
eagles that depend on the Klamath Marshes
for survival, as well as the fish upon which
the tribes have heretofore depended. It trades
away treaty rights that have been defended by
the tribes for over 100 years, in return for
control over timber by an agency well known
for mismanagement.
Indians will be cheated and driven into de-
pendency, again, and white farmers get to go
on destroying the Klamath Basin to grow po-
tatoes, in perpetuity or until the water is so
filthy and the basin so parched that even pota-
toes will not grow.
Meanwhile, the eagles and pelicans and
other migrating waterfowl will die, the
salmon and other fish will die, and the former
streams will be nothing but seasonal trickles
of sewage sludge.
Ann Tattersall
Eugene
GREEN SPACE GOING
I attended Wednesday night’s (10/29)
meeting at Willakenzie Elementary regarding
the fate of that property. I was appalled to
learn from the city and 4J that there is a possi-
bility of a net loss in that neighborhood’s
green space.
I was there not because of some NIMBY
issue I have with the development; I live 70
blocks and a river away. I attended as a repre-
sentative of Eugene Rugby Football Club,
Ltd. (www.EugeneRugby.com), the umbrella
nonprofit organization for the two local adult
teams and two local high school teams as
well as active supporter of the two collegiate
teams.
Our organization can attest to the shortage
of green space in Eugene. If it is green and
semi-flat, some group — adults, children, or
pick-up players — will be having an organ-
ized game or practice there. This town is so
desperate for green space that athletes are
continuously relegated to ankle-breaker
fields. This is unacceptable.
If the kids that play on Willakenzie are
displaced to another stretch of green space, a
chain reaction of displacement occurs around
the city. This is not just a north Eugene prob-
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NOVEMBER 6, 2003 5