In Chapter 3, North Coast fish restorationist Scott Downie discusses salmon and steelhead in a vignette about early settler families on the South Fork of the Eel River.

Problems springing from this painful history have persisted over the years and continue to be sore points in negotiations between Indian and non-Indian fishers. Forced to adapt to new ways, Indians became fishermen and plant workers for non-Indian canneries, but because their gillnet fishing was declared to be the cause of declines in runs of Klamath River salmon, that canning operation was closed by law in 1933. One may see startlingly how a benevolent but bumbling federal administration attempted to convert native fisher tribes to an agricultural life-style, how a sometimes venal Congress concealed its refusal to ratify Indian treaties, and how questions of ownership and control of tribal lands became mired in legal issues that only now are being effectively resolved. Styles as the invasion by non-Indians into their territory-in which there were only two directions, upriver and downriver-destroyed tribal structures. Here Ronnie Pierce, a marine biologist and Indian historian, traces the changes that occurred in Native American life.

In this review of landmark environmental legislation, both federal and state, we see how concerns for the subject are becoming central issues in California's precedent-setting environmental movement.Ĭhapter 2 discusses early Indian fishery problems on the Klamath River. The historical sketch becomes detailed as it examines the greatly increased interest in salmon and steelhead resources of recent decades. Competing statewide demands for water constitute the major problem today for those who would restore fishery resources. Eventually, as near collapse of the fishery led tortuously toward development of protective legislation, California's commitment to statewide water development, principally to benefit agricultural interests, dealt fisheries a further blow.

The picture, most simply, is one of initial abundance allowed by essentially unbridled harvesting of stocks and destruction of habitat as European immigrants crowded into California. It introduces many of the topics that are later dealt with in greater detail.Ĭhapter 1 is a sketch of major historical developments affecting the fisheries from the early 1800s through 1989. Part One consists of five chapters that focus on historical events, from earliest times to most recent, that have determined the current status of California's salmonid resources and suggest likely future developments.

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