The Klamath River has the “Legal Rights of a Person” a Yurok Tribe Resolution Establishing Rights Of The Klamath River

A Yurok Tribe resolution allows cases to be brought on behalf of the river as a person in tribal court.

Yurok Tribe declared rights of personhood for the Klamath River — likely the first to do so for a river in North America. A concept previously restricted to humans (and corporations), “rights of personhood” means, most simply, that an individual or entity has rights, and they’re now being extended to nonhumans.

According to the Yurok Tribe, the resolution “establishes the Rights of the Klamath River to exist, flourish, and naturally evolve; to have a clean and healthy environment free from pollutants; to have a stable climate free from human-caused climate change impacts; and to be free from contamination by genetically engineered organisms.”

Changing Currents

In 2019, the Yurok Tribe made a resolution recognizing rights of the Klamath River and gave it legal personhood. The resolution declares that the Yurok Tribal Council will adopt an ordinance establishing tribal law, which will grant the Klamath River standing in causes of action. The resolution came after many years of low water levels in the river, harming the river’s salmon population.

The Yurok’s resolution, passed by the tribal council in May, comes during another difficult season for the Klamath; over the past few years, low water flows have caused high rates of disease in salmon, and canceled fishing seasons.

• LOOSE SCREWS: The Gas Station on Stolen Ground
  Post Views: 2 For twenty years, a smoke shop and fuel pump in Siskiyou County ran without federal approval. The Bureau of Indian Affairs knew. It sent letters. The men running it got rich, bought homes in Hawaii and Oregon, and kept building. Now the BIA wants them to write back within twenty business days.
• More Novel Genres – John Sammon
  Post Views: 64 By John Sammon Last week we talked about picking a genre to write a novel and I listed them to include science fiction, fantasy, romance, mystery, thriller, literary fiction, monster, horror, historical fiction and westerns. I recommended that if you’re going to write a novel it’s probably a good idea to select
• Travels of Different Flavors
  Post Views: 49 I think back to trips I have taken, years ago, decades.  I think of the benches and chairs I slept upon; of the meals I ate, by pointing at words written in a different language; of people that I met, who came and went in a heartbeat, saying or doing profound things,
• Supreme Court Narrows Federal Law Barring Drug Users From Owning Guns
  Post Views: 46 Justices rule the government may not automatically disarm an occasional marijuana user, but stop short of striking the statute down WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the federal government cannot automatically strip an occasional marijuana user of his right to own a firearm, narrowing a provision of the federal
• KLAMATH WATER USERS ASSOCIATION REACTS TO NEW COURT DECISION ON THE ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT
  Post Views: 94 Klamath Water Users Association (KWUA) is disappointed in a decision issued today by the United States Court of Appeals that affects water users who rely on the Klamath Project for irrigation water. In a 2-1 ruling, the court found that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) has discretion to curtail water deliveries