KLAMATH

The tribal name Klamath, pronounced KLAM-uth, is of uncertain derivation. A name formerly used by the Klamath for themselves is Maklaks, thought to mean “people” or “community.” Their ancestral territory in the vicinity of Upper Klamath Lake and the Klamath River has since become part of Oregon, near the Oregon-Cali-fornia border.

Because of their dependence on fishing in inland waterways, the Klamath are usually categorized as PLATEAU INDIANS. The Klamath also depended heavily on small game and wild plant foods, especially roots and water lily seeds.

The Klamath dialect of Penutian sometimes is grouped with that of the MODOC, another southern Oregon and northern California tribe, as the Lutuamian language isolate.

The Klamath, unlike many of the California peoples to the south of them, were a warlike people. Christopher “Kit” Carson, the mountain man and scout, and later Indian agent and brigadier general, called the Klamath arrows the truest and most beautiful he had ever seen. Supposedly, Klamath bowmen could shoot them right through a horse. Their warriors carried out many raids on the northern California tribes, taking captives to keep as slaves or to sell to other tribes. Yet the Klamath were friendly toward whites. The Canadian Peter Skene Ogden, who explored for the Hudson’s Bay Company, first established trade relations with them in 1829.

Upon signing a treaty with U. S. officials in 1864, the Klamath were settled on the Klamath Reservation in Oregon, northeast of Upper Klamath Lake. They also agreed to give up the practice of slavery, an issue over which the North and the South were fighting the Civil War.

The Klamath later played an indirect part in the Modoc War of 1872—73. Because of tensions between

Klamath wooden effigy with feathers

The two tribes when the Modoc were forced to settle on the Klamath Reservation, a band of Modoc headed southward and began a chain of events leading up to the most violent Indian war in California history. Some PALUTE—from the Yahooskin band of Snake Indians— also were settled among the Klamath.

In 1954, the U. S. Congress terminated federal recognition of the Klamath tribe. Tribal assets were liquidated and passed out to individual tribal members. The experience proved to be a difficult one for the Klamath, who lost control of some of their lands and had to struggle to maintain tribal identity. Termination, as this policy of ending the special relationship between the federal government and Native American tribes is called, was phased out in the 1960s. It took until 1986 for the Klamath to regain federally recognized status. The Klamath Indian Tribe now has a reservation in the Klamath River basin; some Modoc and Yahooskin, a subgroup of PAIUTE, share it with them. These peoples are working hard toward self-sufficiency and preservation of heritage. They sponsor an event known as Annual Return of the C’waam Ceremony, held after the first snow in March in Chiloquin, Oregon. The c’waam (Lost River sucker)—once a staple food of the Klamath— swims up the Sprague River to spawn every spring.