I was fortunate to be raised in a traditional Karuk family—where dipnet fishing, renewal ceremonies, and cultural fire were practiced in concert with the annual cycles of the natural world. When I was growing up, my dad would drive an old rust-colored Chevy home from the dipnet fishery at Ishi Pishi Falls in Northern California, the truck’s bed full of glimmering áama, or salmon. We would stay up late processing fish, hanging strips in the smokehouse, and chasing away bears. As Káruk Va’áraaras, we are salmon people. We are river people. We are fix-the-world people. We are taught that our relationship to the fish is reciprocal and that as long as there is one Káruk Áraar fishing, the salmon will continue to be called to make the journey up our river to provide for us.

By Molli Myers, a member of the Karuk Tribe and a co-founder of the Klamath Justice Coalition and COO of Ridges to Riffles

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