(a) The Yurok Tribal Council finds and declares as follows: The Yurok people “have always lived on this sacred and wondrous land along the Pacific Coast and inland on the Klamath River.” Constitution of the Yurok Tribe Preamble. We “prudently harvest and manage the great salmon runs and … never waste and use every bit of the salmon, … sturgeon, eel, … and other ocean and river animals.” Id. The Yurok Tribal Court upholds our Constitution and explains that “the Yurok are a fishing people and the Tribe’s Constitution and fishing laws are expressly designed to conserve and restore the severely depleted Klamath River anadromous fishery for current members and future generations.” Nelson v. Yurok Tribe, 5 NICS App. 119 (May 7, 1999).

(b) In support of Yurok culture and sovereignty, the Constitution of the Yurok Tribe mandates that the Tribe “restore, enhance, and manage the Tribal fishery, Tribal water rights, Tribal forests and all other natural resources.”

(c) Federal courts also recognize that Yurok people have relied on the Klamath River for its fisheries, cultural rites and traditions since time immemorial. See generally Kandra v. United States, 145 F. Supp. 2d 1192, 1201 (D. Or. 2001). For generations, the Yurok Tribe has “depended on the Klamath [C]hinook salmon for their nourishment and economic livelihood.” Parravano v. Masten, 70 F.3d 539, 542 (9th Cir. 1995), cert. denied, 518 U.S. 1016 (1996). The Klamath River fishery was “not much less necessary to the existence of the [Yurok] Indians than the atmosphere they breathed.” Blake v. Arnett, 663 F.2d 906, 909 (9th Cir. 1981) (quoting United States v. Winans, 198 U.S. 371,381 (1905)), aff’d 412 U.S. 481 (1973). The original Klamath River Reservation – the precursor to the Yurok Reservation – “abounded in salmon and other fish” and “was ideally selected for the Yuroks.” Mattz v. Arnett, 412 U.S. 481, 487 (1973).

(d) The executive orders that created the present-day Yurok Reservation vested the Yurok Tribe with “federally reserved fishing rights.” Parravano, 70 F.3d at 541. Yurok’s federally reserved fishing right is well established by federal courts; see United States v. Eberhardt, 789 F.2d 1354 (9th Cir. 1986); United States v. Wilson, 611 F. Supp. 813 (N.D. Cal.1985); Pacific Coast Fed. of Fishermen’s Assoc. v. Sec’y of Commerce, 494 F. Supp. 626 (N.D. Cal. 1980); California courts, see Arnett v. Five Gill Nets, 48 Cal. App. 3d 454 (Cal. App. 1975), and the U.S. Department of the Interior, Memorandum Opinion of the Solicitor, John D. Leshy, M-36979 (October 4, 1993) (“Solicitor’s Opinion”).

(e) Federally reserved fishing rights in Yurok Tribal trust fish species of the Klamath River are integral to the Yurok way of life for subsistence, commercial, and cultural purposes. Yurok trust species include, but are not limited to, coho and Chinook salmon, steelhead trout, eel, sturgeon, and eulachon.

(f) Congress has recognized, and the federal judicial and executive branches have confirmed, such as in the 1988 Hoopa-Yurok Settlement Act, 25 U.S.C. § 1300i et seq., Parravano, 70 F.3d at 539, and in the Solicitor’s Opinion that the United States has a federal trust responsibility to protect the Yurok Tribe’s federally reserved fishery trust resources.

(g) Federal law requires that ocean fishery management plans for Klamath and Trinity River anadromous fish substantively conform to Indian reserved fishing rights, including that of the Yurok Tribe. 16 U.S.C. § 1853(a)(2).

(h) Harvestable quantities of Tribal trust species and seasonal races must be managed by integrating scientific and traditional methods to sustain Yurok subsistence and commercial fisheries. [Ord. 44 § 1002, adopted, 7/23/2015.]