17.50.030 Traditional dispute resolution.
(a) Traditional dispute resolution pursuant to this title, including under YTC 17.50.040, shall be limited to those disputes that involve only Yurok Tribal members. Pursuant to the Hoopa-Yurok Settlement Act, all rights and claims by nonmember Indians to fish a fishing hole location within the Yurok Reservation as part of the Klamath River Indian fishery have been extinguished and no such right or claim shall be recognized by the Yurok Tribal Court or dispute resolution panel.
(b) Traditional Yurok fishing law as identified by the Yurok Cultural Committee in 2003 includes the following:
(1) Know Your Family Relations. Know where you are related along the river. Know the river and its locations, particularly the village name your family is from.
(2) Not every Yurok family has/had a fishing place right.
(3) Every Yurok has a fishing place right through permission.
(4) Permission is gained by asking and being granted the right, with terms and conditions.
(5) Permission once given is not permission given forever.
(6) One standard condition is to offer some fish caught at the place where permission was granted.
(7) Some fishing places are “open” and anyone can fish there. They are open on a firstcome, first-serve basis. If someone is fishing in an open place, then the latecomer informs the first party that they want to fish. The latecomer should politely wait a day. If the first party has already caught enough fish, then they should make ready to leave. It is polite for the first party to provide some fish to those waiting.
(8) No fighting on the river, particularly no fighting over fishing places. The river is a place to show respect.
(9) Do not waste fish; do not take more than what is needed. It is not what the river will do for you, it is what you will do for the river. [Ord. 44 § 1903, adopted, 7/23/2015.]