Therefore, we refuse to be penalized for the failure of the BIA to properly protect the anadromous fishery resources of the Hoopa Valley Reservation.

The BIA's gross mismanagement of our reservation fishery has resulted in lawlessness on the lower Klamath River, and has also seriously depleted our anadromous fishery resources.

Therefore, the majority of the Yurok Indian people are willing to support a temporary BIA-imposed and impartially enforced moratorium on commercial fishing on the Hoopa Valley Reservation, until the Jessie Short case is concluded in the Court of Claims; and the eligibility of each of the plaintiffs as an Indain of the Hoopa Valley Reservation has been determined by the Court of Claims; and each eligible plaintiff has received his or her just judgment award in connection with the Jessie Short case; and an elected governing body representing all of the eligible Indians of the Hoopa Valley Reservation is formed.

Such a governing body can then regulate and manage the reservation fishery for the benefit of all of the eligibile Indain of the reservation.

We are, however, opposed to the BIA's current Hoopa Valley Reservation fishing regulations. As trustee of the resources of the reservation, the BIA is empowered to impose a temporary moratorium on commercial fishing on the reservation, without also imposing fishing regulations which will also restrict our previous BIArecognized and court-recognized right to fish on the reservation for home consumption, when we please, and without a license, permit or identification card.

In parenthenses it says, refer to the sworn testimony of O. M. Boggess, who was then superintendent of the Hoopa Valley Reservation, which was published on page number 15, 539 of the report on the U.S. Senate hearings which were held at Hoopa on September 24, 1932.

Such rights were also recognized by the Humboldt County Superior Court and the State appellate court, in the Grover Reed and Dewey George cases, in the mid-1960's

The record will show, that the majority of the Yuroks have never abused their subsistence fishing rights. Therefore, the BIA regulations are unnecessary.

Officials of the Bureau of Indian Affairs cannot now claim that they would not know who is eligible to fish on the reservation unless the Indian fishermen are required to be in possession of a BIA-issued identification card.

We are opposed to being required to obtain BIA-issued identification cards in order to continue to exercise our long-held traditional, court-recognized fishing rights on our reservation.

The BIA is in possession of a list of Indians who are eligible to receive the identification cards which the BIA is now trying to issue to those Indians who have the right to exercise these reserved fishing rights on the Hoopa Valley Reservation.

We suggest that the BIA post copies of that list at key locations along the Klamath and Trinity Rivers, within the boundaries of the reservation; and that copies of that list be issued to the lawenforcement officers in charge of policing the reservation fishery; and that the Indians whose names appear on the list only be

required to be in possession of a driver's license or an identification card issued by the department of motor vehicles, whenever they exercise their reserved fishing rights on the reservation; and that Indians exercising such reserved rights only be required to produce their driver's license or DMV-issued identification card on demand by the law-enforcement officers; and that individuals whose names do not appear on the list, or who are unable to produce a driver's license of DMV-issued identification card, be cited for illegally fishing on the reservation.

Also, we shall vigorously oppose any effort to regulate our fishing rights by congressional legislation. A temporary BIA-imposed and enforced moratorium on commercial fishing within the boundaries of the Hoopa Valley Reservation, is all that is needed-and that is all we will accept without a fight.

If BIA ofdicials fail to properly enforce the temporary moratorium on commercial fishing, then long-overdue appropriate action should be taken against such officials, to force them to fulfill their responsibilities as the trustees of the resources of the Hoopa Valley Reservation.

I appeal to the members of this subcommittee not to take any action which will add to the injustices which the Federal Government has already inflicted on the Yurok Indian people.

Many individuals and organizations have apparently lost sight of the fact, that the Klamath River fishery and the Trinity River fishery within the boundaries of the Hoopa Valley Reservation are reservation resources which are owned by myself and the other eligible Indians of the reservation.

As Assistant Secretary of the Interior Forrest Gerard pointed out on April 20, 1979, upon the formation of an elected governing body for the reservation, the Indians of the reservation "May regulate the fishing themselves without interference." This, of course would include non-Indian sports fishing.

During the past three years, as a result of the arrogant or hostile attitude of many non-Indian users of our reservation fishery, violent confrontations have taken place between some non-Indian sports fishermen and a few Indians of the reservation.

Also, due to the BIA's gross mismanagement of the reservation and our valuable reservation fishery resources, our fisheries are in danger of being completely depleted.

Therefore, in order to protect what is left ou our reservation fishery resources, and to reduce the opportunity for further violent confrontations between non-Indians and Indians on the reservation, I hereby urge this subcommittee to use its influence to induce Secretary of the Interior Cecil Andrus and Assistant Secretary of the Interior Forrest Gerard to also immediately impose a moratorium on non-Indian sports fishing on Hoopa Valley Reservation, until the eligible Indians of the reservation can form a governing body to regulate the fishing themselves without interference. After all, gentlemen, it is our reservation-not just a playground for nonIndians.

An examination of the information set forth in the attached copy of our letter of May 31, 1977, to Secretary of the Interior Cecil Andrus, and the information set forth in the attached copy of our letter of August 16, 1978, to Congressman McCloskey's representa

tive, Ed Thoits, will give the members of this subcommittee a greater insight into the underlying causes of "the Klamath/Trinity salmon fishing problem.'

After the members of this subcommittee have examined the contents of the attached copies of our letters, I respectfully urge this subcommittee to use its influence to cause the House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs to hold hearings into our charges against the Bureau of Indian Affairs-please refer to the attached copy of our letter of August 16, 1978 to Congressman McCloskey's office-instead of recommending legislation which will affect our fishing rights.

Gentlemen, you are in a position to help remedy many of the injustices which have been inflicted on the Indian people of the Hoopa Valley Reservation-or you can add to those injustices and thereby further dishonor the Government of the United States in these matters.

I pray that your actions will help restore our faith in the integrity of our Government.

Mr. BREAUX. Thank you very much, Mr. Williams, for your statement. There are additions to it on the record which are most welcome.

I would now like to recognize Mr. William Van Pelt for his statement.

STATEMENT OF WILLIAM VAN PELT, REPRESENTATIVE,
YUROK INDIAN TRIBE

Mr. VAN PELT. Yes, sir.

I am very glad in a way to be able to speak to this committee. I have talked to Mr. Andrus and several other officials and I don't believe my testimony was very well received, if received at all. Now, I hope that the facts that are presented here will be used to resolve some of the problems that have been developing for so long. Now, at this point I am in a rather peculiar situation. I hope you can appreciate my position. I will attempt to explain it.

I appreciate Mr. Masten's problems and Mr. Williams, of course, represents our people in certain areas of politics and legal doings. But I, at this point, I go my own way. I present my testimony as an individual, not as part of any organization, but only as a member of a tribe that has lived on the river for many years. I believe that I understand what goes on and why these things develop to the point they are now.

If you will examine my statement that I made concerning the things I proposed to speak on, you will notice that I said that I will speak on things relating to ceremonial fishing, traditional fishing and what brought about the problems that we have at this point. If I happen to point out something that seems to have a bearing on what someone else has spoken about before, well, I want you to understand that I am more or less speaking off the cuff.

I have no prepared statement but I don't believe that I need one from all my observations and all the knowledge and everything that I have at this time. I don't need any notes.

Now, I believe that if you will examine the word "traditional," you will find that it has been abused, pushed around and used so much that it doesn't mean much to anyone anymore.

Now, in my way of thinking we speak with a forked tongue. I know how our people existed in the days before the white man came. Now, if you want to call that traditional living, you give a man a log and he would build a canoe out of it or you give him some raw material and he would build a net out of it and he usually fished in his own front yard, so to speak.

He didn't travel up and down the river and he did not commercially fish. Now, that is traditional fishing and there are other things that could apply equally well. Now, you talk about religion and all these things you have heard testimony about, like from Mrs. Norris and I wholeheartedly agree with her that it was a stern discipline.

Now, I have sat at meetings where I have been booed at and hissed at because I spoke these things. That we say one thing and yet we do another.

We talk about our tradition but we don't abide by the rules. We boo our elders when they speak, you know, and all these things. Now, regarding traditional fishing-well, you can form your own opinion. If I were to build my net in the way that they do I would obviously not endanger anybody's fishing.

But I will give you an example. I saw a movie presented over at Humboldt State by somebody showing a traditional fisherman. It looked like about a 20-foot boat of plastic, about 150-horsepower engine with a jet unit on it and plastic floats and nylon webbing with two men aboard; one of whom sported an afro hairdo. Now, these were supposed to be traditional fishermen.

Now, we speak with a forked tongue, gentlemen.

Now, regarding the ceremonial things, as I understand it. This is something that I have only heard of in the last several years. I don't know where you people got these things, I really don't.

As Mrs. Norris has pointed out, it was done in our area in the years gone by and she clearly stated why it was done, on a very limited basis at a very specific, specified time. If you want to do some ceremonial fishing, you would not deplete anybody's salmon

run.

These dances were put on for a specific purpose, in times of stress or threatened famine or whatever-have-you and now I think that is where traditional and ceremonial got a little bit mixed up. Now we are not actually looking at the rights of people right now. I am looking at destruction of a species or something that has been our heritage for years and years and many people act as thought I have no right to speak in defense of something that I understood is part mine.

Now, these things to me are a real crime, when we push something to the edge of extinction or annihilation. Now, I understand that it is possible, throught the cooperation of everybody, that might be involved-ocean fishing and all that-I don't propose to speak on that. Let's leave that to the more learned people who have a better handle on the whole thing.

I am talking about something that I as an individual person living on that river-I can do something about it. I can refrain from fishing, period. I can urge others to do so.

I can say in conclusion: White man, I have done my share. Now you do yours, in your position in Washington. You do yours and I

will abide by. I will refrain from doing things out here and this is what I hope that my people would do at this time until the time comes when they get some figures that we all can depend on. I will leave the political stuff to the people who are able politically to deal with these things.

I will leave my politics to Mr. Williams and Mr. Masten, but in the meantime I am saying that I, as a person on the street, would refrain from fishing-personal or otherwise-and I don't understand where our right to commercially fish came from anyway. I

can't understand that.

So, I am just saying that as for me and mine, just as a person from, you know, observing and I understand that it is a difficult situation to get people together and sit down and talk about things, to resolve anything when this is, you know, maybe not exactly tradition.

There's another important thing that people sometimes overlook. When you say "Indians," people naturally expect that they are all going to be from one background or something.

These people are from all types of difficult things, different backgrounds and everything. Before the white man came we had a very wonderful time fighting each other.

What I am really trying to say is, let's face facts and come up with some reasonable solution. I am not going to tell you that I am guiltless. I was a logger and I did terrible things with bulldozers and things and I am not going to blame loggers because there was-as a logger I didn't know any better.

But if there are regulations to be enforced and if there is enhancement, let it be done. You know, but I am saying at this time there is something that I can do. I, as an example, can do something. I will not fish, period.

I may take a pole but I'm not going to use any gill net. Forget it. I quit that 30 years ago.

Thank you.

Mr. BREAUX. Thank you, Mr. Van Pelt.

And now we will hear from Mr. Walt Lara.

STATEMENT OF WALT LARA, REPRESENTATIVE, YUROK
INDIAN TRIBE

Mr. LARA. My name is Walt Lara. I am president of the Klamath River Wildlife Association and a member of the Yurok Tribe.

As such, I am involved in quite a bit of ceremonial practices and involvements that I found out today that a lot of Indian people don't still realize exist as of today.

I am involved in a type of tribal council in California, getting funds for children in the Klamath River to go to Disneyland and things like this; and involved with the Tri-County Indian Development Corp., trying to get funds to pay older Indian people to relate the cultures they know to the younger generations so that we may in the future try to carry out what was left for us.

It seems that as we strive through and there are words used, there is misinterpretation by others that ceremonial fishing involves a part of commercial fishing. It was never intended to be that.