{"id":287864,"date":"2025-11-12T21:56:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T21:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/287864\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T21:56:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T21:56:08","slug":"yurok-tribe-round-valley-indians-sign-treaty-of-friendship-in-advance-of-potential-eel-river-dam-removal-lost-coast-outpost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/287864\/","title":{"rendered":"Yurok Tribe, Round Valley Indians Sign Treaty of Friendship in Advance of Potential Eel River Dam Removal | Lost Coast Outpost"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Round Valley Tribal Council Secretary Jill Acosta, Round Valley Tribal Council Member Susan Henao, Round Valley Vice President Neil Britton Sr., Round Valley President Joe Parker, Yurok Chairman Joseph L. James, Yurok Tribal Council Member Toby Vanlandingham and Yurok Tribal Council Member Ryan Ray. Photo: Yurok Tribe.<\/p>\n

###<\/p>\n

Press release from the Yurok Tribe:<\/p>\n

In
\nan historic milestone, two sovereign Indian tribes have joined
\ntogether to reverse decades of fisheries decline on the Eel River,
\nthe second longest river in California. On October 28, 2025, the
\nRound Valley Indian Tribes and the Yurok Tribe met at the Wildlands
\nConservancy\u2019s Eel River Canyon Preserve and signed a Treaty of
\nFriendship that pledges their joint efforts to restore the Eel River.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cThe
\nEel River is our lifeblood and when it suffers, our people
\nsuffer,\u201d said
\nRound Valley Indian Tribes President Joe Parker after signing the
\nagreement within the ancestral territory of the Tribes on the Eel
\nRiver. \u201cWe are pleased to join with the Yurok Tribe, which is the
\nleader in restoring the Klamath River through dam removal,
\nrevegetation, and habitat restoration,\u201d he added. \u201cWith
\nthis partnership, we hope all Native tribes around the world will be
\nmotivated to stand up and fight for their culture and rights,\u201d he
\nnoted.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cWe
\nare honored to contribute the extensive knowledge and experience we
\nhave gained through Klamath River dam removal with our relatives from
\nthe Round Valley Indian Tribes,\u201d added Joseph L. James, the
\nChairman of the Yurok Tribe. \u201cTogether, we are uplifting our
\ncommunities and forging a new path that aligns with our shared
\ncultural values.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nThe
\nTreaty of Friendship will facilitate sharing of knowledge and
\nexpertise between the two tribes, and it will foster collaboration on
\nrestoration projects on the Eel River. The Potter Valley
\nHydroelectric Project, whose dams block several hundred miles of
\ncritical fishery habitat, is being decommissioned by PG&E.
\nThese ecological impairments have contributed to the decline of
\nimperiled salmon, steelhead, and Pacific lamprey populations. The
\nremoval of these dams creates opportunities to restore the Eel River
\nto the healthy, free-flowing river it once was. The experience of the
\nYurok Tribe in restoring salmon runs on the Klamath River will inform
\ntribal efforts on the Eel River to achieve the same result.
\n\u201cBased on the Klamath River and hundreds of other dam removals
\nacross the United States, we expect the Eel River to heal quickly
\nonce the river runs free,\u201d said Chairman James.<\/p>\n


\nThe
\nRound Valley Indian Tribes have lived along the Eel River since time
\nimmemorial. Like the Yurok Tribe, the Round Valley Indian
\nTribes have suffered incalculable cultural, subsistence, economic,
\nand community injuries from the collapse of the fishery. With dam
\nremoval and comprehensive restoration efforts planned for the
\nwatershed, the tribes and fisheries experts expect native fish runs
\nto gradually recover. The Treaty of Friendship brings the Yurok
\nTribe into this process as a partner with the Round Valley Indian
\nTribes. For both Tribes, the Treaty is a tangible expression of
\ntheir traditional and cultural ties to rivers that have sustained
\nthem from the beginning of their existence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Round Valley Tribal Council Secretary Jill Acosta, Round Valley Tribal Council Member…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287865,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":{"0":"post-287864","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}