Klamath Tribes members and non-natives alike stood side-by-side in solidarity in the cold along the banks of the Sprague River in Chiloquin to humbly honor the C’waam in a special ceremony Saturday, continuing a tradition that has existed annually for thousands of years.
The C’waam, or Lost River Sucker, has been endangered since 1988 as well as the shortnose sucker, referred to as Koptu by the tribes. The population decreases are due to several factors, but tribal members blame low water quality and quantity in Upper Klamath Lake as the primary causes.
Once the Sprague River and other tributaries would overflow with fish during spawning season, making the waterways appear to be boiling from the volume of suckers breaching, but today the waters run quiet and still. The ceremony held honors the fish with its annual return to rivers and streams, with one sucker sacrificed in a traditional manner to honor the species before a large catch and feast would commence.
Amidst the rapid population decline and the fear of severe drought this summer the ceremony this year took on a more somber tone, serving as a prayer for the future as the Klamath Tribes brace for a possible world without the C’waam if current trends continue.
Deemed a gift from the Creator, the C’waam had for centuries been the mainstay of the Klamath Tribes’ diet and a centerpiece of cultural ceremonies. Huge racks once held thousands of fish to feed the tribes, but now only one C’waam is sacrificed each year as part of the ceremony. A feast followed continuing traditions as well as a pow wow, but only tribal elders can recall a time when the post-ceremonial celebrations included C’waam on the menu as well as salmon, which haven’t been seen in the river since 1917.
Perry Chocktoot, looking out over a large group gathered along the banks of the Sprague River on Saturday morning, asked the crowd: “Look at the water.”
When Chocktoot, 55, was as young 8, he remembered the water rolled and breached with multitudes of Klamath Basin sucker fish.
“This is a dire time,” Chocktoot told attendees. “We need to make our prayers count. We’re going to bless our fish. This is a calling ceremony – we’re calling these fish back to their birthplace. We do this ceremonial sacrifice of the fish and I won’t leave here until it is ashes.”
Opening the ceremony was Jeff Mitchell, former tribal chairman and chair of the Culture and Heritage Committee, who began proceedings with a song and prayer calling on ancestors to bless those present and for good health for the water and rivers and all that has meaning.
The C’waam ceremony was halted for a time, but reintroduced by the Klamath Tribes in the late 1980s upon advice from tribal elders. It is conducted the same way it always has since before recorded time, with one C’waam sacrificed by a ceremonial obsidian knife, then cremated over a campfire following a blessing of the fish from each tribal elder.
“The heart of our elders said we needed to do this ceremony again in a good way,” said Don Gentry, Klamath Tribal chairman, during the ceremony. “We have biologists trying to figure out what to do to restore our fish, but we can’t forget the ceremony our people did for thousands of years and thank our Creator and ask to return these fish in a good way.”
Mitchell shared two important stories, passed down among tribal elders, that detailed how the C’waam came into existence, and a warning tale of the suffering the tribes experienced one harsh winter when the fish didn’t return. Mitchell explained how young pine trees were stripped of their bark and the cambium layer removed, then ground down into an edible substance that sustained the tribes until the fish returned.
“The trees still have the scars on them, every day when I drive by those trees I give thanks to my ancestors,” said Mitchell. “I give thanks because they ate the trees so that we could live. That is why each of you are here today, because of the sacrifice and suffering they went through. We have to come together to do what we need to do for our fish, for the resources that we enjoy.”
Tribe members and visitors were encouraged to offer prayers with sage into the central campfire, praying to whomever they like, with the shared hope for a return of healthy waterways, fish populations and a respect for the earth that provides life to us all.
The suckers are more than just a cultural food source, but have genetically perfected the ability to clean waterways as a primarily algae-eating species. Despite the girth of mature C’waam, the high phosphorous and potassium levels in Upper Klamath Lake have made it difficult for juvenile suckers to survive. For a species that normally lives 30-40 years, despite interventional efforts by Tribes and government agencies to supplement fish populations in Upper Klamath Lake, the survival rate for juveniles is low due to water quality, quantity and predators. The prospect of severe summer drought, a condition which Gov. Kate Brown declared several weeks ago, only adds to the concern for the suckers’ continued existence in the Klamath Basin.
“This fish means life, it’s something we have always had, and even with our limited numbers they have always been there,” said Rayson Tupper, 71, one of the elders present to honor the C’waam.
Tupper has been watching the C’waam ceremony most of his life, and blessing them since 1986.
“I used to be a handler but I’m too old,” Tupper said with a smile. Tupper was among Tribal elders who spoke a blessing over the fish after it was removed from a tank. After its blessing, Tribal members released one fish and sacrificed the other fish.
“The fish can’t live where there is no water,” added Chocktoot. “We pray and hope for the best, but now it takes us as human beings to come forward and work it a different way, maybe on a legal or moral level, but we need to do whatever it takes to get these fish back. They are a very resilient fish but the babies aren’t surviving, it is like having elders with no children.”
H&N Reporter Holly Dillemuth contributed to this story.
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