Susan Masten | |
|---|---|
 Susan Masten, standing, with Secretary Gale Norton (right of Masten) and Three Affiliated Tribes Chairman Tex Hall (right of Norton) | |
| Yurok Tribal Chairperson | |
| In office 1997–2004 | |
Susan Masten (born 1952 [1] ) of Northern California is a leader with the Yurok tribe and the past Yurok Tribal Chairperson. [2] She is a political activist involved with many tribal and women's issues.
Masten was born in Crescent City, California and lived in Requa as a young child. She moved away from Del Norte County as a fourth-grader but continued to visit her grandparents at their homes in Requa and near Brook's Riffle. [3]
Masten graduated from Oregon State University. During her years as a student, she was elected as one of the first presidents of the university's Native American Student Association. [4]
With a group of Yurok fishermen, Masten founded an organization to influence fishing regulations on the Klamath River. This work had built onto her uncle Raymond Mattz's victory before the U.S. Supreme Court in Mattz v. Arnett . [3]
Masten served as President of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) from 1999 to 2001. She is the second women ever elected president. [2] Masten describes the relationship she wishes to have with governors, "As responsible governments, we want to sit at the table and develop cooperative relationships where states and tribes can work together for the growth and development of Indian communities and all of our neighboring communities". [5]
Masten served as Yurok tribal chairperson from 1997 to 2004. [4]
Masten testified before Congress. She also has presented many speeches and often leads workshops at college and professional events. She discusses topics on Tribal Sovereignty, Trust Fund Management, Consultation, Resource Management, Co-Management and Environmental Justice. [6]
Masten co-founded and became co-president of Women Empowering Women for Indigenous Nations (WEWIN) in 2004. [4]
Masten is a former Chair of the Board of Directors for the Indian Law Resource Center. [2]
Masten was a finalist for the 2003 Ecotrust Indigenous Leadership Award, which "honors Native leaders of merit in the fields of conservation and community development." [6] Ecotrust honored Masten "for her work advocating the legal and human rights of indigenous communities on a local, state and national level." [7]
Masten was also selected as an "Outstanding Young Woman of America," Humboldt County's "Outstanding Citizen", and Del Norte County's "Young Woman of the Year". [8]
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The Klamath people are a Native American tribe of the Plateau culture area in Southern Oregon and Northern California. Today Klamath people are enrolled in the federally recognized tribes:
The Klamath River flows 257 miles (414 km) through Oregon and northern California in the United States, emptying into the Pacific Ocean. By average discharge, the Klamath is the second largest river in California after the Sacramento River. It drains an extensive watershed of almost 16,000 square miles (41,000 km2) that stretches from the arid country of south-central Oregon to the temperate rainforest of the Pacific coast. Unlike most rivers, the Klamath begins in the high desert and flows toward the mountains – carving its way through the rugged Cascade Range and Klamath Mountains before reaching the sea. The upper basin, today used for farming and ranching, once contained vast freshwater marshes that provided habitat for abundant wildlife, including millions of migratory birds. Most of the lower basin remains wild, with much of it designated wilderness. The watershed is known for this peculiar geography, and the Klamath has been called "a river upside down" by National Geographic magazine.
Hupa are a Native American people of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group in northwestern California. Their endonym is Natinixwe, also spelled Natinook-wa, meaning "People of the Place Where the Trails Return". The Karuk name was Kishákeevar / Kishakeevra. The majority of the tribe is enrolled in the federally recognized Hoopa Valley Tribe.
Karuk or Karok is the traditional language of the Karuk people in the region surrounding the Klamath River, in Northwestern California. The name ‘Karuk’ is derived from the Karuk word káruk, meaning “upriver”.
The Resighini Rancheria, located just south of Klamath, California, is a federally recognized tribe of Yurok people.
The Tolowa people or Taa-laa-wa Dee-ni’ are a Native American people of the Athabaskan-speaking ethno-linguistic group. Two rancherias still reside in their traditional territory in northwestern California. Those removed to the Siletz Reservation in Oregon are located there.
The Yurok Indian Reservation is a Native American reservation for the Yurok people located in parts of Del Norte and Humboldt counties, California, on a 44-mile (71 km) stretch of the Klamath River. It is one of a very few tribes who have never been removed from their ancestral lands in California.
The Yurok are an Indigenous people from along the Klamath River and Pacific coast, whose homelands are located in present-day California stretching from Trinidad in the south to Crescent City in the north.
Lucy Thompson was a Native American author known for her book To the American Indian: Reminiscences of a Yurok Woman. Written in 1916, the book is intended to preserve her people's stories. The book received the American Book Award decades later in 1992. Thompson was born in the Klamath River village of Pecwan. Outside the book she is known to have come from "Yurok aristocracy" and to be married to a caucasian man named Milton "Jim" Thompson. She intended to tell the stories of her people that were not being told by others, and to make others better understand her people and perspective, although she also criticized whites for practices like overfishing. Thompson expressed that violence towards indigenous Californians were deliberate acts of genocide and she expressed concern for the continued stewardship of Klamath River salmon.
Traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) describes indigenous and other traditional knowledge of local resources. As a field of study in Northern American anthropology, TEK refers to "a cumulative body of knowledge, belief, and practice, evolving by accumulation of TEK and handed down through generations through traditional songs, stories and beliefs. It is concerned with the relationship of living beings with their traditional groups and with their environment." Indigenous knowledge is not a universal concept among various societies, but is referred to a system of knowledge traditions or practices that are heavily dependent on "place". Such knowledge is used in natural resource management as a substitute for baseline environmental data in cases where there is little recorded scientific data, or may complement Western scientific methods of ecological management.
Requa is an unincorporated community in Del Norte County, California. It is on the north bank of the Klamath River less than a mile (1.6 km) from its mouth, at an elevation of 125 feet.
Elizabeth Woody is an American Navajo/Warm Springs/Wasco/Yakama artist, author, and educator. In March 2016, she was the first Native American to be named poet laureate of Oregon by Governor Kate Brown.
Rebecca Adamson is an American businessperson and advocate. She is former director, former president, and founder of First Nations Development Institute and the founder of First Peoples Worldwide.
The Cher-Ae Heights Indian Community of the Trinidad Rancheria is a federally recognized tribe with members who are descendants of Chetco, Hupa, Karuk, Tolowa, Wiyot, and Yurok people in Humboldt County, California. As of the 2010 Census the population was 132.
The Native American peoples of Oregon are the set of Indigenous peoples who have inhabited or who still inhabit the area delineated in today's state of Oregon in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. While the state of Oregon currently maintains relations with nine federally recognized tribal groups, the state was previously home to a much larger number of autonomous tribal groups, which today either no longer exist or have been absorbed into these larger confederated entities. Six of the nine tribes gained federal recognition in the late 20th century, after undergoing the termination and restoration of their treaty rights starting in the 1950s.
Della Cheryl Warrior is the first and only woman to date to serve as the chairperson and chief executive officer for the Otoe-Missouria Tribe. She later served at the president of the Institute of American Indian Arts, finding a permanent home for the institution as well as helping to raise over one hundred million dollars for the institution over a twelve-year period. Warrior was inducted into the Oklahoma Women's Hall of Fame in 2007.
Veronica Murdock is an American civil servant and of Shasta–Mohave ancestry, as a member of the Colorado River Indian Tribes. She served in the tribal administration, including as vice chair, of the Colorado River Tribe from 1969 to 1979 and between 1977 and 1979 as the first woman president of the National Congress of American Indians. From 1980 to 2004, she served as a civil service employee with the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Owanah P. Anderson was a Choctaw author and indigenous rights activist. Though Anderson published two books, Jamestown Commitment: The Episcopal Church and the American Indian and 400 Years: Anglican/Episcopal Mission Among American Indians, and co-authored multiple other publications, she was most recognized for her work with the Native American Ministries of the Episcopal Church as well as for her achievements in improving the lives of indigenous peoples, especially women. Anderson held a variety of jobs throughout her professional career that focused on expanding women's access to healthcare as well as their educational and professional opportunities.
Un-Dam the Klamath (#UnDamtheKlamath) is a social movement in the United States to remove the dams on the Klamath River primarily because they obstruct salmon, steelhead, and other species from accessing the upper basin which provides hundreds of miles of spawning habitat. The dams have also significantly harmed Hupa, Karuk, Klamath, and Yurok lifeways and communities. Copco #1, Copco #2, Iron Gate and J.C. Boyle are the four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River that are being advocated for removal.
Patricia 'Patsy' L. Whitefoot is a member of Yakama Nation, is Indigenous elder, activist and professional educator along with being the traditional food gatherer for the Toppenish Creek Longhouse. She served as the President of the National Indian Education Association and President Obama appointed her as a member of the National Advisory Council on Indian Education. She is a prominent advocate for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, and Indigenous rights.