The Klamath Tribes

A nation today

Deep blue Crater Lake in early spring with the cinder cone of Wizard Island rising near the snow-edged west rim.
Bob Galindo (Bobjgalindo), Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 4.0

Background

Klamath, Modoc, and Yahooskin-Paiute people call themselves mukluks and numu, the people, and their own greeting translates as we help each other and we will live good. They have lived in the Klamath Basin of Oregon for longer than memory. The Tribes ceded more than 23 million acres in 1864, entering the reservation era, but kept rights to hunt, fish, and gather on the reserved lands in perpetuity. Congress terminated the Tribes in 1954, costing them federal recognition and a reservation land base of about 1.8 million acres, and restored that recognition with Public Law 99-398 in 1986. The Tribes are the federally recognized government of those three peoples and now run more than 30 departments and services.

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Visit and learn

Klamath Tribes Restoration Celebration

·event

The Tribes' annual Restoration Celebration, held on the fourth weekend in August, marks the anniversary of the federal recognition they regained in 1986. The Tribes state that all events are open to the public.

https://klamathtribes.org/restoration-celebration

The Klamath Tribes's own site

Tribal lands have their own laws. Check the nation's site before you visit.

Parks on its homelands

Deep blue Crater Lake in early spring with the cinder cone of Wizard Island rising near the snow-edged west rim.Crater Lake National Park

In May 2024 Crater Lake's fire and fuels staff helped the Klamath Tribes burn 12 acres of the North Casino prescribed fire on tribal treaty land in Chiloquin, Oregon, a meadow that had gone without fire for at least 70 years, and a Tribes fire staff member served as the firing boss trainee. Source

Programs

  • Language Department

    The Tribes' Language Department posts a basic Klamath course covering pronunciation, writing, vocabulary, grammar, and phrases with audio, aimed mainly at tribal members. The department's site also carries a dictionary download, a word of the day, and a Paiute reference guide.

    https://klamathtribes.org/language·language

  • Natural Resources Department

    The department protects the treaty hunting, fishing, and trapping rights the Tribes hold under the 1864 treaty, and runs a game management program, fisheries and wildlife research, timber work, and the Klamath Tribes Forest Management Plan.

    https://klamathtribes.org/natural-resources·land

  • Culture and Heritage Department

    The department runs language instruction for the Tribes and is helping design a tribal museum and interpretive center that does not yet exist.

    https://klamathtribes.org/culture·culture

Sources

Checked September 2026.

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