An indigenous Yurok family from California brought a dying river back to life after leading a decades-long fight to remove four dams

Published 8 July 2026 · us

Yurok attorney Amy Bowers Cordalis and the Klamath River, where her family helped lead a historic river restoration effort. The California river that sustained the

Yurok attorney Amy Bowers Cordalis and the Klamath River, where her family helped lead a historic river restoration effort. The California river that sustained the Yurok people When four dams blocked a lifeline Yurok fishers on the Klamath River, where salmon have sustained Indigenous communities for generations. The disaster that sparked a movement The family behind the fight The world's largest dam removal project Salmon return after more than 100 years A blueprint for river restoration More than a century after four dams cut off the Klamath River's natural flow, salmon are finally swimming freely upstream again. The historic comeback follows the completion of the world's largest dam removal project in October 2024, ending decades of ecological damage that devastated fish populations and disrupted the lives of the Yurok people in northern California. Behind that milestone was a generations-long campaign led by Indigenous Yurok families, including attorney and activist Amy Bowers Cordalis, whose memoir The Water Remembers recounts her family's role in restoring a river they consider central to their culture, identity and survival.Flowing about 263 miles from southern Oregon to the Pacific Ocean in northern California, the Klamath River has long been one of the most important salmon rivers on the US West Coast. For the Yurok Tribe, whose ancestral homeland lies along the river's lower reaches, the Klamath is far more than a waterway.

Salmon have sustained the community for generations, providing food, supporting ceremonies and shaping cultural traditions. Yurok beliefs hold that the wellbeing of the people is inseparable from the health of the river, making its restoration not only an environmental goal but also a cultural and spiritual responsibility.The first of four hydroelectric dams was built on the Klamath River in 1918, followed by three more over the next four decades. Together, they generated electricity but blocked more than 400 miles of historic salmon habitat. The reservoirs created behind the dams slowed the river's flow, raised water temperatures and encouraged harmful algal blooms that degraded water quality. Native fish populations declined sharply as salmon could no longer reach their traditional spawning grounds, affecting wildlife, commercial fisheries and Indigenous communities that depended on healthy salmon runs.The campaign to restore the Klamath gained national attention after one of the worst fish kills in US history. In September 2002, an estimated 34,000 to 78,000 adult Chinook salmon died when low river flows, unusually warm water and an outbreak of the parasitic disease known as "ich" swept through the river. Thousands of dead fish lined the riverbanks within the Yurok Reservation, leaving a lasting impression on tribal members. Amy Bowers Cordalis, then an intern with the Yurok Tribal Fisheries Department, witnessed the ecological disaster firsthand.