Continue to Stand in the Gap: Klamath County

The Pinnacles, Klamath County, OR

You visit the earth and water it, You greatly enrich it; The river of God is full of water; You provide their grain, For so You have prepared it. You water its ridges abundantly. You settle its furrows; You make it soft with showers, You bless its growth. Psalm 65:9-10

We are moving into the South Central Region of Oregon which includes Klamath and Lake Counties. Klamath is bordered by Jackson, Douglas, and Lane to the west, Deschutes to the north, Lake to the east, and California to the south. The County seat is Klamath Falls.

The County is governed by a Board of three elected commissioners. Currently, those on the Board are Dave Henslee, Kelley Minty, and Derrick DeGroot.

Chris Kaber is the County Sheriff, overseeing the 90 sworn personnel and the roughly 100 volunteers that make up the Klamath County Sheriff’s Office.

The County has about 70,000 residents or about 11 per square mile, so it isn’t thickly populated. While we have explored a little of Klamath County history, here, here, and here, we have not gone into depth about the Klamath Tribes and their history.  There are three tribes in the area, the Klamath, Modoc, and Yahooskin Pauite. They have, according to anthropologists, been in the Klamath basin for at least 15,000 years.

Klamath County, OR

In 1864, the Klamath turned over 23 million acres to the U.S. government in exchange for a 1.8-million-acre reservation. They managed their lands well, and prospered with logging and ranching until 1954 when the government terminated the status of the tribes. This had disastrous results financially and socially until their sovereign nation status was restored in 1986. The damage had been done, however, and the Tribes now own just a few thousand acres of land. The Tribe is determined to restore their original 1864 land boundaries and their cultural heritage – an uphill battle, but the Tribes do have the senior water rights in the areas per the treaty, which gives them some advantage.

The Tribes are working to retain their way of life, including providing enough water to maintain the populations of two species of fish important to their culture. In the years since the treaties were originally made, farmers and ranchers moved in to claim the lands opened to them by the government for homesteading. This has created a battle over the water, with not enough to provide for both the fish and the ranchers, especially during drought times. Read more here.

Currently, one agreement reached involved the removal of four dams from the Klamath River. One has been removed, and the other three are due to be removed this summer. Pray for all those impacted by the water issues in Klamath County, that wisdom will prevail.

Recently the County Sheriff, Chris Kaber has filed a suit against the County Commissioners. Earlier in 2023 the Commissioners had filed an ethics complaint against the Sheriff. The conflict has to do with the fact that the Sheriff’s two sons also work for the Sheriff’s Office and you can follow the issues here. Pray for all involved and for a spirit of fairness, unity, and wisdom in the government of Klamath County.