Podcast: A drying lake in Oregon attracts the far right

LA Times
·1 min read
Klamath Falls, Oregon, Monday, June 7, 2021 - Dan Nielsen set up a circus tent on land adjacent to a canal gate that controls the water that flows into the irrigation canals that make up the federal Klamath Water Project. He is threatening to remove the steel plates that block the water's flow. In Oregon, the tensions of a devastating drought ignite racism toward Native Americans Klamath Falls has long been a hotbed of extreme activity around water rights. Now in the second year of a devastating drought, the federal government has cut off annual water flows to family farms. In response, a group of locals associated with Ammon Bundy is threatening to take over a water canal and restore flows. The situation has increased decades of tensions between farmers and Native tribes, sparking was some see as an increase in the racism that has plagued the area since white settlers first came.(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
Members of a far-right fringe group set up a circus tent, decked with U.S. flags, on land adjacent to gates that stop the flow of water from Upper Klamath Lake into canals that irrigate farmland. They're threatening to open the gates. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Today, in Episode 2 of our Drought Week series, we go to Upper Klamath Lake in southern Oregon. As water shortages become a permanent part of life in the American West, battles are brewing everywhere for what little remains. Even in long-verdant areas like the Beaver State.

We’ll talk to L.A. Times reporter Anita Chabria and Don Gentry, the chairman of the Klamath Tribes. The tribes get first rights to the water of Upper Klamath Lake, which they use to help sustain a fish important to their culture. But farmers are angry because they’re not getting any water this year. Now, members of the far right are coming in to try to exploit the tension.

After that story, stick around to hear Nick Itkin talk about how he got into fencing and came to represent the United States in the Tokyo Olympics.

Host: Gustavo Arellano

Guests: L.A. Times Northern California reporter Anita Chabria, Klamath Tribes Chairman Don Gentry and fencer Nick Itkin

More reading:

Racism, drought and history: Young Native Americans fight back as water disappears

Water crisis reaches boiling point on Oregon-California line

As drought slams California and Oregon, Klamath farmers grow fish to quell a water war

Listen to more episodes of The Times here

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.