{"id":1403642,"date":"2026-02-07T12:32:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T17:32:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thenewsherald.com\/?p=1403642&preview=true&preview_id=1403642"},"modified":"2026-02-07T12:32:33","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T17:32:33","slug":"round-valley-tribes-eel-river-dam-removal-trump-administration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thenewsherald.com\/2026\/02\/07\/round-valley-tribes-eel-river-dam-removal-trump-administration\/","title":{"rendered":"How a California tribe is confronting the Trump administration to claim their historic rights to a river"},"content":{"rendered":"

James Russ and Joseph Parker, the former and current presidents of the Round Valley Indian Tribes in northern California, are seeking to make their reservation healthy again.<\/p>\n

That means helping their people, they say, and specifically tackling high rates of diabetes and obesity that affect their tribal nation and many other Indigenous communities.<\/p>\n

It also means restoring their land and the river that has been intrinsically linked with their people for millennia.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are Native people tied to the resources and rhythms of the Eel River,\u201d Parker said. \u201cOur health is connected to the river.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, the tribal nation is confronting the Trump administration over the river\u2019s future and fighting some of its regional allies to reclaim water rights that have been overlooked for a century.<\/p>\n

\"Walking
Members of the Round Valley Indian Tribe participate the the 15th annual 100-mile Nome Cult Trail near Anthony Peak in the Mendocino National Forest. (Kent Porter \/ The Press Democrat)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The struggle is taking place as the entity with a dominant stake in the river for generations, Pacific Gas & Electric Co., seeks to give up in Lake and Mendocino counties its network of Eel River dams and a linked hydropower plant. The move has triggered a federal review that has pitted the tribes, together with environmental groups in favor of dam removal, against farming interests, reservoir supporters and the Trump administration<\/a>, which has taken a dim view of dam demolition.<\/p>\n

The tribes never had much of a say when those dams went up starting 118 years ago, but they have been heavily involved in talks in recent years geared to planning for the future of the Eel River. Due to a century-old diversion that links the Eel River to the Russian River in the south \u2014 and to farms and about 100,000 residents who rely on the upper Russian for drinking and irrigation supplies \u2014 those talks have drawn in a host of sometimes competing interests, including counties and farm and fishery groups with a wider scope of interest across the North Coast.<\/p>\n

Our \u201cwater rights were completely ignored,\u201d Parker said of his ancestors. \u201cThe Round Valley Indian Tribes were very much in survival mode when the dams were built and the diversions began.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt started in 1905 when W.W. Van Arsdale posted a note along a tree saying he had a right to appropriate more than 100,000 acre-feet of Eel River water to put into the Russian River basin,\u201d Parker said. \u201cThat\u2019s how it all started.\u201d<\/p>\n