HAT CREEK RESTORATION
For those that know Hat Creek well, the “Four Corners” at the intersection of CA-299 and CA-89 just northeast of Burney, usually signifies that the long pilgrimage from the Bay Area is almost over and a weekend of epic fishing is about to begin.
The Four Corners, however, have an entirely different and much darker meaning for those that bore witness to the conflict that occured there on October 27th, 1970.
On that day, 52 armed police officers, including federal agents, state troopers, sheriff’s deputies, and 50 Forest Service personnel broke up a tribal protest. Now known as the Battle of the Four Corners, the Redding Record Searchlight described the melee, “Indians, both men and women, fought with bare fists, tree limbs, and planks of lumber. Officers and sheriff’s deputies swung billy clubs and sprayed mace.” “Then all hell broke loose,” recalled a tribal witness, “as the armed protectors of the law waded into our people, spraying mace, and breaking heads, swinging clubs and striking even those who already lay unconscious.”
In 1971, just one year after the conflict and less than five miles from the site, California Trout was incorporated to begin restoring Hat Creek and other Wild Trout Waters throughout the state.
Given this history, it goes without saying that the Illmawi people of the Pit River Tribe approach outside organizations, even ones dedicated to river restoration, with caution and suspicion. The Illmawi literally bled for this land at Four Corners.
Now, 45 years later, a fragile reconciliation is underway. We don’t pretend that the Hat Creek Restoration Project can change the past or ease the lingering pain from dispossession. Or that relations are now perfect. But in an effort to shape a path forward, we as an organization can genuinely commit to helping protect the things that matter most to those who came before us.