Communicating Culture: the Termination and Restoration of the Klamath Tribes

Robyn A. Rowe

Date of Graduation

Spring 2003

Degree

Master of Arts in Communication

Department

Communication

Committee Chair

Randy Dillon

Abstract

The purposes of this project are to describe the importance of the group name Klamath to the Klamath Indians of Southern Oregon and to describe inter-generational communication among Klamath people. Klamath tribal status was officially terminated in 1954 through U.S. Government assimilation efforts. The Klamath Tribes were officially restored in 1986. Termination was a major event in the history of the Klamath Indians. Through repeatd telling, termination became a part of Klamath culture (Geertz, 1973 & Barth, 1989). With a grant from the Graduate College, the researcher traveled to Chiloquin, Oregon. Utilizing qualitative research methods, personal interviews were conducted with eight Klamath Indians. Focusing on termination and how information regarding this event was communicated to successive generations revealed how cultural information is communicated among Klamath Indians. Contrary to early ethnographies, it was discovered that various tribal members and the community as a whole perform intergenerational communication. Another finding was that the group name Klamath is very important to tribal members and participants strongly identify with their tribal name.

Subject Categories

Communication

Copyright

© Robyn A Rowe

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Dissertation/Thesis

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