California Tribe Set Out To Save Its River And Stop A Suicide Epidemic

"Weitchpec, California -- The Yurok people live in a stark land of salmon runs and steep, misty mountains, where giant salamanders hide under rotting logs and Bigfoot is said to prey after dusk.

Deep in California’s coastal woods near the Oregon border, the reservation straddles the mighty Klamath River, the tribe’s lifeblood for centuries.

But over the last 50 years, the yearly migration of salmon from the Pacific dwindled, and poverty, addiction and lawlessness gripped the reservation."

Joe Mozingo reports for the Los Angeles Times May 19, 2017, with photography by Robert Gauthier.