Ríos to Rivers: Indigenous Youth Paddle the Free Klamath

Ríos to Rivers, founded in 2012, trains Indigenous and rural youth from threatened watersheds across the Americas as river stewards through paddling, river science and advocacy programs. Its Paddle Tribal Waters program has trained 43 Indigenous teenagers from the Klamath, Yurok, Karuk, Hoopa Valley and other tribes in whitewater kayaking and river advocacy since the program launched in 2022. In July 2025, a crew it trained completed history's first 310-mile, source-to-sea descent of the Klamath River following the 2024 removal of its four dams, running free for the first time in over a century. The organization also runs river exchanges connecting young people from Chilean Patagonia and the Amazon basin who are working to keep their own home rivers dam-free.