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Celilo Falls

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Newsreel footage of native fishers at Celilo Falls in 1956, shortly before the site was submerged by the Dalles Dam (35 sec.) (media help)

Celilo Falls (Wyam, meaning "echo of falling water" or "sound of water upon the rocks," in several native languages) was a tribal fishing area on the Columbia River, just east of the Cascade Mountains, on what is today the border between Oregon and Washington states. It was the oldest continuously inhabited community on the North American continent until 1957, when it was submerged by the construction of The Dalles Dam.[1]

Description

Celilo Falls consisted of a series of rapids and cascades dropping a total of 83 feet (25.3 m) over a 1/2 mile (0.8 km) stretch of the Columbia River. There were three main sections: a cataract known as Horseshoe Falls or Tumwater Falls, a deep eddy known as Cul-de-Sac, and the main channel. In a broader sense, the term "Celilo Falls" is often extended to include the Five Mile and Ten Mile Rapids, or the Long Narrows,[2] a series of abrupt drops and undulations stretching 11 miles (17.6 km) downstream from the falls to The Dalles, Oregon.[3]

The falls were formed by the Columbia River's relentless push through basalt narrows on the final leg of its journey to the Pacific Ocean. Frequently more than a mile (1.6 km) in width, the river was squeezed here into a width of only 140 feet (43 m).[4] Native peoples built wooden platforms out over the water and caught salmon with dipnets and long spears on poles as the fish swam up through the rapids and jumped over the falls.[5] Historically, an estimated fifteen to twenty million salmon passed through the falls every year, making it one of the greatest fishing sites in North America.[6]

The falls were the sixth-largest by volume in the world and were among the largest in North America.[7] During periods of high water or flood, nearly a million cubic feet (28,000 m³) of water per second passed over the falls, creating a tremendous roar that could be heard many miles away.[citation needed]

History

Lewis and Clark's arrival at Celilo Falls in 1805 (mural on the Oregon State Capitol rotunda).
Dipnet fishing at the Cul-De-Sac.

About 11,000 years ago, native peoples gathered at Wyam to fish and exchange goods.[8] The falls were strategically located at the border between Chinookan and Sahaptian speaking peoples, and they served as the center of an extensive trading network across the Pacific Plateau.[2] Artifacts from the original village site suggest that tribes came from as far away as the Great Plains, Southwestern United States, and Alaska.[citation needed] When the Lewis and Clark expedition passed through the area in 1805, the explorers found a "great emporium…where all the neighboring nations assemble," and a population density unlike anything they had seen thus far.[citation needed] Accordingly, historians have likened the Celilo area to the “Wall Street of the West."[9] The Wishram people lived on the north bank, while the Wasco lived on the south bank, with the most intense bargaining occurring at the Wishram village of Nix-luidix.[10]

In the 1840s and 1850s, Euro-American pioneers began arriving in the area, traveling down the Columbia on wooden barges loaded with wagons. Many lost their lives in the violent currents near Celilo.[citation needed] In the 1870s, the Army Corps of Engineers embarked on a plan to improve navigation on the river. In 1915, they completed the 14-mile Celilo Canal, a portage allowing steamboats to circumvent the turbulent falls. At the dedication of the canal, Portland investor and civic leader Joseph Nathan Teal gave voice to a common sentiment that endured for decades: “Our waters shall be free: free to serve the uses and purposes of their creation by a Divine Providence.”[11] However, the canal was scarcely used and was completely idle by 1919.[12]

As more settlers arrived in the Pacific Northwest in the 1920s and 1930s, civic leaders advocated for a system of hydroelectric dams on the Columbia River, arguing that the dams would

Throughout this period, native people continued to fish at Celilo Falls, under the provisions of the 1855 Treaties signed with the Yakama Nation,[13] the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs,[14] and the Walla Walla, Umatilla, and Cayuse,[15] which granted "the right of taking fish at all usual and accustomed stations."

In 1947, the federal government convened Congressional hearings to discuss a proposed dam at The Dalles and concluded that the dam would not violate tribal fishing rights under the treaties.[16] Subsequently, the government reached a monetary settlement with the affected tribes, paying $26.8 million for the loss of Celilo and other fishing sites on the Columbia.[17]

The Army Corps of Engineers commenced work on the Dalles Dam in 1952 and completed it five years later. On March 10, 1957, hundreds of observers looked on as a rising Lake Celilo rapidly silenced the falls, submerged fishing platforms, and consumed the village of Celilo, ending an age-old existence for those who lived there. A small Native American community exists today at nearby Celilo Village, on a bluff overlooking the former location of the falls.

Celilo Falls retains great cultural significance for native peoples. Ted Strong of the Intertribal Fish Commission told one historian, "If you are an Indian person and you think, you can still see all the characteristics of that waterfall. If you listen, you can still hear its roar. If you inhale, the fragrances of mist and fish and water come back again."[18] In 2007, three thousand people gathered at Celilo Village to commememorate the 50-year anniversary of the inundation of the falls.[19]

Artist and architect Maya Lin is working on interpretive artwork at Celilo for the Confluence Project, scheduled for completion in 2009.

References

  1. ^ Dietrich, William (1995). Northwest Passage: The Great Columbia River. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press. p. 52.
  2. ^ a b Ronda, James P. (1984). Lewis & Clark among the Indians. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press. Retrieved 2008-02-01. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  3. ^ "World Waterfall database". Retrieved 2008-02-01.
  4. ^ Dietrich, William (1995). Northwest Passage: The Great Columbia River. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press. p. 80.
  5. ^ Dietrich, William (1995). Northwest Passage: The Great Columbia River. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press. p. 154.
  6. ^ Rohrbacher, George (January 2006). "Talk of the Past: The salmon fisheries of Celilo Falls". Common-Place. Retrieved 2008-02-01.
  7. ^ World Waterfall Database
  8. ^ Barber, Katrine. Narrative Fractures and Fractured Narratives: Celilo Falls in the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center and teh Yakama Nation Cultural Heritage Center. Corvallis, Oregon: Oregon State University Press. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help); Text "date 2001" ignored (help)
  9. ^ Alpert, Emily (10 July 2006). "Remembering Celilo Falls". The Dalles Chronicle. Retrieved 2008-02-01.
  10. ^ Ronda, James P. (1984). Lewis & Clark among the Indians. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press. Retrieved 2008-02-01. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  11. ^ J. B. Tyrell, ed., David Thompson: Narrative of his Explorations in Western America, 1784-1812 (Toronto, 1916, 496-97; "Address of Joseph Nathan Teal, The Dalles-Celilo Celebration, Big Eddy, Oregon (May 5, 1915," Oregon Historical quarterly, 16 (Fall 1916), 107-8. (As quoted in The Columbia River's fate in the twentieth century)
  12. ^ Dietrich, William (1995). Northwest Passage: The Great Columbia River. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press. p. 204.
  13. ^ "Treaty with the Yakama, 1855". Retrieved 2008-02-01.
  14. ^ "Treaty of Wasco, Columbia River, Oregon Territory with the Taih, Wyam, Tenino, & Dock-Spus Bands of the Walla-Walla, and the Dalles, Ki-Gal-Twal-La, and the Dog River Bands of the Wasco". Retrieved 2008-02-01.
  15. ^ "Treaty with the Walla Walla, Cayuse and Umatilla, 1855". Retrieved 2008-02-01.
  16. ^ Dietrich, William (1995). Northwest Passage: The Great Columbia River. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press. p. 378.
  17. ^ Dietrich, William (1995). Northwest Passage: The Great Columbia River. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press. p. 376.
  18. ^ Dietrich, William (1995). Northwest Passage: The Great Columbia River. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press. p. 378.
  19. ^ Modie, Jonathan. "The Celilo Legacy commemoration brought together the tribes of the lower Columbia River and others to remember Celilo Falls, bringing a mix of sadness and nostalgia". Wana Chinook Tymoo. Retrieved 2008-02-01.

External links

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