| Death of Celilo Falls Subjects: Indians of North America -- Fishing -- Oregon -- Celilo; Indians of North America -- Land tenure -- Oregon -- Celilo; Indians of North America -- Relocation -- Oregon -- Celilo; Salmon fishing -- Oregon -- Celilo; Fishery law and legislation -- Oregon --; For thousands of years, Pacific Northwest Indians fished, bartered, socialized, and honored their ancestors at Celilo Falls, part of a nine-mile stretch of the Long Narrows on the Columbia River. Although the Indian community of Celilo Village survives to this day as Oregon's oldest continuously inhabited town, with the construction of The Dalles Dam in 1957, traditional uses of the river were catastrophically interrupted. Most non-Indians celebrated the new generation of hydroelectricity and the easy navigability of the river "highway" created by the dam, but Indians lost a sustaining center to their lives when Celilo Falls was inundated. Katrine Barber is assistant professor of history at Portland State University and an associate at the Center for Columbia River History. |