The “Salmon Wars” podcast series tells the story of salmon in the Northwest in a way you haven’t heard before — through the voices of one Yakama Nation family who have been fighting for salmon for generations.

We hear the voices of tribal elders who remember Celilo Falls before the Dalles Dam silenced this sacred fishing spot. Many of the voices you hear in this episode were shared, with permission, by Confluence. Confluence is a nonprofit focused on the Columbia River system. The organization has collected oral histories from Native people, many of whom remember Celilo Falls before the dam.

Our theme music is by Kele Goodwin and Sean Ogilvie.

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:

(sound of Celilo Falls)

Tony Schick: It’s hard to overstate how spectacular Celilo Falls was. In the springtime, more water spilled over Celilo than passes over Niagara Falls today. The falls and surrounding village were a cultural hub for Native people long before white settlers came to the area. That continued into the modern era before the U.S. government built the Dalles Dam and silenced Celilo Falls. I’m Tony Schick and this is a bonus episode of Salmon Wars.

(music)

TS: You heard a bit about Celilo Falls and the impact of its loss in some of our episodes.

Emily Washines: There’s a loss of fishing and there’s a loss of homes because they were flooded out.

TS: We wanted to take some time to remember this place that was so central to Columbia River tribes. We collaborated with Confluence, a nonprofit focused on the Columbia River system. The organization has collected oral histories from Native people, many of whom remember Celilo Falls before the dam. On this bonus episode, we’re bringing you some of their memories.

Linda Meanus: The falls had a roar that was so loud you could hear it from miles and miles away.

Wilbur Slockish: That’s a sound I’ll never forget.

Bryson Liberty: Every time they’d go with their dip, they’d get something — one or two, sometimes three salmon. Every time.

(music)

William Yallup Jr.: Yeah, Celilo Falls was the Wall Street of North America at one time.

TS: William Yallup Jr. is a tribal elder and Yakama chief. He was a young child when Celilo was flooded. He grew up hearing about what the place meant to his ancestors and to tribal people from around the region going back many generations.

WY: There are people in Canada who have certain things that are part of their religious ceremonies, you know, maybe you understand it as like a sacrament, you know, like wine and bread, a sacrament. Well, these people live way in Canada and they have no salmon, you know, no eels, no smelt. But those are part of their sacraments. They have to have those things. So, they came here and got those things and take them back as part of their ceremonies. So, all that is based upon trade.

TS: Celilo functioned as a pivotal trading spot for tribal people, with salmon as a kind of currency.

WY: And everything derives its value from salmon. You bring something here, I honor your gift. What is it you bring, OK, let me see, what do you have? OK, those things will get you this much salmon … And so that’s how you base the value of all your commodities, all your goods, all your trade. You know, how much are your stocks worth, your trade?

TS: Celilo Falls continued to be a place for Native people to trade and gather in the first half of the 20th century. Linda Meanus has a lot of memories of Celilo from her childhood.

LM: At Celilo Falls, the energy of the water was really powerful.

TS: Meanus is a member of the Warm Springs tribe. She grew up in Celilo Village. She’s the author of “My Name is LaMoosh,” which chronicles her early life in Celilo Village.

LM: I could just feel the mist in my face, even if I stood far away. The falls had a roar that was so loud you could hear it from miles and miles away. Even in the next town over, The Dalles, you could hear it. It was an echo that you could feel in your heart. That feeling of the powerful sound feels like the truth of our way of life. And the smell of the falls — you could smell the salmon, the saltiness of it. It smelled so fresh, the smell of salmon cooking. It was beautiful.

TS: Meanus said that, because she was a young child, she wasn’t allowed down by the river by herself. But she has strong memories of a culture built around river life.

LM: Grandpa would get everybody up at 4:30 in the morning. The women would prepare lunch and the men, like my dad and my uncles and grandpa, would go out on the river with their nets to fish for the day. I would see all of them down there catching fish. The salmon were too big to have to fight to get food. I think it didn’t bother the men to be on the scaffolds. (Those are wooden platforms they built just above the water.) I think for them, just to get the salmon was a fight in itself. All day long they would fish.

TS: Salmon fishing at Celilo Falls was, by all accounts, an awesome thing to witness.

BL: Some of those scaffolds, I mean, they were architectural wonders.

TS: Bryson Liberty is a tribal elder of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. He told Confluence about the Native fishing operation at Celilo Falls. As Linda Meanus was saying, fishermen built scaffolds on the rocks to get as close as they could to the rushing water.

BL: Like those guys right underneath the big falls had these hanging scaffolds. You know, the falls, the cliffs went around right here. They put these, built these platforms out here and they’d hang these big heavy four-by-fours down and then on these four-by-fours they’d put, build a platform so when they’d dip, they could walk along the platform.

TS: The fishermen used dipnets to catch fish from these wooden platforms. The nets look like giant butterfly catchers. They’re these 30-foot poles with big, mesh bags on the ends.

BL: Usually, though, at that spot where they were they didn’t have to do any walkin’ because when the fish were runnin’, I’d see those guys every time they’d go with their dip, they’d get something — one or two, sometimes three salmon. Every time. Boy, they’d just get them out, hit them in the head, kill them, put in them in the box and, man, get back there and get another load just as fast as they could. They had guys over here hittin’ them in the head, and putting them in the gunny sack, take them up, ship them over to [gestures]…but those guys, man, when the salmon were running it was beaucoup money city. Money city. Guys could make a lot of money down there. Made more than $3,000 the government gave them for flooding Celilo Falls.

TS: That’s the money the U.S government offered to tribal people when it completed the Dalles Dam and flooded Celilo Falls. The money didn’t even begin to make up for the enormous loss. Linda Meanus remembers the effect it had on her grandfather, Tommy Thompson. He was the chief at Celilo Village at the time.

LM: And so when my grandfather, his uncle had passed who was chief then, became chief when he was 20 and lived to be 114 when he died. But he lived on salmon every day so that, that was the importance of trying to keep, our, our, trying to keep Celilo Falls, was because of our salmon, because it was our way of life. It was our survival. And so, when they took that away (sighs), my great grandma Flora said that my grandfather died of a broken heart, because that’s what he lived for. It was to keep the salmon.

TS: Wilbur Slockish has been a part of that fight for decades. He’s a traditional river chief of the Klickitat Band of the Yakama Nation. He’s been shot at, had rocks thrown at him and even spent time in prison, all for exercising his fishing rights. As a boy, he fished at Celilo Falls. He spoke to Confluence about how he carries his memories of Celilo with him.

WS: I was on my way to Albuquerque, for a meeting. And I saw this sign, “Shoshone Falls.” So, I went there, and I heard the sound of that water falling, it wasn’t as loud as Celilo. And I spread a blanket out and I just laid there listening to it. A park ranger come over and asked me, “Are you OK?” I said, “Yeah, I’m OK, I’m just listening to this falls.” And he asked me how old I was. “Oh, you must be thinking of Celilo.” I said, “Yeah.” So, you know, we find places like that to remember the sounds. That’s a sound I’ll never forget.

(music)

TS: Up until a few years ago, there was an open question about whether or not the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers destroyed Celilo Falls with dynamite prior to the flooding. New research shows that that was not the case. The corps used LiDAR technology to survey the river 50 years after the Dalles Dam was completed. The images they generated show the falls are essentially intact underneath the water.

LM: I’m happy though the falls are still there. It’s shifted like everything else is shifting.

TS: This means there is a small amount of hope that if the dams are ever removed, the falls will flow again.

(sound of Celilo Falls)

LM: Water has its own intelligence. It flows wherever it wants, it does what it wants. It’s like they say: water is life.

(music)

TS: That’s it for this bonus episode of Salmon Wars. If you missed any of the episodes in our series, they’re all available in this podcast feed.

View all episodes of the “Salmon Wars” podcast here.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2024/04/24/salmon-wars-bonus-episode-celilo-falls-village-memories/