Death of Celilo Falls by Katrine Barber. Chapter 5: Relocation and the Persistence of Celilo Village: “We Don’t ‘Come From’ Anywhere”

• Celilo spring ceremony for return of salmon: feast, music, dance, gambling
• 1952 changed atmosphere
• 36 families moved due to Dalles inundation
• First Salmon ceremony stability
• year-round residents followed seasonal cycles + regional fishers and Wyam; fluctuating population due to cultural relocation
• Tommy Thompson: appointed salmon chief
  • fighting for treaty rights
  • Marshall Dana and Martha McKeown
  • drew attention to issues
• C.G. Davis: BIA subagent “rivaling” Thompson
• John Whiz, no authorization, Yakama fisher: 1940 “rehabilitation” request to DC and back; used by Roy Taylor for campaign

cleanup and restoration

• 1929: Dalles Chamber of Commerce proposals for health cleanup, assimilationism, termination, culminating in inundation
• poverty discrimination and blame
• modernization and civilization; protests to assimilation
• New Celilo protests
• reasons to relocate: “rocky soil” and sewage costs, highway expansion
• 1956: 50 families applied for aid; 36 qualified
• Mid-April: 17 negotiated homes, 12 finding homes, 3 contemplating, 1 waiting for eligibility
• August: 2 finding homes
• 5 of 36 families moved to New Celilo, all families without children; others moved to Gresham, Dalles, Washington State, reservations
• fragmented community; nuclear families emphasized
• 1957 inundation
• Thompson death 1959; “death of Celilo Falls”
• “I hope you can understand. We don't 'come from' anywhere; this is where we were born, this is where we lived all our lives and we don't want to leave.”