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.”