Between 13,000 and 15,000 years ago, a series of huge catastrophic floods scoured this landscape as surging water and large pieces of ice ripped rock, sediment, and soil from everything that surrounds Horsethief Butte, which withstood the floods. Rising from the shores of the Columbia, Horsethief Butte stands as a monument to 300 generations of fishers and traders who claimed a plentiful living from Nch'i-Wána, the Big River. At its base, village life moved to the rhythm of changing seasons and returning salmon.