Ancient Indian Fishing Grounds

Before dams controlled the Columbia River, Wyam Falls, now called Celilo Falls, was a raging torrent where a drop of more than 20 feet and sheer basalt bluffs forced the river into seething rapids. From time immemorial, this region was the fishing ground of all Indian tribes of the middle Columbia River area. Early Indians speared large salmon from the rocks, and later their descendants built platforms over the rushing water and gathered fish with long-handled nets. In 1855 treaties between the tribes and the United States, these fishing grounds and the right to take fish from the Columbia River were reserved. Dam construction beginning in the 1930s permanently changed the river, and when The Dalles Dam was completed in 1957, the basin behind it filled above the falls and inundated the fishing grounds. Treaty-reserved fishing rights, however, continue to be exercised by Indian people of the middle Columbia River area, and the loss of Wyam Falls did not end the Indian way of life.

Oregon · United States