celilo blog

Still waters, stolen lives

Mon, 5 Mar 2007 09:30:18 -0800

The March 4th Sunday Oregonian included a great article about Celilo Village and the inundation of Celilo Falls. It was written by Eric Mortensen and included incredible photos by Tordsten Kjellstrand. You can read the article here.

Commemoration planning in full swing

Mon, 26 Feb 2007 17:33:13 -0800

The planning for the Celilo Village’s Celilo Commemoration is now in its final two weeks. The schedule is filling up fast with tribal, state, and government officials, including the area’s chiefs, chairmen and chairwomen from the area’s tribes, Oregon’s Governor Ted Kulongoski, and US Army Corps of Engineers General Strock. After the honoring ceremony and salmon dinner, there will be a traditional memorial for Celilo Falls, including a giveaway. Check back for more information and events as the anniversary approaches. You can also help make this event a reality by visiting www.celilowyam.org and making an online, tax-deductible donation by clicking on the “Donate” button in the upper right-hand corner.

Celilo Village commemoration

Mon, 12 Feb 2007 16:12:19 -0800

The Celilo Village’s commemoration event preparations are in full swing. The dates for the event are March 10 and 11, with the commemoration beginning with a Puyallup canoe landing on the banks of the Columbia River at Celilo. There are a host of invited speakers, ranging from chiefs, tribal elected officials, state and federal elected officials, and government representatives. The event will consist of three parts: the longhouse, where the official ceremonial activities and salmon dinners will take place, the village tent, for longhouse overflow and a powwow and stick games, and the Wy-Kan-Ush-Pum Village, where tribes, agencies, and organizations will set up presentations and demonstrations relating to Celilo history, tribal salmon culture, salmon restoration, and river health in tepees and a longhouse down by the river. You can read more about the event and volunteer or donate at www.celilowyam.org.

Great River of the West percussion concerto

Mon, 29 Jan 2007 16:57:19 -0800

On Saturday, the Portland Chamber Orchestra’s “All American” performance featured the world premiere of Pullman, Washington native Forrest Pierce’s percussion concerto “Great River of the West.” The piece was designed to convey the rich and varied path of the Columbia River and its tributaries on its powerful push to the ocean. Being from Pullman, Pierce chose to begin the journey with rain falling on the forests of the rugged Rocky Mountains of north central Idaho. This was accomplished through the use of Ponderosa pine branches, which the percussionist strummed, shook, and struck, creating the quiet sound of falling rain and wind in the forest. Innovative items were used all along the journey, with the central movement featuring Celilo Falls. “Where 10,000 years of fishermen greet 10,000 years of returning salmon.” The piece will be performed again by the same percussionist but accompanied by the Walla Walla Symphony. This performance, sponsored by the Tamástslikt Cultural Institute will be on Tuesday, March 6th. For more information, click here. We highly recommend it if you’re in the area!

Multnomah County Library Celilo exihibit

Wed, 10 Jan 2007 17:12:08 -0800

The Multnomah County Library is presenting a special exhibit in the John Wilson Special Collections from now until March 13, 2007. Titled "Celilo Falls : the 50th anniversary of the flooding of Wy-am,” this exhibit gleaned from its Oregon and Pacific Northwest collections consists of rare photographs, documents, maps and other materials, that show the importance to Native Americans and to the broader American society of Celilo Falls and other fishing sites on the Columbia River. Materials include a 1948 issue of Saturday Evening Post with cover art of Celilo Falls by John Atherton; and an original 19th-century photograph by Arthur B. McAlpin and Charles Y. Lamb of an Indian fisher near Celilo from the late 19th century. Other materials include William Clark's map from the rare first published account of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the 1814 "Biddle" edition; a small pamphlet that defends David Sohappy Sr. and others caught in the "Salmon Scam" in the 1980s; Stewart Holbrook's The Columbia (1956); and a one-of-kind court document of Native testimony about fishing rights on the Columbia near the Dalles from 1916. The exhibition is on view when the John Wilson Special Collections is open: Tuesday 2:30-5:30; Wednesday 3:30-7:00; Friday 10:00-2:00; Saturday 2:30-6:00 For more information contact Jim Carmin, John Wilson Special Collections Librarian, Multnomah County Library, 801 SW 10th Avenue, Portland, OR 97205; 503-988-6287; jimc@multcolib.org

New Celilo photos added to the gallery

Thu, 4 Jan 2007 14:23:06 -0800

Four new photos have just been added to the growing Celilo Falls gallery. If you have any information about them, please add a comment so we can add it to our archive.

Great River of the West

Tue, 2 Jan 2007 11:13:02 -0800

The Portland Chamber Orchestra is performing “The Great River of the West” as part of their “All American” concert on January 27, 2007. The percussion concerto celebrates the Columbia River, and the second movement, titled “Blood Red Chinook,” celebrates Celilo Falls. Here is a description of the concerto by the composer, Walla Walla-native Forrest Pierce: As a recent Portlander, I can understand Oregonians' image of the river as the highway of the mountains, the great knife that splits the Cascades and runs to the sea. But for me, growing up in sight of the Idaho Rockies, the Columbia was the river that drained the desert, a blue dialectic of wet and dry, the cold water of the Rockies under a fierce desert sun. We knew as kids that the creek behind our house, brown with Palouse topsoil, would end up in Astoria. We just didn't have a good concept of how much water would be joining it. So this is the conceit of the piece: a drop of water falls high in the Idaho bitterroots, along the divide, and gathers speed as it moves toward Astoria. It passes the great ponderosa groves along the clearwater, where the Nez Perce made giant canoes for navigating the waterways. We hear the scraping and chopping of the timber, and the spash of a hundred-foot canoe entering the water. Cadenzas move us downstream to Celilo, where the Chinook are throwing themselves at the falls, their red bodies clanging like angry metal in the sunlight. Lastly, we meet the ocean, where great whale songs meet the cold freshwater in the deep shelves off the coast. Imagine what Rocky Mountain water must taste like to a passing orca pod: pines, little far-off trout, brown Palouse loess, a billion acres of basalt and dust and sun. This was the contrast I was after in the piece, since the percussionist, Mark Goodenberger, is an Astorian. He takes the trip for us, from sky to rock, to tree, to sea. You can find out more information and buy tickets at the Portland Chamber Orchestra’s website.