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Significant Events in the History of Celilo Falls
compiled by the editors
| 25 million to 12 million years B.C.E. [Before the Common Era]: Massive lava flows create basalt formations of the Columbia Plateau.16,000 to 12,000 B.C.E.: "Missoula floods" form distinctive channels and scablands of The Dalles–Celilo reach.9300 to 8200 B.C.E.: Native people were harvesting salmon from the Columbia River at least as early as this time.*7,300 B.C.E.: Tiicáminsh Uytpamá Natítayt, also known as "the Ancient One" and "Kennewick Man," dies along the banks of the Columbia River.1700 ca.: "Tsagiglalal" (She Who Watches) and other Columbia River rock art created.1730 ca.: Cayuse and Nez Perce adopt the horse.1770–1780: First epidemics of smallpox strike Mid-Columbia River Indian communities.1792: British Captain Robert Gray explores the lower Columbia River and names it for his ship, the Columbia Rediva.1805: Columbia Basin Native communities host the Lewis and Clark Expedition on its way to the Pacific Ocean.1824: The Hudson's Bay Company fur trade operation establishes Fort Vancouver, relying on Indian alliances and labor.1838: Methodist missionaries open a station at Wascopam (The Dalles).1846: Britain cedes the Oregon Country to the United States after decades of joint occupation.1848: The U.S. Congress creates the Oregon Territory by passing the Oregon Territorial Act, which recognizes Indian rights to lands not yet ceded through treaty.1850: The U.S. Congress passes the Oregon Donation Land Act, promoting American settlement of the Oregon Territory.1853: The U.S. Congress creates Washington Territory, which became a state in 1889.1855: Treaties signed by representatives of the U.S. government and of indigenous groups (who will become the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, the Yakama Indian Nation, and the Nez Perce Tribe) extinguish Native title to millions of acres while reserving small landholdings and specific rights, particularly having to do with fishing, hunting, and gathering outside of reservations.1855 to 1858: Federal reservation policy and the discovery of gold in northeastern Washington spark "Plateau Indian Wars."1859: Congress ratifies Mid-Columbia treaties and grants Oregon statehood.1864: First salmon cannery on the Columbia River opens at Eagle Cliff in present day Wahkiakum County, Washington.1865: Fraudulent "Huntington Treaty" supposedly cedes Warm Springs treaty rights to fish, hunt, and gather at usual and accustomed places off-reservation.1873: For the first time, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACOE) dynamites obstruction to navigation in the Columbia River.1876: USACOE begins work on locks and canal to bypass rapids at The Cascades near present-day Bonneville Dam.1877: The Nez Perce War is fought.1879: The first fishwheel is built on the Columbia.1883: Columbia River salmon harvest peaks, then begins century-long decline.1887: Supreme Court of Washington Territory rules in U.S. v. Taylor that treaty Indians have a reserved right to cross private property in order to fish at usual and accustomed places.Congress passes the Dawes Severalty Act, allotting reservation enrollees individual sections of land and allowing "surplus" lands to be liquidated, resulting in the transfer of approximately two-thirds of reservation lands to non-Native landowners.1896: Seufert Brothers buys the first of its canneries at The Dalles.Cascades Canal, begun in 1878, is completed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.1905: U.S. Supreme Court decision in U.S. v. Winans upholds Yakama treaty fishing rights as "part of larger rights possessed by the Indians ... which were not much less necessary to the existence of the Indians than the atmosphere they breathed" (198 U.S. 371, 1905).1915: The Dalles-Celilo Canal and Columbia River Highway are completed.1919: U.S. Supreme Court decision in U.S. v. Seufert affirms that Yakama Nation members have fishing rights on the south side of the Columbia River.1929: Federal government purchases 7.4 acres of land at Celilo for use of Indian fishers.1930: Seufert Brothers Company constructs first cableway at Celilo Falls.1933: Rock Island Dam, the first dam on the mainstem Columbia is completed. Federal court decision in U.S. v. Brookfield Fisheries upholds Indian right to fish in "Downes Channel" at Celilo Falls but wrongfully excludes Nez Perce Tribe.1934: U.S. Congress passes the Indian Reorganization Act, which reverses the Dawes Severalty Act, beginning a federal policy shift toward tribal self-governance.1935: Celilo Fish Committee created by Umatilla, Warm Springs, and Yakama tribal councils and resident Columbia River Indians to settle tribal disputes at Celilo Falls.1937: Bonneville Power Administration established.1938: USACOE completes Bonneville Dam, flooding The Cascades and displacing Indian communities. The agency promises to build "in-lieu" fishing sites to replace those destroyed by the dam, a promise that is only partially fulfilled today.1941: The Bureau of Reclamation completes Grand Coulee Dam, without fish passages, thereby extinguishing salmon runs from 1,000 river miles on the Columbia River's upper reaches.1942: U.S. Supreme Court decision in Tulee v. Washington exempts treaty Indians from state fishing licenses.1940s to 1950s: Indian people on the Warm Springs, Umatilla, Yakama and Nez Perce reservations and those who had fishing rights along the mid-Columbia River protest the development of The Dalles Dam through the passage of resolutions, testimony before Congress, and meetings with federal agencies.1950: Congress authorizes construction of The Dalles Dam.1952 to 1955: USACOE and representatives from the Warm Springs, Umatilla, Yakama, and Nez Perce reservations negotiate a monetary settlement for the loss of fishing sites resulting from construction of The Dalles Dam.1953: The House of Representatives and the Senate pass House Concurrent Resolution 108, supporting "Termination" policy for reservations and tribes.1956: The Bureau of Indian Affairs awards a contract to construct new homes at Celilo Village to replace those that will be inundated by The Dalles Dam.1957: The Dalles Dam is completed, flooding The Narrows and Celilo Falls.1969: Federal district court decision in Sohappy v. Smith/U.S. v. Oregon affirms the right of Mid-Columbia treaty tribes to take "a fair and equitable share" of the salmon catch and to participate in management of the resource.1974: Judge George Boldt's ruling in U.S. v. Washington holds that Northwest treaty tribes have a right to fifty percent of the allowable salmon harvest. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Boldt decision in 1979.1976: Wy-Am Board created by Umatilla, Warm Springs, and Yakama tribes and Celilo's residents to discuss governance and community improvements at Celilo Village.1977: The Warm Springs, Yakama, Umatilla, and Nez Perce tribes form the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission to support their legal standing in river management.1982: David Sohappy, Sr., and eighteen other tribal members are charged with illegal fishing in "Salmonscam" sting operation. Sohappy was paroled from prison in 1988.1983: Lowest Columbia River salmon catch on record.1985: Council of Columbia River Indian Chiefs revived by Howard Jim, Frederick Ike, Sr., and Wilbur Slockish, Sr., to assert rights of off-reservation River People.2004: Congress authorizes Celilo Village Redevelopment project.2005: USACOE builds new longhouse at Celilo Village.2007: Fiftieth-anniversary memorial held at Celilo Village.
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* See Virginia L. Butler and Jim E. O'Connor, "9000 years of salmon fishing on the Columbia River, North America," Quaternary Research 62:1 (July 2004): 1–8.
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