Sacred Land News
For more than 12,000 years, native people inhabited several villages clustered around the roar of Wyam of N’ch-iwana — Celilo Falls on the Columbia River — the center of a vast salmon-based fishing and trading economy and the nucleus of many sacred sites, petroglyphs and burial grounds.
Celilo Falls was a natural wonder, by volume the largest waterfall in North America and the sixth largest in the world, and it was here that the Creator supplied the tribes with countless millions of salmon and other sustenance.
It was unthinkable that any of this would ever be lost. But in 1957, a dam was built downriver at The Dalles, Oregon, and Celilo Falls was flooded to facilitate barge traffic past the rapids and in an attempt to force the Wyam people to abandon their sacred sites and homes, as had been the fate of every other Indian village along the length of the Columbia.
So strong were the tribes’ connections to Celilo, however, that despite the many depredations they suffered, the Wyam people remained at Celilo Village, and have persevered as the oldest continuously inhabited settlement in North America. They await the return of Celilo Falls. Read more…
Leave a Reply
- Turning the Corner, Finish Line Ahead
- President Obama Needs to Hear from You!
- U.S. Government Acts to Protect Sacred Sites
- Colombian Leader Rogelio Mejia Survives Assassination Attempt
- Sneak Previews in Washington D.C. on March 23-24
- Thank You! We Met Our Goal of a $25,000 Matching Donation!
- Feds Drop Charges Against Winnemem
- Emily: To Rushe: I have been wondering the same thing. Back in 2011, does anyone have information about what happened...
- TOM: Fantastic submit, very informative. I’m wondering why the opposite experts of this sector do not notice...
- Michael: I really like it when folks come together and share opinions. Great blog, stick with it!
- Helena: Greetings, I was born in Colombia but at the age of 6 years old I was adopted and raised in the U.S. However,...
- Rushe Hudson: Has a petition to the White House been set up on the White House petition site?
