Youthful Memories Shine Light on Celilo Life The Dalles Chronicle Sunday, March 11, 2007 Part 1 (transcription) George W. Aguilar Sr., of Warm Springs is the award-winning author of "When the River Ran Wild." He will speak at the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center on Saturday, March 17, as part of Celilo Falls observances. The following are excerpts from a memoir expected to appear this summer in the Oregon Historical Society's quarterly issue. His book is available at Klindt's Book Sellers. Part 2 of Aguilar's stories, "Celilo Falls: 1920s-1930s" will appear in Monday's Chronicle By George Aguilar for The Chronicle. With the dawning of the 50-year anniversary of the Celilo Falls flooding of March 10, 1957, all of the Columbia River Gorge's breathtaking sights are now submerged under the lifeless backed up waters behind the Bonneville and The Dalles Dams. Today young people can still hear the stories of the centuries-old Celilo Falls as told by the few remaining old timers. Declining from remembrance are the few elders who fished at Spearfish and Celilo Falls. The oral history and memory of the falls is in danger of disappearing. Spearfish, Cascade Rapids, and the Celilo Falls Village, and the deep foundation of culture that once existed will someday live only on the white man's talking paper. I have always had a strong lure to the River region, a sort of a well-regarded bond, perhaps because of the ancestral connections of my people to The Dalles and Cascade Rapids. Many of my relatives have been engulfed in this sacred river of the homeland of my ancestors. The contribution I can give on the Celilo topic is a memoir of the area when I was a child. There are also some sporadic periods when I participated in the fishery at the Five-Mile Rapids and Celilo Fishery during my late teen years. The ravaged fishing sites, from Wot'socs to the Celilo Falls, belonged to families from Yakama and Warm Springs who came to the river annually. The owners of the fishing stations are the only people who lost much, and they to this day lament for the rich and robust way of life that vanished under the backwater of the dams. 1935 visit to Celilo: During the winter's turbulent weather is when history was taught and legends told. Grandmother often recited the activities that were handed down from the peoples that passed on before her time. Some times she related her childhood experiences and so forth. These cherished tales often come cascading down from about 72 years ago, and I'm reminded of the stories she told of When the River Ran Wild! The bountiful salmon runs that once existed on the Columbia River. The explanations for the stern steam boat rides up and down the Columbia River during the early 1900s. Grandmother told of the first automobile rides on the then new Columbia Historic Highway, and these automobile and stern wheel boat rides sounded very adventurous. Not knowing anything about the outside world, Grandmother's stories were newfound to my young mind and were very intriguing. Some of those stories of her experiences and early life have faded away like the silenced Five Mile Rapids and Celilo Falls. Around the fall of 1935, Uncle Henry Polk brought us to Celilo Village, where he was residing with Minnie and Abe Show-a-way. Minnie's mother was also there; these families lived at the Celilo Village the year round, and were permanent residents of Celilo. Incoming and Outgoing messages protected by Trend Micro PC-cillin program