Youthful Memories Shine Light on Celilo Life The Dalles Chronicle March 12, 2007 By George W. Aguilar Sr 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. Henry (Polk) and Abe (Show-a-way) would bring several sacks of fall run Chinook salmon for the women to butcher, fillet and prepare for air drying. On the rickety homemade butchering table several salmon were quickly filleted into thin slices and were placed on the air drying racks. The roe (eggs) was also dried in this manner. The brightest, freshest and premium salmon were hand-picked for sale or reserved for trade to visiting tourists. A lot of times I sat and listened to the conversation involving grandmother and a very old blind lady (Minnie's mother) the language spoken was the Columbia River Sahaptin. The conversation usually entailed historical events of bygone times, places to get certain grasses for use in drying salmon and so forth. In general, it was just plan old lady talk. During this era, all conversation was in the Native American language, very little English was spoken. The English language was spoken only to vegetable and fruit trading people and visiting fish-buying tourists. There were several other people sharing and living in this same dry shed, and every one slept on the hard flat basalt rocks. These groups were relatives, and in-laws of the family. Each family group had their place in this open four-walled dry shed, and there were no wall partitions. They all slept in a row on the western wall of the dry shack. Each family slept, cooked, ate and stayed within the confines of their area. When the crack of dawn crowded out the night hours, and upon waking up, the bedding was neatly rolled up and placed against the walls. Incoming and Outgoing messages protected by Trend Micro PC-cillin program