Celilo Memories Sharing

May 11, 2012

You are Invited to Share Your

Celilo Memories

When: Wednesday May 23, 2012, 1:30 - 4:30 p.m.

Where: Museum at Warm Springs, 2189 Highway 26, Warm Springs, OR, 97761

What: An Afternoon of Memory Sharing and Community

Why: Stories will become part of a multi-generational, online resource exploring the history and culture of Celilo Falls that is to be shared presently and with generations to come.

Who: Confluence Project, in partnership with the Museum at Warm Springs

For more information, contact Carol Leone, carol@museumatwarmsprings.org, 541-553-3331 or Donna Sinclair, donna@confluenceproject.org, 360-693-0123

Work for the Celilo Stories website project is underway. The goal? To provide a multi-generational resource that explores the history and culture of Celilo, explores environmental issues, and invites visitors at Celilo Park to listen and contribute to the many stories of Celilo. The content and online experience is being created through ongoing collaboration with Columbia River Tribes. The Celilo Stories website will serve as a virtual space to tell the stories of Celilo Falls- those of the past, the present, and into the future- connecting people along the river today while preserving the past.

On March 17, with the guidance of a website advisory committee including Native and non-Native experts, Confluence began a series of story sharing sessions. At the community's invitation, the first session took place in the longhouse at Celilo Village with more than 25 people attending. Celilo Village co-chiefs, Raymond Colfax and Olsen Meanus, and Columbia River chiefs Johnny Jackson and Wilbur Slockish, and other elders, adults, and youth from the village shared stories with website coordinator & historian, Donna Sinclair. Participants learned about the website project and listened to elders recount their vivid recollections of Celilo Falls and the village in days gone by. Their stories are intended to teach the next generation and to help them understand the significance of Celilo as a long-term home for the Wyam, Wishram, and Wasco people. These recollections of fishing and harvesting, working and playing, the village as a home that extended to the river, and the sacredness of the falls will help inform the website's development and interpretation at Celilo Park.

Two weeks later Vice Chairman Marcus Luke II invited Confluence staff to meet with elders at the Umatilla Indian Reservation's senior center. There they learned of the importance of Celilo Falls to those who fished there, the family relations that sustained upriver connections, and the role of the Falls in the seasonal rounds of daily life and making a living. Similar to the elders at Celilo Village two weeks earlier, the gathered group reflected on the sights and smells of the village, the roar of the falls, and the perpetual mist near the blustery waters.

Confluence is working to arrange similar community meetings at Yakama and Warm Springs in the month of May. Stay tuned for updates!