THE WISHRAM (YAKAMA)

When Europeans talk of their history in the Columbia River basin, their time frame is "hundreds of years;" when the Wishram talk of their history, their time frame is "hundreds of generations." For thousands of years they fished the waters near Celilo Falls, and for thousands of years the giving was good. They gave thanks to The Creator in the Ceremony Of The First Salmon when the first returning fish of each run leapt the falls. They fished with dip nets or bag nets, usually placed at the end of a long pole, or they might spear fish as they darted through the water. They didn't have to work too hard. There were plenty of fish. They did not take the "June Hogs" a run of Canadian Salmon often weighing 70 pounds or more. The meat was too hard for the women to fillet and often fell off the drying racks. They preferred salmon weighing 20 to 25 pounds. Each family had a "place" from which to fish, but the fish were plentiful and they would share their "place" with strangers. Should the host not be catching many fish, he would tap his butt twice. This was the signal for "enough." The stranger was expected to leave. Rare was the instance when strangers failed to heed. If only the White Man had understood the concept "enough" and paid heed, perhaps today the Columbia would be "crowded with salmon" as Lewis and Clark described it in 1805.

Celilo Falls became a great meeting place, a place for sharing culture and commerce. Coastal tribes would come from the west. The fish at Celilo were less oily and the drier climate allowed them to cure meat. The Nez Percé would come from the east to trade and fish. Celilo meat was better, for the fish were not so near their inevitable death. The Wishram and their neighbors built a vast trading network stretching for hundreds, perhaps thousands of miles.

When there were no fish the Wishram would hunt game or gather wild roots; or perhaps they would go to their sacred mountain, their "Pahto" (Mount Adams) to pray. Of course there were problems, there are no utopias; but the Columbia River People seemed to get along well enough without the interference of Europeans. But Europeans did interfere, bringing with them their ethics, their politics, their economics, and saddest of all, their diseases. When Lewis and Clark glided down the Columbia in autumn of 1805 there were perhaps fifty thousand Columbia River Indians. When the treaties were signed in 1855 less than one fifth that number survived.

Disease decimated the Wishram, but otherwise things were relatively quiet for four decades. The Indians traded with both French and Anglo trappers and fur companies. Then came the Treaty with Great Britain in 1846, and the Treaty og Guadeloupe Hidalgo in 1848, quickly followed be the discovery of gold in California. The stream of white settlers became a torrent. White and Indian ways did not mix. There was sporadic violence, often resulting in the destruction of an Indian village.

In 1853 Isaac Stevens was appointed territorial governor. He held no particular animosity toward Indians; in fact, he often expressed his admiration; but he wanted a stable place for White settlers and he wanted an intercontinental railroad terminating at Puget Sound. The Indians would have to go. In 1854 and 1855 he relentlessly pushed for a series of treaties that would confine Indians to smaller, and out of the way places. Smaller tribes would be confined together. It was easier to control them that way. Larger tribes would be divided so as to eliminate any military threat. A great council was convened in Walla Walla in late spring of 1855. There four treaties were concluded. The Wishram, now few in numbers agreed to settle on what is now the Yakama Reservation with thirteen other peoples. . A Yakama, Kamainkun was designated "head chief." For the price of $250m000, plus two schools, teachers' salaries, and $500 a year to house the Main Chief, the United States gained title to more than 13 million acres of land formerly occupied by the new Federated Tribe, not a bad deal at all for the Americans. Now that the Indians were out of the way, they could be left to languish. The Indian Agency cared so much about the tribes, they spelled their name "Yakima," not "Yakama," just another of those "little indignities," one which has only recently been rectified.

For a century and a quarter controversy swirled around the Treaty of 1855. Negotiations were conducted in ?Chinook." a combination of English, French, and Indian dialects with a limited vocabulary. Today there is general agreement that the words on paper differed significantly from the words used by Stevens to explain it, and differing yet again from the words the Indians "heard." As interpreted by Whites (who had the written words, courts, and guns) the Treaty left the Yakama with about 180, 000 acres less than they thought. Later Congress would declare the "cession, included Mount Adams. One thing the Indians knew well, though, was that the treaty said they could fish, hunt, and forage in their usual and accustomed places in common with whites on off-reservation lands. The Americans paid little heed to this clause (The Indians would soon disappear anyway.) Those few words, however, would have a dramatic impact on future events.

In 1866 the first of the huge canneries was opened on the Columbia. There followed a "cannery rush" almost as frenzied and environmentally damaging as any gold rush. The canneries would use Salmon wheels, contraptions which torrent a series of nets all across the river. At first the canners took only the choice Chinook, throwing the others away. The Indians were left with those few fish escaping the wheels. Others used purse seines and still others used huge boats with seines in the mouth of the river. Others plied their trade in the ocean.

By the late 1880's vigilant folk realized something bad was happening. The salmon, particularly the Chinook, were fewer in number. Fearful for profits the large canneries blamed Indians for the declining runs and sought to keep them from choice harvesting places. Beatings and killings were not uncommon. First Oregon, then Washington began to impose restrictions of fishing; they established seasons and limited the type of gear that could be used. The laws were seldom enforced, except of course when Indians were caught violating the law in off-reservation places. In the early 1900's the Win Brothers Cannery built fences in order to keep Indians from "trespassing" on their property near Big Eddy, a choice (and usual and accustomed place) about eight miles down river from Celilo Falls. The Government brought suit on behalf of the Indians. Whininess v. United States (see the section of fishing.) still serves as the foundation for "treaty rights."

Winans did not end the controversy, of course. State officials, if not state courts, tended to ignore it. Significant rhetoric, legislative "politicking," and litigation were employed in an attempt to determine who could regulate whom, and how much. The huge canneries began to disappear in the 1930's The tribes were left to fight with an emerging force of sport fishermen, and fight they did. What they didn't know was they were about to face a new and powerful enemy, the thirst for cheap power and the huge hydroelectric dams built to slake that thirst. If would take the sport fishermen and Indians barely forty years to realize they had a common cause.

Even before the 1930's the Bureau of Reclamation had been building dams to support irrigation projects, some of these having a detrimental impact on some of the tributaries; and private entities had been building structures to generate power. These projects were "peanuts" compared to what would come.

The first of the "mega" dams, the Rock Island, came on line in 1933. Unlike those to follow, Rock Island was constructed by a private firm. It failed to attract significant attention. Within two years construction began of two colossal projects, Bonnieville and Grand Coulee still today the pride of the Dam Builders. Pressured by fishermen and fisheries biologists, the Army Corp of Engineers reluctantly agreed to construct fish ladders. Despite predictions to the contrary, the ladders seemed to work when the first runs easily navigated them in the spring of 1938. Grand Coulee, built by the Bureau of Reclamation to service farmers, would be a different story. It was had too high for fish to get over it. No fish ladder could possibly work. Eleven hundred miles of prime spawning beds, home to the magnificent June Hogs would be destroyed. The Upper Columbia June Hogs would become extinct.

E S Curtis had once described the Wishram ad "indolent, though hospitable people, their character not displaying the manliness generated by hunting." Of course this was not true, but it exemplified a stereotype placed on Columbia River Indians. They didn't look "Indian" enough. They rode long boats, not horses; they lived in plank houses and dressed like whites. Perhaps it is this stereotype which helped the BIA look the other way when these dams were built. Both destroyed many important "usual and accustomed places." Indians were poorly compensated for this destruction.

World War ii temporarily dampened "dam fever," but it broke out again in the 1950's and would not subside until more than 400 major dams covered the basin.

Once some general rules were developed for determining "quantity" rights of various interests (see United States v. Oregon, and United States v. Washington), former antagonists have joined forces in an attempt to save the salmon. Their efforts have resulted in passage of the Northwest Power Planning Act. This legislation created the Northwest Power Planning Commission, charged with the task of developing a comprehensive plan for water use in the Columbia River Basin and requiring that preservation of the salmon and steelhead runs be given a high priority. This group consults with various interests, including the Yakama and other Tribes, and has had limited success. Dam operators have agreed to release extra water during juvenile salmon runs to the ocean, and the Army Corp and BuRec have reluctantly agreed to modify the structure of certain dams to prevent the killing of juvenile fish. The lynch pin of the plan has been the use of barges and trucks to transport fish around the worst of the "killing dams." This method is not favored by tribes and other conservationists. They call for increased water flow, to the point where the rivers are at the same level they were before the dams. Were this done, however, there would not be enough water for other users, particularly in the tributaries. No final agreement or comprehensive plan has been developed. There is widespread agreement that the salmon are in trouble and something should be done about it, but there are still conflicting view points as to how to go about it.

Frustrated by the lack of progress, the Columbia River Tribes have formed the Columbia River Inter Tribal Fish Commission. This group has developed its own plan, Wy-Kan-Ush-MiWa-Kish-Wit, for salmon restoration. This consortion is held in extremely high regard and has been a major force in bringing about progress.

Salmon still, and will, provided they do not go extinct, play a central role in the lives of the Yakama. Commercial fishing is still a major source of income; but the Yakama have begun to diversify. They have engaged in an environmental sensitive lumbering business. They are renowned for their orchards, flourishing on irrigated lands. They have an award winning "head Start" program and an excellent Children's Health Program. Their land, once remote, can now support a viable tourist trade. They are developing a gaming establishment. Just as important, the Yakama have regained control over their sacred Mount Adams, their Pahto.

Those who thought the Indians would fade into oblivion when Celilo Falls disappeared were wrong. The Yakama are alive and well. They perhaps have been more successful than most in changing as the times demand, yet retaining the core of their being. All is not perfect, the salmon are still in danger. The barges still transport the young salmon around the dams, not a sound long term practice. But the Tribes have gained considerable respect and "clout," and may yet prevail in their attempt to save the salmon. No, Mr. Curtis, the Wishram and their Confederates are not lazy and indolent. It is true they don't hunt buffalo or shoot bows and arrows (Who does?) but in all the ways that really count, they are the "true Indians."

TRIBESAICP