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• 1. [Article] The Columbia River's fate in the twentieth century

  Discusses the history of the Columbia River during the 20th century, emphasizing the image of the river as both a source of industry and an example of wild natural beauty. In 1933 the river was dammed ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: The Columbia River's fate in the twentieth century Author: Lang, William L. Year: 2000 Discusses the history of the Columbia River during the 20th century, emphasizing the image of the river as both a source of industry and an example of wild natural beauty. In 1933 the river was dammed to harness its power for hydroelectricity and control its unpredictable flooding. With the completion of the dams in the 1970's, however, came problems with the edenic vision of the river, especially with the annual salmon run. By the late 20th century, the salmon had all but disappeared, leading to an ongoing conflict between supporters of the dams and conservationists. Title: The Columbia River's fate in the twentieth century Author: Lang, William L. Year: 2000 Discusses the history of the Columbia River during the 20th century, emphasizing the image of the river as both a source of industry and an example of wild natural beauty. In 1933 the river was dammed to harness its power for hydroelectricity and control its unpredictable flooding. With the completion of the dams in the 1970's, however, came problems with the edenic vision of the river, especially with the annual salmon run. By the late 20th century, the salmon had all but disappeared, leading to an ongoing conflict between supporters of the dams and conservationists. Close

• 2. [Article] "As Long as the Mighty Columbia River Flows": The Leadership and Legacy of Wilson Charley, a Yakama Indian Fisherman

  On March 10, 1957, the United States Army Corps of Engineers completed The Dalles Dam and inundated Celilo Falls, the oldest continuously inhabited site in North America and a cultural and economic hub ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: "As Long as the Mighty Columbia River Flows": The Leadership and Legacy of Wilson Charley, a Yakama Indian Fisherman Author: Hedberg, David-Paul Brewster Year: 2017 On March 10, 1957, the United States Army Corps of Engineers completed The Dalles Dam and inundated Celilo Falls, the oldest continuously inhabited site in North America and a cultural and economic hub for Indigenous people. In the negotiation of treaties between the United States, nearly one hundred years earlier, Indigenous leaders reserved access to Columbia River fishing sites as they ceded territory and retained smaller reservations. In the years before the dam's completion, leaders, many of who were the descendants of earlier treaty signatories, attempted to stop the dam and protect both fishing sites from the encroachment of state and federal regulations and archaeological sites from destruction. This study traces the work of Wilson Charley, a Native fisherman, a member of the Yakama Nation's Tribal Council, and great-grandson of one of the 1855 treaty signatories. More broadly, this study places Indigenous actors on a twentieth-century Columbia River while demonstrating that they played active roles in the protest and management of areas affected by The Dalles Dam. Using previously untapped archival sources--a substantial cache of letters--my analysis illustrates that Charley articulated multiple strategies to fight The Dalles Dam and regulations to curtail Native's treaty fishing rights. Aiming to protect the 1855 treaty and stop The Dalles Dam, Charley created Native-centered regulatory agencies. He worked directly with politicians and supported political candidates, like Richard Neuberger, that favored Native concerns. He attempted to build partnerships with archaeologists and landscape preservationists concerned about losing the area's rich cultural sites. Even after the dam's completion, he conceptualized multiple tribal economic development plans that would allow for Natives' cultural and economic survival. Given the national rise of technological optimism and the willingness for the federal government to terminate its relationship with federally recognized tribes, Charley realized that taking the 1855 treaty to court was too risky for the political climate of the 1950s. Instead, he framed his strategies in the language of twentieth-century conservation, specifically to garner support from a national audience of non-natives interested in protecting landscapes from industrial development. While many of these non-native partners ultimately failed him, his strategies are noteworthy for three reasons. First, he cast the fight to uphold Native treaty rights in terms that were relevant to non-natives, demonstrating his complex understanding of the times in which he lived. Second, his strategies continued an ongoing struggle for Natives to fish at their treaty-protected sites, thereby documenting an overlooked period between the fishing rights cases of the turn of the twentieth century and the 1960s and 1970s. Charley left a lasting legacy that scholars have not recognized because many of his visionary ideas came to fruition decades later. Finally, my analysis of Charley's letters also documents personal details that afford readers the unique perspective of one Indigenous person navigated through a tumultuous period in the Pacific Northwest and Native American history. Title: "As Long as the Mighty Columbia River Flows": The Leadership and Legacy of Wilson Charley, a Yakama Indian Fisherman Author: Hedberg, David-Paul Brewster Year: 2017 On March 10, 1957, the United States Army Corps of Engineers completed The Dalles Dam and inundated Celilo Falls, the oldest continuously inhabited site in North America and a cultural and economic hub for Indigenous people. In the negotiation of treaties between the United States, nearly one hundred years earlier, Indigenous leaders reserved access to Columbia River fishing sites as they ceded territory and retained smaller reservations. In the years before the dam's completion, leaders, many of who were the descendants of earlier treaty signatories, attempted to stop the dam and protect both fishing sites from the encroachment of state and federal regulations and archaeological sites from destruction. This study traces the work of Wilson Charley, a Native fisherman, a member of the Yakama Nation's Tribal Council, and great-grandson of one of the 1855 treaty signatories. More broadly, this study places Indigenous actors on a twentieth-century Columbia River while demonstrating that they played active roles in the protest and management of areas affected by The Dalles Dam. Using previously untapped archival sources--a substantial cache of letters--my analysis illustrates that Charley articulated multiple strategies to fight The Dalles Dam and regulations to curtail Native's treaty fishing rights. Aiming to protect the 1855 treaty and stop The Dalles Dam, Charley created Native-centered regulatory agencies. He worked directly with politicians and supported political candidates, like Richard Neuberger, that favored Native concerns. He attempted to build partnerships with archaeologists and landscape preservationists concerned about losing the area's rich cultural sites. Even after the dam's completion, he conceptualized multiple tribal economic development plans that would allow for Natives' cultural and economic survival. Given the national rise of technological optimism and the willingness for the federal government to terminate its relationship with federally recognized tribes, Charley realized that taking the 1855 treaty to court was too risky for the political climate of the 1950s. Instead, he framed his strategies in the language of twentieth-century conservation, specifically to garner support from a national audience of non-natives interested in protecting landscapes from industrial development. While many of these non-native partners ultimately failed him, his strategies are noteworthy for three reasons. First, he cast the fight to uphold Native treaty rights in terms that were relevant to non-natives, demonstrating his complex understanding of the times in which he lived. Second, his strategies continued an ongoing struggle for Natives to fish at their treaty-protected sites, thereby documenting an overlooked period between the fishing rights cases of the turn of the twentieth century and the 1960s and 1970s. Charley left a lasting legacy that scholars have not recognized because many of his visionary ideas came to fruition decades later. Finally, my analysis of Charley's letters also documents personal details that afford readers the unique perspective of one Indigenous person navigated through a tumultuous period in the Pacific Northwest and Native American history. Close

• 3. [Article] Saving the Yellowstone

  The Yellowstone River remains the only major free-flowing stream in the lower 48 states. Defenders of free-flowing status argue that benefits derived from maintaining the historic river surpass those gained ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Saving the Yellowstone Author: Lang, William L. Year: 1985 The Yellowstone River remains the only major free-flowing stream in the lower 48 states. Defenders of free-flowing status argue that benefits derived from maintaining the historic river surpass those gained through dams. The 1973 Montana Water Use Act placed water allocation in the state's hands, and the 1974 Yellowstone Moratorium gave the state three years to determine the Yellowstone's future. The Montana Fish and Game Department requested maintenance of the instream flow to protect the fisheries and the river, and the state Natural Resources board partially granted the request, thereby preventing dams on the Yellowstone. Title: Saving the Yellowstone Author: Lang, William L. Year: 1985 The Yellowstone River remains the only major free-flowing stream in the lower 48 states. Defenders of free-flowing status argue that benefits derived from maintaining the historic river surpass those gained through dams. The 1973 Montana Water Use Act placed water allocation in the state's hands, and the 1974 Yellowstone Moratorium gave the state three years to determine the Yellowstone's future. The Montana Fish and Game Department requested maintenance of the instream flow to protect the fisheries and the river, and the state Natural Resources board partially granted the request, thereby preventing dams on the Yellowstone. Close

• 4. [Article] The meaning of falling water: Celilo Falls and the Dalles in historical literature

  Discusses the changing meaning attached to Celilo Falls and The Dalles and how these places were represented in the published literature from the 1807 edition of Lewis and Clark Expedition sergeant Patrick ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: The meaning of falling water: Celilo Falls and the Dalles in historical literature Author: Lang, William L. Year: 2007 Discusses the changing meaning attached to Celilo Falls and The Dalles and how these places were represented in the published literature from the 1807 edition of Lewis and Clark Expedition sergeant Patrick Gass's journal through the 2006 publication of Joseph C. Dupris, Kathleen S. Hill, and William Rodgers, Jr.'s 'The Si'lailo Way: Indians, Salmon, and Law on the Columbia River.' The article examines many topics, including early Euro-American incursions, the changes wrought by the Native American land cessions in 1855, and the development of hydroelectric power on the Columbia River, particularly The Dalles Dam, completed in 1957, which destroyed ancient Native American fishing grounds. Title: The meaning of falling water: Celilo Falls and the Dalles in historical literature Author: Lang, William L. Year: 2007 Discusses the changing meaning attached to Celilo Falls and The Dalles and how these places were represented in the published literature from the 1807 edition of Lewis and Clark Expedition sergeant Patrick Gass's journal through the 2006 publication of Joseph C. Dupris, Kathleen S. Hill, and William Rodgers, Jr.'s 'The Si'lailo Way: Indians, Salmon, and Law on the Columbia River.' The article examines many topics, including early Euro-American incursions, the changes wrought by the Native American land cessions in 1855, and the development of hydroelectric power on the Columbia River, particularly The Dalles Dam, completed in 1957, which destroyed ancient Native American fishing grounds. Close

• 5. [Article] Beavers, firs, salmon, and falling water: Pacific Northwest regionalism and the environment

  Discusses the importance of salmon in defining environmental understanding in the Pacific Northwest. Dam construction, population influx, economic development, and politics have dramatically changed the ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Beavers, firs, salmon, and falling water: Pacific Northwest regionalism and the environment Author: Lang, William L. Year: 2003 Discusses the importance of salmon in defining environmental understanding in the Pacific Northwest. Dam construction, population influx, economic development, and politics have dramatically changed the geography of Oregon Country since 1850. The technological alterations and population growth redefined the sense of place. However, salmon has remained the most important icon of the Pacific Northwest, both for Native Americans and for nonnatives have who worked to save the salmon from extinction. Salmon have become a "living metaphor" for the region, and their fate reflects an understanding of historical context and the role of people in their relationship to the environment in this particular region. Title: Beavers, firs, salmon, and falling water: Pacific Northwest regionalism and the environment Author: Lang, William L. Year: 2003 Discusses the importance of salmon in defining environmental understanding in the Pacific Northwest. Dam construction, population influx, economic development, and politics have dramatically changed the geography of Oregon Country since 1850. The technological alterations and population growth redefined the sense of place. However, salmon has remained the most important icon of the Pacific Northwest, both for Native Americans and for nonnatives have who worked to save the salmon from extinction. Salmon have become a "living metaphor" for the region, and their fate reflects an understanding of historical context and the role of people in their relationship to the environment in this particular region. Close

• 6. [Article] Contested Visions of Place: People, Power, and Perception on the Columbia's North Shore, 1805-1913

  This is a narrative of place, of intersections between people, power, and perception of landscape. The environs of the Columbia River Gorge create a very distinct sense of place. Where once a series of ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Contested Visions of Place: People, Power, and Perception on the Columbia's North Shore, 1805-1913 Author: Sinclair, Donna Lynn Year: 2004 This is a narrative of place, of intersections between people, power, and perception of landscape. The environs of the Columbia River Gorge create a very distinct sense of place. Where once a series of three rapids - the Cascades of the Columbia - blocked industrial upriver transport, now Bonneville Dam and Locks allows smooth passage. To the north the vast 1.3 million acre Gifford Pinchot National Forest dominates the landscape. On the Columbia's banks lies the town of Stevenson, Washington, with Carson a few miles away, in a transitory ecological zone between east and west, at the forest's edge. There, community development has been manifestly influenced by human relationships to the landscape. Contested visions of place during the nineteenth century resulted in violent conflict and framed debates over place.Examining struggles over who would control access, first to the Cascades of the Columbia, and then to the timber of the Wind River Valley, provides a venue for examining power - of nature, ideas, and changing human cultures as overlapping groups imposed their views of the good life onto the landscape. As each successive group gained power, the relationships of humans to the land, and to one another, changed. By examining historic connections between river and forest, and between human communities to each, this study identifies multiple meanings of the same environment for different groups. I use a bioregional approach, exploring relationships between land, people and resources on the Columbia's north bank between 1805 and 1913. Power relations at the Cascades and in the forest were determined through conflict, negotiation, and the federal government, with the human relationship to nature influencing outcomes. Conflict often resulted from struggles over access to place, while human groups negotiated their place within the landscape. Nature privileged one group over another through disease, fire, and human perception, while the United States government co-opted place through public land laws, Indian removal, and by measuring and bounding the landscape. Who gained access to the river and forest of the Columbia's north shore, and how they did it, is the focus of this story. Title: Contested Visions of Place: People, Power, and Perception on the Columbia's North Shore, 1805-1913 Author: Sinclair, Donna Lynn Year: 2004 This is a narrative of place, of intersections between people, power, and perception of landscape. The environs of the Columbia River Gorge create a very distinct sense of place. Where once a series of three rapids - the Cascades of the Columbia - blocked industrial upriver transport, now Bonneville Dam and Locks allows smooth passage. To the north the vast 1.3 million acre Gifford Pinchot National Forest dominates the landscape. On the Columbia's banks lies the town of Stevenson, Washington, with Carson a few miles away, in a transitory ecological zone between east and west, at the forest's edge. There, community development has been manifestly influenced by human relationships to the landscape. Contested visions of place during the nineteenth century resulted in violent conflict and framed debates over place.Examining struggles over who would control access, first to the Cascades of the Columbia, and then to the timber of the Wind River Valley, provides a venue for examining power - of nature, ideas, and changing human cultures as overlapping groups imposed their views of the good life onto the landscape. As each successive group gained power, the relationships of humans to the land, and to one another, changed. By examining historic connections between river and forest, and between human communities to each, this study identifies multiple meanings of the same environment for different groups. I use a bioregional approach, exploring relationships between land, people and resources on the Columbia's north bank between 1805 and 1913. Power relations at the Cascades and in the forest were determined through conflict, negotiation, and the federal government, with the human relationship to nature influencing outcomes. Conflict often resulted from struggles over access to place, while human groups negotiated their place within the landscape. Nature privileged one group over another through disease, fire, and human perception, while the United States government co-opted place through public land laws, Indian removal, and by measuring and bounding the landscape. Who gained access to the river and forest of the Columbia's north shore, and how they did it, is the focus of this story. Close