Death of Celilo Falls

The purpose of this essay is to examine and analyze Katrine Barber’s book, “Death of Celilo Falls”. In this book, Barber successfully seeks to tell the story of a momentous event in the history of the West, the building of the Dalles Dam in 1957. Celilo Falls was part of a nine-mile area of the Long Narrows on the Columbia River. Despite the fact that the Celilo Village still survives to this day in the state of Oregon (it is the state’s oldest continuously inhabited town), the assembly of The Dalles Dam in 1957 changed the way of life for the surrounding areas forever. Barber tells this story very well, and as it is the first book-length account of the inundation of Celilo Falls, it is a very valuable and insightful look at an influential event in the history of the American West. Barber’s purpose for writing the book is summed up in the introductory chapter of the book when she says, “…this book examines what happened to two neighboring communities when a large public dam was built adjacent to them.” (pg. 9). She goes on to say “This is not a story about impersonal federal force swooping down to rearrange two defenseless communities: it explores relationships between federal representatives and local residents, as well as between residents of The Dalles and Celilo Village.” (pg. 9). Barber argues that the Columbia River and those living in its vicinity would never again be the same. The effects of the building of the dam have impacted society up until this very day, with Barber describing the dam as “a tangible reminder if the complexity of Indian-white treaties and their ongoing negotiation, the simultaneous promise and destruction of progress, the loss of a natural river and the life it sustained, and the transformative power of the market economy.” (pg. 13).

Barber begins the book in Chapter One by giving a background on the two communities being affected by construction of the Dalles Dam, Celilo Village and The Dalles. She also explains the differences in thinking between the two communities. The Dalles wanted the increased “modernity and economic security that a federal dam and professional river management promised.”(pg.14). The mid-size town was “on the verge of expansion and growth” (pg. 27) and supported the projects that “would make the city the “gateway” between Portland and the cities of the interior Northwest.” (pg. 27). The Celilo Village and other surrounding Indians, however, saw the building of the dam as an encroachment upon their resources. The building of the dam would adversely affect the fishing industry which was vital to the native people’s interests. She goes on to describe the natives’ belief that they had a right to decide how the resources were used as well, describing on pages 20 through 25, the ancient, thriving community that the natives had prior to white settlement. According to Barber, the relations between the two communities were not entirely friendly, especially since “The Dalles and its non-Native residents displaced older Indian communities, both economically and culturally.” (pg. 27) The interactions between the two communities were laced with racism and there was not much inter-mingling. Therefore, when the proposal of the Dalles Dam came through, the people of The Dalles did not see the rights of the Indians as important, especially since the dam would bring with it great benefits. Chapter One gives the reader an insightful look into the history of the two towns as well as the conflict between each, and by doing so argues that Celilo Falls was no different, socially speaking, than other places in the American West where there were tensions between Indians and white settlers. This argument is summed up by one sentence in the beginning of the first chapter where she writes, “Although The Dalles Dam would negatively affect a relatively small group of Indian people in a still lightly populated region removed from the centers of national power, it represented a continuing history of federal Indian removal and the appropriation of Indian wealth by non-Indian people.”

Chapter Two begins to take a more in depth look at conflicts over ownership of river space in the region. By giving detailed background information on these conflicts, Barber shows why those who were vehemently opposed to the dam felt that had a right to have a say in how the land/water was to be used, as it would greatly affect their livelihood. In Chapter Three, Barber begins to discuss in some detail, the debates for and against the dam. Barber argues that there was “overwhelming” support for the dam from large segments of the regional and national population. These supporters of the dam were looking to reap the economic benefits that this dam would bring, particularly electricity and becoming a ‘gateway’ for the rest of the west and the eastern areas. As far back as the 1920s, the federal government envisioned