Greatest Indian Fishery of the Northwest

Greatest Indian Fishery of the Northwest. . Before The Dalles Dam was built, the Columbia River plunged over Celilo Falls and cut through the Narrows or Five Mile Rapids. Although obstacles to navigation, the falls created the region’s greatest fishing site. For more than 10,000 years Sahaptin and Chinookan peoples lined the shore and braved the currents to plunge dipnets into massive runs of fish. , Consistent winds enabled the Indians to wind-dry their catch. They filleted fish and hung them in plank-covered drying sheds. The Indians pounded the dried fish, wrapped it in fish skins, packed it in baskets, and raised these into stacks covered with matting. “Thus preserved,” wrote Clark, “those fish may be kept Sound and Sweet Several years.” , (side-bar, on right:) , Indians living along the Columbia tried to secure every piece of driftwood. The needed wood to frame their lodges, fish-drying structures, and burial vaults, as well as for fuel. At Miller Island, near the mouth of the Deschutes River, William Clark wrote: "we saw large logs of wood which must have been rafted sown the To war-ne hi ooks (Deschutes River)" The expedition bartered hard for scraps of firewood.