Ancient Times

Ancient Times. . , During the last Ice Age, rushing floodwaters traveled southwest across the Columbia Basin, scouring the bedrock. They converged into the Columbia River Gorge and eventually emptied into the Pacific. As the Missoula Floods passed through the area of Crow Butte, the people fled to higher ground and lakes formed around the rising waters of Nčí Wána, the Columbia River. Archaeological sites show human occupation at the shores of those ancient lakes dating back 10-12,000 years., Family bands of this region were all related as Columbia River people and came to be known by a variety of tribal names. While the permanent winter villages and fishing sites around Crow Butte were used by many bands, the site lies within the historic territory of the Umatilla People (Imatalamtáma). Today, the Umatilla are grouped with the Walla Walla (Walúulapam) and the Cayuse (Weyíiletpu) as the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation., Trails and travel corridors from this portion of the Columbia River led to upland areas where tribal subsistence foods, materials, and medicines were gathered annually. The routes taken to gather these First Foods are called the seasonal rounds. In addition to fish, an important plant was also available in the area. Just east of Crow Butte, near the Umatilla National Wildlife Refuge, is a major gathering area for the hardstem bulrush plant, "tule" (Scirpus acutus/S.validus). Called tḱú in the Sahaptin language, it is the root of several nearby place names where this important resource has been gathered since pre-contact times. Woven tule mats were used to cover lodges and tipis, as bedding, and for feasting and funerary purposes. Tule reeds played a key role in historic tribal life here and still do., Crow Butte was home to rock images known as petroglyphs and pictographs. Now submerged under Lake Umatilla behind the John Day Dam, one of the images was a large sundisk figure with a tail like a serpent. Other symbols also represent suns, animals, and human figures., Tribal oral history, rock imagery, and the native place names all connect this land to dense populations of ancestors and to their descendants. Elders today still speak of the familial existence on the Columbia Plateau on a time continuum , "We have been in this place since time immemorial and we will always be here.", (Photo captions) , Effects of Ice Age Floods on the Columbia River Basin (courtesy Scott Burns, Cataclysms on the Columbia: The Great Missoula Floods)., Tule mat lodges in a winter fishing village scene (by Paul Kane, 1847, courtesy The Stark Museum of Art)., Tribal member demonstrates tule mat weaving (courtesy Tamástslikt Cultural Institute)., Drying sheds were common structures in fishing villages on the Columbia River (courtesy Tamástslikt Cultural Institute)., The First Foods and implements used in the seasonal rounds (courtesy Lynn Kitigawa, The First Oregonians)., Rock images on the Columbia River were once plentiful at Crow Butte (photo by Michael Taylor, Visions in the Mist).