Childhood Memories of Fishing at Celilo Falls

Abstract

ALLEN V. PINKHAM, SR. Childhood Memories of Fishing at Celilo Falls MY LIFEHAS BEEN FILLEDwithpleasant memoriesofhuntingandfish ingwith my father and brothers, which I can first remember doing as a boy of four or five years of age. All my brothers are older than I am? Albert, Alex, Jr., Alfred, and Alvin; I am theyoungest, born January 24,1938.We have lost our oldest brother Albert, who fished at Celilo formany years prior to the inundation. Our grandfather JohnnyPinkham and fatherAlex Pinkham also fished there.The familywas blessed with four sisters?Audrey, Priscilla, Loretta, and Bernadine. We have lost three, and Loretta is our remaining sister.Our mother was Annette Blackeagle Pinkham. My fatherwould at times tell me and my brothers of the olden times and ways of our people. He would say things that didn't make sense tome as a young boy but that I came to understand as very important lessons later in life.He would say, "Don't be afraid ifyou see or feel something you don't understand. You may see what you think is a ghost but is not. You hear a noise and nothing is there.A figure or person appears then isgone." He said, "These aremessengers that carry something foryou, you may not realize it until later. So don't be afraid." This iswhat happened tome as a young boy of about ten years of age in 1948, on the Clearwater River at a place called Cewekte (pronounced sa week tah),my mother's home place. Itwas well past midnight in June, when summer thunderstorms could occur suddenly. I suddenly awoke to a roaring and thunderous sound and quickly sat upright inmy bed. I thought it was thunder and lightning, but itwasn't. The sound soon quit, and therewas only silence. I looked out thewindow. Itwas dark and silent outside. Even thehouse was silent and no one moved about. There was no rain or thunder This essay isadapted from a talkAllen V. Pinkham, Sr.,gave at the aCelilo Sto ries" conference inThe Dalles, Oregon, in March 2007. OHQ vol. 108, no. 4 ? 2007 Oregon Historical Society The personfishing on the leftisusing a techniqueknown as "roping."These islands could bepart ofa setofsmall islands that were just upriverfrom theS.P.& S. Railway Bridge. at all, and everyone was sleeping. I thought therewas no reason tobe afraid, and Iwent back to sleep. Itwas later that I came to understand what this sound and silence meant. As I grew up, Iwould become very accustomed to the sounds of the falls and the sounds of lifeas the people caught, cooked, and cured the eels and salmon at Celilo. During 1949,my brother Alvin and I moved with our father to theYakama Indian Reservation to start a new life therewith our stepmother Elsie Cree. Alvin and Ihad chosen to be with our father after our parents' divorce. But after a year or two,Alvin went back toCewekte on theClearwater River tobe with our older sisterAudrey. I remained with Elsie and my new stepbrothers and stepsisters on theYakama reservation, much closer to Celilo Falls.We always had pleasant and happy times camping in themountains and going toCelilo for salmon and eels. During the early 1950s,we moved each summer to Celilo Village and camped with my uncle JoePinkham and his wife Ida. Uncle Joe also had a large family and children nearly the same age as we were. I paired up with my brother-cousin Wally (Irvin) Pinkham. We went most places together Pinkham,Memories ofCelilo Falls 587 at Celilo. We would go to the islands on cable cars that the fish buyers had set up to buy fish from fishermen working there. We would watch salmon being caught by the dozens as themen fished. This, of course, was when the salmon and steelhead were running at the peak of the season. The air at the falls above Chinook Rock would be filled with three or four salmon jump ing at the same time. The Salmon people were gathering to offer themselves to their relatives, the human beings. The men at Chinook Rock would be catching a salmon at nearly every dip of their nets. The men at the hanging scaffolds...