Oregon Voices Eliza ElkinsJones Telling the History of a Shattered Culture AnInterview withGeorge W.Agnilar, Sr. Blending research and recollection, Warm Springs tribal elder George W. Aguilar, Sr.,has written a history of his people. For over a decade, Aguilar?a man who has no formal training as a historian orwriter?has spent hours researching, writing, and editingWhen theRiver Ran Wild! Indian Traditions on the Mid-Columbia and theWarm Springs Reservation (published in June 2005 by theOregon Historical Society Press in association with theUniversity ofWashington Press). Aguilar's book is an exceptionally personal work of historical scholarship, written primarily to help his grandchildren understand where they are from. I recently spoke with Aguilar about how and why he wrote the book and what his hopes are for its readers. The stories he told reveal his desire that the book provide the next generations a continuity with the past, giving them a historically grounded identity likewhat he was able to develop growing up in Wolford Canyon on the Warm Springs Reservation/ Aguilar was born in 1930 and was raised by his grandmother, Hattie Polk, who taught him the traditional ways of his people, including the Klickitat *The interview with George W. Aguilar, Sr., took place on April 9, 2005, at the KWSO radio station inKah-Nee-Ta. Quotations in the introduction come from Aguilar's written responses to questions I sent him before the interview. The interview tapes and transcripts will be housed at the Oregon Historical Society Research Library in Portland. 272 OHQ vol. 106, NO. 2 ? 2005 Oregon Historical Society #2^ $Z?^ 90Mf INDIAN TRADITIONS ON THE MID-COLUMBIA Ui\d (tiC WARM SPRINGS RESERVATION Sahaptin language. Through her experience and knowledge, including stories she learned from her own grandmother, Aguilar gained an understanding of his people's history. Aguilar lived in Wolford Canyon until he was about eight years old. He toldme that his "inside world" in that remote place dif fered from the "outside world": Elkins Jones,Telling theHistory of a Shattered Culture 273 Insideworld to me was living ina remote area of the reservation.The Indian dietary foods was my insideworld. My pets, playing places on the hills, the small spring streamswas my insideworld. Accompanying Grandmother by horseback to the root-digging grounds and huckleberry fields in my veryyoung yearswas my inside world. Ihad no idea there were other people. I thoughtwe were theonly people_ During my early childhood years, it was so isolated therewas no electricity,run ning water, or inside plumbing. Almost every road on the reservationwas just a glorified large trailused mostly by horse-drawn wagons. The onlyway of crossing to theoutside world was crossing the Mecca Bridge. To me, observing everything else out of the location of the Wolford Canyon was theoutside world. In theoutside world, Ihad no idea that there were somany people, towns, and jackrabbits. Everythingwas so new, like crossing the large river ofDeschutes, the town ofMadras. Soda pop, ice cream, and even candywas the outside world. Stepping into theoutside world was a huge informativeand cultural shock.Beforemy school days, theonly avenue to theoutside world was an observa tion of World War Iphotos fromamagazine plastered all over thewalls of our old house tokeep theoutside winter air from infiltrating. In 1937,Aguilar moved to theWarm Springs Indian boarding school, where he and other students were not allowed to speak Indian languages and were not fed the Indian food towhich theywere accustomed. Gradually, Aguilar lost his knowledge ofKlikitat Sahaptin. At school, hemet other boys who knew their native languages, and sometime theywould stay up late at night and sing traditional songs to each other. School was not Aguilar's "cup of tea,"he says, and he leftat age fourteen. He worked physically demanding jobs, including fishing at the traditional places on theColumbia River in the late 1940s, where his father and grandfather had fished before him. In the fall of 1949, after the salmon runs ended, Aguilar joined theU.S. Army. He served for over three years. A service-connected disability put him in the Tacoma Indian Hospital. There he met Ella Kurip, aUte who worked at the hospital as a nurse. They married in 1955 and eventually had five children. In...