Indians drying salmon by James M Davis, c1900

Celilo Village, Oregon is an unincorporated Native American community on the

Columbia River The Columbia River (Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, C ...

in northeastern Wasco County in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is near Lake Celilo, the former site of Celilo Falls; it is just south of the community of Wishram, Washington, across the Columbia River. In 2003 about 100 permanent residents lived in 14 dwellings. The site was once a major cultural and trading center, until Celilo Falls was inundated by The Dalles Dam in 1957. The 2000 census reported a total resident population of 44 persons living on a land area of 102.11

acre The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imp ...

s (0.4132 km). The United States Army Corps of Engineers provided funding for construction of a new tribal long house in 2006. Most residents of Celilo are members of either the Yakama Nation or

Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs is a recognized Native American tribe made of three tribes who put together a confederation. They live on and govern the Warm Springs Indian Reservation in the U.S. state of Oregon. Tribes The confederat ...

. Some may be members of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, or the Nez Perce tribe. Many residents are fishers engaging in ceremonial, subsistence, and commercial fisheries for salmon, steelhead, and

sturgeon Sturgeon is the common name for the 27 species of fish belonging to the family Acipenseridae. The earliest sturgeon fossils date to the Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretace ...

in the Columbia River. While the historic fishing site at Celilo Falls is gone, there is an "in lieu" fishing site provided by the Army Corps of Engineers that provides access for tribal members to the river. Most tribal fishing is done currently with gillnets or from platforms built along the river.

References

Celilo Village, Oregon
United States Census Bureau

External links

Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission
Native American history of Oregon Columbia River Gorge Unincorporated communities in Wasco County, Oregon Unincorporated communities in Oregon {{WascoCountyOR-geo-stub