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Documentary on Celilo Falls to Air on Oregon Public Broadcasting by Mark Floyd, OSU Medford News, July 6, 2006

CORVALLIS, Oregon - Nearly 50 years ago after The Dalles Dam backed up the Columbia River and eliminated the historic Native American fishery at Celilo Falls, a documentary film produced at Oregon State University on the falls will air on Oregon Public Broadcasting three times in July.

For millennia the falls was the great fishery on the mid-Columbia River, drawing Indians from throughout the West to trade for salmon. But in 1957 the federal government began operation of a giant hydroelectric dam at The Dalles that drowned Celilo Falls and ended the fishery there.

Through a combination of rare historic films and photographs, the documentary - "Celilo Falls and the Remaking of the Columbia River" - provides a glimpse of the life at Celilo Falls as it once was. It also considers the cultural, social and political forces that brought about its end, signaling a new era in the relationship between Northwestern residents and nature.

OPB broadcasts are scheduled for Wednesday, July 12, at 10:30 p.m.; Friday, July 14th at 4:30 a.m.; and Sunday, July 16, at 2:30 p.m.

The film was written, edited and produced by Joseph Cone of the Oregon Sea Grant program at OSU. Cone is also author of "A Common Fate: Endangered Salmon and the People of the Pacific Northwest." A DVD version of the 30-minute Celilo documentary is available for $19.95 from Oregon Sea Grant, 322 Kerr Administration Bldg., OSU, Corvallis, OR 97331.