The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current, August 02, 2018, Page 16, Image 25

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    16 // COASTWEEKEND.COM
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Descendants of Chinook
gather for salmon ceremony
displaced thousands of years of relative
comfort, a lifestyle and philosophy old-
er than the Buddha or Jesus Christ. The
Chinook evaporated in such massive
numbers that, by the last part of the 19th
century, the pride of the few remaining
souls deteriorated like the morning fog
that clings to the riverbanks and pushes
westerly into the great gray ocean, then
burns away.
By DAVID CAMPICHE
FOR COAST WEEKEND
t’s a game of tides, this river of
ours — its ebb and flow and the
nocturnal whimsies of moon and
deep weeping currents. And storm. Or
perhaps a bluebird day, when the skies
are fine and deep and translucent.
Everything happens here if you sim-
ply wait a while. If you follow the Tao
of big water.
A new culture descended here about
200 years ago: those Finns, Swedes and
Norwegians, some Irish, some English
and, lest we forget, the Chinese, though
they got stuck with most of the dirty
work.
We were a country of immigrants.
They came in great numbers, from ev-
ery ethnicity, and they came for profit,
for opportunity, for gain. There was
plenty to pass around. These newcom-
ers simply had to take it from the people
who had lived here from time beyond
memory.
Quickly enough, the Bostons logged
out the magnificent virgin forests and
fished for the tens of millions of shim-
I
Sharing the Tyee
DAVID CAMPICHE PHOTOS
LEFT: Scott Seilor, a Chinook elder RIGHT: Chinook regalia BELOW: A canoe bearing
a Tyee (Chinook) salmon drifts toward Fort Columbia State Park.
mering silver salmon that rushed up the
great Columbia River in such numbers
that the Corps of Discovery, in 1805,
stared in disbelief.
And the Native peoples, the Chinook
and their brethren, also stared and won-
dered as their way of life was shattered
like split firewood. They fell into obliv-
ion, or the next thing to it. These white
men, these pioneers from far away,
On a recent Friday at high noon, de-
scendants of that great nation gathered
below Fort Columbia State Park and
threw a celebration for their talisman:
the Tyee or Chinook salmon. Tony
Johnson, chairman of these proud First
Peoples, proclaimed the gathering as
an way to honor the powerful fish that
fueled their economy for 10,000 years.
It was a remembrance. It was a how-do-
you-do to summer and those many-fac-
eted blessings.
Think about it: 10,000 years!
Stitching together a culture. Defend-
ing a culture. Honoring ancestors and
Continued on Page 22