A2
THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, AUGUST 23, 2022
IN BRIEF
Beachgoer dies in Seaside
SEASIDE — A beachgoer died on Saturday afternoon
after being pulled into a riptide in the area oﬀ Sixth Ave-
nue, the city said.
Rescuers recovered the unconscious victim, a man in
his 50s, from the ocean and took him to Providence Sea-
side Hospital, along with a teenage female who also got
caught in the current.
The man died; the teenager survived, the city announced
on Sunday.
Seaside Fire Chief Joey Daniels said the agency’s prac-
tice is not to release names of deceased individuals.
“We cannot stress the unpredictable dangers of the
ocean enough,” Genesee Dennis, division chief of preven-
tion for Seaside Fire & Rescue, said in a statement. “Our
thoughts and prayers go out to the family for their tragic
loss yesterday.”
A second water rescue took place oﬀ Avenue U later
on Saturday afternoon. A 27-year-old woman and a boy
reached shore safely.
About 16 swimmers in distress were pulled from the
ocean over the weekend, Daniels said.
“Seaside oﬃ cials wish to remind beachgoers that the
Paciﬁ c Ocean presents many dangers,” the city said in a
statement. “Please use extreme caution and always enter the
water with others present. Avoid areas prone to rip currents
and learn how to escape by swimming parallel to the beach.”
A riptide-related water rescue took place in Cannon
Beach, as well, on Saturday. The person did not require
medical attention, Cannon Beach Fire Chief Marc Reck-
mann said in a text.
Sixth Street viewing platform
closed over ferry risk
The Sixth Street viewing platform is closed until fur-
ther notice.
The city said the historic Tourist No. 2, which capsized
near the viewing platform in late July, shifted Sunday after-
noon and came to a rest against the base of the platform.
Astoria oﬃ cials said the viewing platform was closed
as a precaution while the city ensures no damage was
caused and no hazards are present.
—The Astorian
DEATH
In PLUMMER,
Brief Betty Aug. Ann, 19, 88, 2022 of Astoria, died in
Astoria. Caldwell’s Luce-Layton Mortuary of Astoria
is in charge of the arrangements.
Death
MEMORIALS
Friday, Aug. 26
Memorials
MAKI, William “Bill”
A. — Graveside service
at 3 p.m., Knappa Prairie
Cemetery, 92892 Knappa
Dock Road.
WATSON, Eugene R —
Celebration of life from 1 to
4 p.m., North Coast Family
Fellowship, 2245 N. Wah-
anna Road in Seaside.
Saturday, Aug. 27
CASWELL, Dwight
Allan Jr. — Memorial
service at 11 a.m., Char-
lene Larsen Center for
the Performing Arts,
588 16th St. A recep-
tion follows at around
12:30 p.m. at The Loft
at the Red Building, 20
Basin St.
CORRECTION
Incorrect ﬁ rst name — Kirsten Norgaard is the
Correction
owner of Kit’s Apothecary. Her ﬁ rst name was incor-
rectly spelled Kristen in an A1 story Saturday about
Kit’s moving into the former Abeco Oﬃ ce Systems
building on Commercial Street.
ON THE RECORD
Jessie Wardarski/AP Photo
For generations, Indigenous people have ﬁ shed for salmon and trout from scaﬀ olds perched just above the sacred water of the
Columbia River.
Columbia River’s salmon are
at the core of ancient religion
River is under threat
By DEEPA BHARATH
Associated Press
James Kiona stands on a
rocky ledge overlooking Lyle
Falls where the water froths
and rushes through steep can-
yon walls just before merg-
ing with the Columbia River.
His silvery ponytail ﬂ utters in
the wind, and a string of eagle
claws adorns his neck.
Kiona has ﬁ shed for Chi-
nook salmon for decades on
his family’s scaﬀ old at the
edge of the falls, using a dip
net suspended from a 33-foot
pole.
“Fishing is an art and
a spiritual practice,” says
Kiona, a Yakama Nation
elder. “You’re ﬁ ghting the
ﬁ sh. The ﬁ sh is ﬁ ghting you,
tearing holes in the net, jerk-
ing you oﬀ the scaﬀ old.”
He ﬁ nds strength, sanctity,
even salvation in that strug-
gle. The river saved Kiona
when he returned from Viet-
nam with postwar trauma,
giving him therapy no hospi-
tal could.
When he lies on the rocks
by the rushing river and
closes his eyes, he hears the
songs and the voices of his
ancestors. The water, he says,
holds the history of the land
and his people.
“It heals you,” he says.
•••
On the Record
Trespass
• Savana Rose Ramirez-
Mee, 28, of Ocean Park,
Washington, was arrested
on Thursday on S.E. 13th
Place in Warrenton for
ﬁ rst-degree trespass, resist-
ing arrest and attempted
assault of a public safety
oﬃ cer.
Theft
• Bianca Maria Cordero,
23, of Ocean Park, Wash-
ington, was arrested on
Saturday for a ﬁ rst-de-
gree theft that allegedly
took place at Fred Meyer
in Warrenton. Cordero
also had a warrant out of
Columbia County.
DUII
• Jose Andres Valero,
65, of Astoria, was
arrested on Friday at W.
Marine Drive and Ham-
burg Avenue in Asto-
ria for driving under the
inﬂ uence of intoxicants.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
TUESDAY
Sunset Empire Park and Recreation District, 5:15 p.m.,
1225 Avenue A, Seaside.
Warrenton City Commission, 6 p.m., City Hall, 225 S. Main
Ave.
WEDNESDAY
Astoria Parks Board, 6:45 a.m., City Hall, 1095 Duane St.
Astoria School District Board, 5:45 p.m., Astoria Middle
School library, 1100 Klaskanine Ave.
Clatsop County Board of Commissioners, 6 p.m., Judge
Guy Boyington Building, 857 Commercial St., Astoria.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
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From its headwaters in
British Columbia where the
Rocky Mountains crest, the
Columbia River ﬂ ows south
into Washington state and
then westward and into the
Paciﬁ c Ocean at its mouth
near Astoria. Just below the
conﬂ uence with the Snake
River, the Columbia’s larg-
est tributary, the river turns
through the Cascade Moun-
tain Range, carving out the
Columbia River Gorge.
It’s a spectacular canyon,
80 miles long and up to 4,000
feet deep, with cliﬀ s, ridges,
streams and waterfalls. For
thousands of years, Native
American tribes in this area
have relied on Nch’i-Wána,
or “the great river,” for its
salmon and steelhead trout,
and its surrounding areas
for the ﬁ elds bearing edible
roots, medicinal herbs and
berry bushes as well as the
deer and elk whose meat and
hides are used for food and
ritual.
Yet the river is under
threat because of climate
change, hydroelectric dams
and industrial pollution.
Warming waters linked to
climate change endanger the
salmon, which need cooler
temperatures to survive.
Hydroelectric dams on
the Columbia and its tribu-
taries have curtailed the riv-
er’s ﬂ ow, further imper-
iling salmon’s migration
from the Paciﬁ c upstream
Associated Press
Hydroelectric dams, like the Bonneville Dam, on the Columbia
River and its tributaries have curtailed the river’s ﬂ ow, further
imperiling salmon migration from the Paciﬁ c Ocean to their
freshwater spawning grounds upstream.
to their freshwater spawn-
ing grounds, and threatening
millenia-old spiritual tradi-
tions that bind these Native
communities together.
•••
“We are the salmon peo-
ple or river people,” says
Aja DeCoteau, the executive
director of the Portland-based
Columbia River Inter-Tribal
Fish Commission, which
represents the interests of the
four Columbia River treaty
tribes — Yakama, Umatilla,
Warm Springs and Nez Perce
— in policy, advocacy and
management of the basin.
“Without water there are no
ﬁ sh, plants or herbs.”
Each year the tribes
honor the salmon, roots, ber-
ries, deer and elk — which
they believe were originally
placed in the land for their
sustenance — with what are
known as “First Food cer-
emonies.” In their creation
story, the salmon, deer, elk,
roots and berries oﬀ ered
to provide sustenance to
humans, and humans in turn
were given the responsibil-
ity by the Creator to care for
these resources.
Elders speak of how
streams ﬂ ow from the moun-
tains sanctiﬁ ed by the prayers
of ancestors who went there
to commune with the spir-
its. These rivulets then ﬂ ow
down and merge with the
Columbia. If Nch’i-Wána is
the main artery of the land,
those streams are like the
veins that feed it. So even
the smallest creek is vital and
sacred.
At communal meals, tribe
members typically begin and
end with water — “You take a
drink of water to purify your-
self before you eat and you
end the meal with water to
show respect for what you’ve
eaten,” DeCouteau says.
Tribes also use the riv-
er’s water and rocks for ritu-
als such as sweat lodge puri-
ﬁ cation ceremonies, held in
low, dome-shaped structures
where river rocks are heated
along with herbal medicine.
“After you sweat and
pray, there is also the prac-
tice of jumping in the river
to cleanse yourself,” DeCou-
teau says. “It’s hard to con-
tinue practicing these rit-
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uals when the river is so
contaminated.”
•••
Bill Yallup Jr. was 6 when
Celilo Falls “drowned,” as he
puts it.
Known as Wyam to Native
people, the thundering cas-
cade was a sacred place where
for 15,000 years Indigenous
tribes netted salmon as the ﬁ sh
jumped upstream. It was also
their economic nerve center,
with the salmon trading for all
manner of goods from feath-
ers to copper to wampum,
beads crafted from shells.
The falls fell silent in 1957
when the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers erected The
Dalles Dam, ﬂ ooding the area
and creating the Celilo Lake
reservoir.
Young salmon, or smolts,
swim down the Columbia to
the ocean, where they grow
for between one and ﬁ ve
years. Then they migrate back
upstream to spawn. Some are
caught and become a source
of sustenance for the people,
and others die and become
one with the environment.
The cycle repeats over and
over.
“The sacredness of this
river,” Yallup says, “lies in
the sacriﬁ ce the salmon make
each time they fulﬁ ll their
promise to come back.”
•••
It was worries over the
spring salmon’s disappear-
ance from the river that
inspired Elaine Harvey to
get her bachelor’s degree in
aquatic and ﬁ shery science.
She is also concerned for spe-
cies like the Paciﬁ c lamprey,
which has “been around since
the dinosaurs” but today
faces possible extinction.
Now a ﬁ sh biologist for
Yakama Fisheries, Har-
vey says what keeps her up
at night is the “race to har-
ness green energy” that has
brought multinational cor-
porations to the Columbia
River.
“Wind turbines and solar
farms are impacting our
archeological sites, cul-
tural resource sites, wildlife
and ﬁ sh,” she says, point-
ing to a sacred mountain
near the John Day Dam that
the Native people call Push-
pum. “Our root ﬁ elds are on
that mountain. We could lose
access to our food.”
Harvey says she will
never leave the river because
that’s what she was taught by
her elders.
“We have a real, deep con-
nection to all these places.
Our blood line is here.”
Harvey’s cousin, Bron-
sco Jim Jr., was appointed
mid-Columbia River chief
when he was 21 and in that
capacity performs longhouse
services, ﬁ rst food ceremo-
nies and funerals.
Sunlight streams into the
longhouse during a recent
ceremonial meal with elders
at historic Celilo Village. Jim
is wearing shell earrings and
a beaded necklace with the
pendant of a horse’s silhou-
ette honoring his ancestors
who rode them.
In Native families that
inhabit the Columbia basin,
education about First Foods
begins at home and continues
in these longhouses, accom-
panied by teaching and cer-
emony. Deeply held beliefs
also dictate the rules of food
gathering.
Community
members
are required to wait for that
ﬁ rst feast to honor each food
before they head out to har-
vest it. In the longhouse and
out in the mountains, the
food-gathering is accompa-
nied by song.
“These songs and cere-
monies are part of everything
we do,” Jim says, adding that
losing them could cost his
people their spiritual identity.
“They feed our body and
soul.”
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