Created for various news articles and photo essays in the 1940s-70s ,this rich collection of press photographs documents tribal fishing sites and practices in and around Washington and Oregon, with a focus on Celilo Falls shortly before the Dalles Dam obliterated the sacred fishing grounds and the tide pools of La Push on the Quillayute River. Many of the images were taken by Dalles-natives, Roy Wolfe; Josef Scaylea; and RB Kolsburn, all staff at the Seattle Times. There are also a few photos, printed in the 1940s or 50s, showing early 20th-century scenes.

For nearly a century, the ancient fishing grounds of the Olympic peninsula were protected by the 1855 Treaty of Washington which preserved the sacred practices related to the annual salmon run. The present collection contains several dramatic photos of white water fishing at Celilo Falls, on the edges of wooden scaffolds precariously built off of the rock walls, and the aerial cars used to transport the catch. The photographs precisely capture the perilous energy of the scaffolds – men perched on the edges of the already bare structures surrounded by rushing waters.

While the majority of the collection features scenes of Celilo Falls, also included are several photographs of the smelt fishing in La Push. On the banks of the Quillayute River, Kalalock fisherman wait patiently to net silver smelt, looking out for the seagulls to signal an approaching school. Commercial fishing boats and reef netting was another major source of food and income for local tribes. Silver smelt, a species unique to the area, are seen being pulled out of the water by the dozen, packed in fine sands, and shipped by trucks. This abundant resource is then seen being dried for the winter and the excess is sold.

The fishing sites are a life source for so many tribes, an ecosystem where every member of the family participates. One image shows the elderly watching the men from a safe distance on the rocky face of the falls. Another shows the women who stay back to prepare the fish for drying and smoking in the canvas huts. Children also participate: a young Klickitat girl is pictured with two sockeyes that run the length of her entire torso strapped to her back and in a similar photo, a young boy holds two 30 pound salmon by his waist. A number of important tribal members are depicted in the collection such as Charlie Howeattle, former Chief of Quileutes; Chief Alex Saluskin; Oscar Ough of Teppenish Yakima Agency; Chief Ya-Ha-La or Charles Alvin Howeattle; and Frank Sohappy.

The Treaty of 1855 had continued to be violated by Congress since its creation but it was more or less officially superseded in 1957 when the floodgates of the Dalles Dam were shut and the fishing sites were flooded. A popular argument used to back the closing of the dam was that the treaty was signed at a time when fishermen had more less sophisticated nets and spears and before hundreds of pounds of fish would be caught in a single day through commercial tools. A dark chapter in Native American relations in the U.S., the destruction of these sites would try to be mitigated by cash payments to tribes that accepted the year before. One photograph shows American activist Janet McCloud at her typewriter, holding her daughter in one arm and protest letters in the other. Beyond the importance of the site to the local tribes, the dip-net fishing in the Columbia gorge was a source of income for the community. One affixed news article from the Seattle Times describes it as one of the area’s “greatest tourist attractions.” In the golden age of road trips, motorists are pictured purchasing the excess fish on the side of the road.

While the tribes of the Olympic peninsula continue to carry out the salmon ceremony at the newly formed Celilo Lake, the termination of the treaty remains a painful reminder of colonial injustice. In 2011, a musical production entitled “The Ghost of Celilo” was produced in Portland.