Traditional dipnet fishing at Celilo Falls.
Celilo Falls (“sell-LYE-low”), near the present-day city of The Dalles, Oregon, was the most important salmon fishing and cultural gathering site in the entire Columbia River basin for thousands of years. In 1957, The Dalles Dam gates closed, choking back the river, submerging the falls, and devastating the traditional peoples.
As a writer, environmentalist and physician, Celilo Falls inspires me to the action prescribed by my Jewish tradition of tikkun olam — the mandate to work to heal and repair the world. (Read more about tikkun olam). Biologists, environmentalists and Native American look to dams as underlying obstacles to ecosystemic, cultural and personal health. As a physician, I work with you to find what hinders your health, to help uncover and restore the power, magic and joy that are your birthright.
• Columbia Inter-Tribal Fish Commission on Celilo Falls.
• Center for Columbia River History on Celilo Falls.
• Oregon Historical Society on Celilo Falls.
