Editing Celilo Falls (section)

==Flooding by the dam==
[[File:Celilo Sonar.jpg|thumb|right|240px|2008 sonar survey showing Celilo Falls remains intact.]]

As more settlers arrived in the [[Pacific Northwest]] in the 1930s and 1940s, civic leaders advocated a system of [[hydroelectric dam]]s on the Columbia River. They argued that the dams would improve navigation for barge traffic from interior regions to the ocean; provide a reliable source of [[irrigation]] for [[agriculture|agricultural production]]; provide [[electricity]] for the [[World War II]] [[United States Department of Defense|defense industry]]; and alleviate the flooding of downriver cities, as occurred in the 1948 destruction of [[Vanport City, Oregon|Vanport, Oregon]].

[[Aluminum]] production, [[shipbuilding]], and nuclear production at the [[Hanford site]] contributed to a rapid increase in regional demand for electricity. By 1943, fully 96 percent of Columbia River electricity was being used for war manufacturing.<ref>{{cite book | last = Dietrich | first = William | title = Northwest Passage: The Great Columbia River | publisher = University of Washington Press | place = Seattle, WA | year = 1995 | page = 284 | isbn = 0-671-79650-X}}</ref> The volume of water at Celilo Falls made [[The Dalles]] an attractive site for a new dam in the eyes of the Corps of Engineers.

Throughout this period, native people continued to fish at Celilo, under the provisions of the [[Walla Walla Council (1855)|1855 Treaties]] signed with the [[Yakama Nation]],<ref>{{cite web|title=Treaty with the Yakama, 1855 |url=http://www.critfc.org/text/yaktreaty.html |access-date=2008-02-01 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080209225523/http://www.critfc.org/text/yaktreaty.html |archive-date=2008-02-09 }}</ref> the [[Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs]],<ref>{{cite web|title=Treaty of Wasco, Columbia River, Oregon Territory with the Taih, Wyam, Tenino, & Dock-Spus Bands of the Walla-Walla, and the Dalles, Ki-Gal-Twal-La, and the Dog River Bands of the Wasco |url=http://www.warmsprings.com/Warmsprings/Tribal_Community/History__Culture/Treaty__Documents/Treaty_of_1855.html |access-date=2008-02-01 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20071219193804/http://www.warmsprings.com/Warmsprings/Tribal_Community/History__Culture/Treaty__Documents/Treaty_of_1855.html |archive-date=2007-12-19 |url-status=dead }}</ref> and the [[Walla Walla (tribe)|Walla Walla]], [[Umatilla (tribe)|Umatilla]], and [[Cayuse people|Cayuse]],<ref>{{cite web|title=Treaty with the Walla Walla, Cayuse and Umatilla, 1855 |url=http://www.umatilla.nsn.us/treaty.html |access-date=2008-02-01 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080226134500/http://www.umatilla.nsn.us/treaty.html |archive-date=2008-02-26 }}</ref> which guaranteed the tribes' ancient "right of taking fish at all usual and accustomed stations." In 1947, the [[United States government|federal government]] convened [[United States Congress|Congressional]] hearings and concluded that the proposed dam at The Dalles would not violate tribal fishing rights under the treaties.<ref name="Dietrich 1995 378">{{cite book | last = Dietrich | first = William | title = Northwest Passage: The Great Columbia River | publisher = University of Washington Press | place = Seattle, WA | year = 1995 | page = 378 | isbn = 0-671-79650-X}}</ref> Subsequently, the government reached a monetary settlement with the affected tribes, paying $26.8 million for the loss of Celilo and other fishing sites on the Columbia.<ref>{{cite book | last = Dietrich | first = William | title = Northwest Passage: The Great Columbia River | publisher = University of Washington Press | place = Seattle, WA | year = 1995 | page = 376 | isbn = 0-671-79650-X}}</ref>

The Army Corps of Engineers commenced work on [[The Dalles Dam]] in 1952 and completed it five years later. On March 10, 1957, hundreds of observers looked on as a rising [[Lake Celilo]] rapidly silenced the falls, submerged fishing platforms, and consumed the village of Celilo, ending an age-old existence for those who lived there. A small Native American community exists today at nearby [[Celilo Village, Oregon|Celilo Village]], on a bluff overlooking the former location of the falls.

In 2008 the Army Corps of Engineers completed a survey of the Celilo Falls site using [[sonar]] technology, in response to the 50th anniversary of the flooding of the falls. The survey revealed that the falls remain intact below the artificial lake, and that "rocky outcrops, carved basins and channels that match aerial photographs from the 1940s."<ref>{{cite news|title=Sonar shows Celilo Falls are intact|last=Rojas-Burke|first=Joe|date=November 28, 2008|work=[[The Oregonian]]|url=http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/11/sonar_shows_celilo_falls_are_i.html|access-date=2008-11-28|archive-date=2008-12-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081201055754/http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/11/sonar_shows_celilo_falls_are_i.html|url-status=live}}</ref>