Overview
Lesson 1: The Importance of the Land
Lesson 2: Trade among the Columbia River People
Lesson 3: European Contact and the Impact on Tribal Life
Lesson 4: Retaining Traditions
Lesson 5: Remembering the Ancestors
Standards
ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS
EL.CM.RE.04—Demonstrate listening comprehension of more complex text through class and/or small group interpretive discussions across the subject areas.
EL.CM.RE.08—Understand, learn, and use new vocabulary that is introduced and taught directly through informational text, literary text, and instruction across the subject areas.
EL.CM.WR.02—Discuss ideas for writing with classmates, teachers, and other writers, and develop drafts alone and collaboratively.
CD Segments to Play
Background
Many years before the Corps of Discovery, the Columbia River tribes experienced contact with the French, Spanish and British trappers and traders. Before Lewis and Clark came to the Columbia River in 1805, the Wasco and Warm Springs tribes had been using the river for commerce and trade for thousands of years. Celilo Falls was the upper part of a series of several falls and canyons that stretched along the Columbia River to The Dalles and provided a fishing resource for the people.
The Wasco and Warm Springs built elaborate scaffolding and platform structures over the falls and used long-handled dip nets to catch the fish as they migrated.
Between May and October, This area was used by thousands of tribal people who fished for their own use and also for trade. The trading centers of the Wishram and Wasco attracted tribes from the northwest coast as well as visiting tribes from the areas of the Rocky Mountains.
Berries, dried meat, horses, buffalo items and salmon were traded among the people. Although each spoke a different language, tribes were able to communicate, often using the Chinuk Wawa, a type of jargon that was understood by most people of the Northwest.
OBTAIN APPROVED SKETCHES AND PICTURES OF CELILO AREA AND THE FISHING ACTIVITY FROM THE WARM SPRINGS REVIEW GROUP
Suggested Strategies
Activities
Discuss
Display the pictures of Celilo and the fishing activities. Discuss the content of each picture.
What is the most prominent figure in each picture?
How do you think a fish could be caught using a dip net?
Do you think the type of fishing technique looks dangerous?
Would it have been hard work?
Reflect
Discuss the importance of trade. Have the class make a chart of possible trade items by doing the following:
On a large piece of poster board, divide the paper in two parts, side by side. On the left side, write the heading, “Trade Items of Yesterday.” On the other side, write “Trade Items of Today.”
In a class activity, make a list on the left side of the paper of items that Columbia River tribes might have been traded before the coming of the Europeans.
On the right side of the paper, make a list of what might be traded today.
As a result of this activity, point out to the class that “trading” is not the same as it was hundreds of years ago. Today we “buy” rather than “trade.”
Ask the class what kind of trades they have made with friends or family and ask if the trades were something that helped them to survive or were the trades for something they wanted for “play.”
Research
Divide the class into three groups. Assign each group one of the following tribes to research:
Warm Springs
Wasco
Paiute
Allow research time each day.
Vocabulary
economics
staple (for example, a staple food)
jargon
scaffold
commerce
communication
