Aya'ci: The Salmon People

The spring salmon run brought the Umatillas and neighboring mid-Columbia groups, known by the Northern Paiutes as Aya'ci (salmon people), to the ancient meeting place of Celilo Falls in the Columbia River Gorge. At Celilo, fishing, trading, horse racing, and gambling occupied portions of the summer and fall. Coastal, riverine and plateau cultures came together at Celilo where Sahaptin speaking groups such as the Umatilla, Cayuse, Walla Walla, Nez Perce, and others, met with coastal and interior Salish speaking groups.

Celilo Falls, fishing grounds for regional Native Americans for at least 10,000 years. The
Dalles Dam inundated the site in 1957. Photo courtesy of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Fishing was a way of life for the river people, having spiritual and social significance as well as providing food. Along the Columbia and on the islands within the big river, fishermen moored canoes to the shore using them as platforms from which to employ bident harpoons, gaff hooks, and dip nets. Umatilla Indians also fished along the Umatilla River where sturgeon and salmon were plentiful, using weirs and fishtraps along its tributary streams. A spiritual leader often directed fishing projects, and weirs were usually opened after enough fish were caught.

Sucker, whitefish, and lamprey "eel." Reproduced from Sierra Nevada Natural History, Storer and Usinger, 1963 by permission of the University of California Press

While salmon were a spiritual and nutritional staple, River Peoples of the Columbia made use of a wide range of animal and plant resources, including mammals, deer, rabbit, ground squirrels, and mussels, in addition to fish of several different varieties. Above. Sahaptin fish trap and weir. Photo by Merton L. Miller, 1901. Courtesy of Field Museum of Chicago

Elderly men made and maintained fishing equipment for the active fishermen. As the seasons progressed, Umatillas moved from mat lodges to flat-roofed salmon drying sheds. Sheds provided shelter and space for women to process the two staple river foods, salmon and eels, through air-drying, sun-drying, or smoke-drying the catch.