SEATTLE -
William
Rodgers, Stimson Bullitt Professor of Environmental Law, and co-authors
Joseph Dupris ('97) and Kathleen Hill ('94), will read from their book, "The
Si'lailo Way: Indians, Salmon, and Law on the Columbia River", at 7 p.m. on
Friday, October 6, 2006 at the
University Book Store.
The book traces more than a century of legal, political, and social battles
waged by Columbia River Indians as they fought for the survival of wild salmon
and their inherent right to harvest them. Many of the stories focus on Celilo
Falls, a place of captivating natural beauty and spirituality that also served
as a trade center for tribes throughout the Northwest. Celilo Falls disappeared
under the backwaters of The Dalles dam in March of 1957.
The stories are told through the eyes and words of the people, especially the
Indian people, who lived through them — from the 1855 Walla Walla Treaty Council
proceedings through the fraudulent purchase of the Warm Springs Tribe’s fishing
rights (via the so-called Huntington Treaty) to the negotiations and payments
made for the flooding of Celilo Falls. Each chapter features the creative (and
often highly effective) legal means invoked by the Indians to protect their
fisheries and their way of life. Several documents of historical value are
reproduced in the appendix.
Professor Rodgers specializes in natural resource law and is recognized as a
founder of environmental law. Dupris, of the Lakota-Cheyenne River Sioux
Nation, and Hill, of the Klamath, Modoc, and Paiute Nations, are co-founders of
Quail Plume Enterprises.