"There is tremendous interest in Celilo Falls right now among the educators, media, arts communities, historians and the public," said Jeremy FiveCrows, CRITFC editor and webmaster. "By hosting this blog, we hope to provide links between these groups and open a dialogue among them. By coordinating these efforts and offering this resource, we can show how meaningful Celilo Falls was to the tribes, indeed to the entire region."

A blog is an online journal providing opinion, commentary or news on a particular subject. The Celilo Legacy blog features an online journal, photo album, and calendar. The journal will include announcements, historical stories and essays, a photo album of Celilo Falls photographs, and a calendar listing Celilo-related events happening throughout the region leading up to beyond the March 10th anniversary.

"Celilo Falls evokes images, emotions and passions for many people in this country. This blog is intended to give people an accessible forum to express as well as listen," added FiveCrows. "Visitors have the ability to make comments on the entries and are encouraged to add their own perspectives, stories and announcements."

Located between Oregon and Washington, Celilo Falls was a unique natural feature formed by the Columbia River approximately 100 miles east of present-day Portland, Oregon. During high water, nearly one million cubic feet of water per second -five times the flow of Niagara Falls - would pass over the basalt rocks, creating a roar that could be heard many miles away. For centuries, the salmon caught here drove tribal economies and created one of the Western Hemisphere’s great market places. On the morning of March 10, 1957, the gates of The Dalles Dam closed and choked back the Columbia River. Six hours later Celilo Falls was gone.

Primary contributors for the Celilo Legacy blog are: Jeremy FiveCrows (Nez Perce), CRITFC publications editor and webmaster; Charles Hudson (Mandan-Hidatsa), CRITFC public information manager; Elizabeth Woody (Warm Springs), renowned author, poet and the director of the Indigenous Leadership Program at Ecotrust; and Carol Craig (Yakama), author and outreach director for the Yakama Nation Fisheries Department.

CRITFC's Celilo Legacy project is an outreach effort that uses the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Celilo Falls' inundation to educate people about the past historical importance of Celilo Falls and gather oral histories from those who fished there, discuss the effects of the falls’ inundation on the tribes and salmon today, and open a region-wide dialogue in the hopes that we can all work together to prevent such an act of environmental, cultural, and biological violence from ever happening again.

The blog is accessible by going to www.critfc.org and clicking on the "Celilo Legacy blog" image, or by simply entering "www.critfc.org/celilo" in your browser.