The largest waterfall in North America is Niagara Falls, a world renowned tourist attraction with spectacular views from many angles. The second largest falls is Willamette Falls, 16 miles south of Portland, Oregon, which was one of the most significant cultural and food gathering sites for the Tribes until European colonization transformed the falls into an industrialized shadow of their original power, The falls, far from being a tourist attraction, are barely visible to passersby. Their main viewing place is along Highway 99E where the industrial relics of this once great falls can be viewed from a narrow pullout along the highway. Their more natural side is not visible from any public viewing location.
On this episode of Locus Focus, we talk with JeremyFive Crows, Nez Perce tribal member and communications director for the Columbia River Intertribal Fish Commission, about how the falls still hold tremendous significance to the Tribes and how they are being reclaimed as the important cultural resource they have remained despite their desecration.