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FOR THOUSANDS OF years Pacific Northwest Indians fished, socialized, and honored their ancestors at Celilo Falls on the Columbia River. Fifty years ago, the construction of The Dalles Dam inundated the falls and ended those traditions.

A public conference to discuss what the region lost and gained from this event is planned at the Columbia Gorge Discover Center in The Dalles on March 17 and 18. It received funding through a National Endowment for the Humanities grant awarded to Katrine Barber, history faculty and director of the Center for Columbia River History, which is hosting the conference.

Anthropologists, historians, linguists, artists, and scholars will be among the featured speakers, as are Barber and PSU colleagues Virginia Butler, Ken Ames, and William Lang. The conference symbolizes how Celilo Falls continues to evoke stories about our relationship to the land and hour history, says Barber. Her book, Death of Celilo Falls, was published in 2005. For more information, visit www.ccrh.org.