Pacific Lamprey - Important To Tribes Of The Columbia Basin

in the previous post I touched upon the ecological importance of pacific lamprey (Lampetra tridentata), but did not mention how culturally important this fish is to native american tribes in the Columbia Basin. Lamprey are still collected at Willamette Falls in the spring by Warm Springs and other tribes, but as you head up river into the interior, lamprey are becoming quite scarce.

pacific lamprey (Lampetra tridentata)

Elmer Crow Jr, a Nez Perce Elder and Technical Supervisor for the Nez Perce Department Of Fisheries told me about a time in his childhood when lamprey were an important source of food in winter. They contain more calories and protein than a typical salmon, and many tribe members depended upon the fish to make it through the lean times.

Elmer Crow Jr, a Nez Perce Elder and Technical Supervisor for the Nez Perce Department Of Fisheries holding a lamprey

Now Mr. Crow and other members of the Nez Perce are actively trying to re-establish populations of lamprey in their home country. By collecting stranded lamprey at Dams along the Columbia and releasing them into the clear water streams and tributaries in their tribal lands.

Pacific lamprey from the Columbia River

The hope is that eventually the population will re-bound and the Nez Perce and other tribes will be able to depend upon lamprey again. The rivers and other animals will benefit as well, as lamprey are a vital part of the ecosystem.

Rock Art Of The First People

My grandfather was a member of the Confederated Tribes and Bands Of The Yakama Nation, but strangely we did not discuss my native american heritage much. He was half Cherokee and abandoned by his father at a young age. He grew up in a time when a native american man would struggle to find a good job and I think he learned not to mention it. He had the olive/tanned skin of the tribe, but his blue eyes were enough to throw off suspicion of his lineage.

It was later in life that he began to celebrate the pride of his bloodline, and he would occasionally tell me stories of the 'First People'. These were the fables that often explained the geology of the landscape, or the behavior of animals with a rich mixture wit and character.



I'm not sure if this is the origin of my fascination with the scattered bits of rock art that survive in the West, or it just an appreciation for the deep history of they represent. Nonetheless, when I see a gallery of ancient rock art I feel instantly connected to the past, and I try to imagine the man or woman that worked the surface of a rock to imbue it with meaning. Perhaps the meanings are practical (such as a warning or a marker indicating the direction of good fishing) or magical (a prayer for good hunting) but time has removed our understanding.

The work seen here are all from the Columbia River Gorge. Some are from well hidden galleries that have mostly survived by their difficult locations.



Others are famously accessible, and have survived attempts at vandalism and defacement.



I was guided to this (below) remarkable pictograph/petroglyph by a geologist who asked that I never reveal the location. It has the most striking and preserved color that I have seen in Columbia River Gorge rock art.



Much of the rock art is believed to have been etched into the rock between 1000 and 3000 years ago. Some places have whole galleries of work that were probably worked on for generations.



There was a famously rich collection of indigenous rock art in "Petroglyph Canyon" along the shores of the Columbia River. The entire canyon was flooded by the construction of The Dalles Dam in 1957. However, in the months before the water was to rise, the Army Corps Of Engineers removed some of the most interesting and complex pieces and placed them in storage until 2004 when the "Temani Pesh-wa" trail (also "written on rock" trail) was created in Columbia Hills State Park on the Washington side of the Gorge. Below are a three examples from the trail.







Then there is the legend of "She Who Watches" or "Tsagaglalal". The trail that leads to this remarkable example of rock art is now closed except to guided tours because of problems with vandals. I heard about this famous petroglyph as a child when my grandfather told me of it. I have hiked in to see it several times, but a few weeks ago I brought my wife and daughter along on a guided trek. One woman who joined the group had been wanting to see Tsagaglalal for years and she had traveled from the mid-west just to do so.



There are several stories behind She Who Watches. The most widely told is as follows: A woman had a house where the village of Nixluidix was later built. She was chief of all who lived in the region. That was a long time before Coyote came up the river and changed things and people were not yet real people. After a time Coyote in his travels came to this place and asked the inhabitants if they were living well or ill. They sent him to their chief who lived up on the rocks, where she could look down on the village and know what was going on.
Coyote climbed up to the house on the rocks and asked "What kind of living do you give these people? Do you treat them well or are you one of those evil women?" "I am teaching them to live well and build good houses," she said.
"Soon the world will change," said Coyote, "and women will no longer be chiefs." Then he changed her into a rock with the command, "You shall stay here and watch over the people who live here."
All the people know that Tsagaglalae sees all things, for whenever they are looking at her those large eyes are watching them.
-"Stone Age on the Columbia River" by Emory Strong, 1959

Photomerge and the Forest

Photoshop has been a trusty piece of software for me since the 90's, and through it s various incarnations I have diligently learned its new features and workflow improvements. One thing I have always struggled with, however, is the "photomerge" feature. Even when I would carefully shoot a scene for stitching together later, I often found that "photomerge" would not quite line up edges correctly and I would end up doing the work by hand using layers.

Not anymore. Photoshop CS3 has made a startling improvement in the algorythm that combines mutliple images into one, large final scene. One of the great challenges for "photomerge" was any busy, complex scene that had complicated tones, textures and color - like a forest scene.

I dug around in my archive for images I had shot for "photomerge" but had never actually combined successfully - nor had I taken the time to do so by hand.

An example: The History Channel sent me to Malaysia last year. The rainforests on the peninsula are hot, steamy and ancient places with asian elephants and tigers hidden in the thickets. Like any forest, it can be quite challenging to make interesting compositions. Add three or four leeches that unavoidably find their way onto your body, and you have even more distractions. I never could get these images to stitch together until CS3.



More recently I ventured into the Columbia River Gorge during an ice storm.



The contrast between the frozen forest and the tropical jungle is interesting.

While the "panorama" is the traditional method for composing stitched images, I often will also make four or more exposures into a larger square. These become impressively detailed image files.





Again CS3 made the process painless and gave very satisfying results.