Great River of the West: Essays on the Columbia River / Edition 1

by William L. Lang, Robert Carriker

Overview

In the Pacific Northwest, the river of dominance is the Columbia, and in ways both profound and mundane its history is the history of the region. In Great River of the West historians and anthropologists consider a range of topics about the river, from Indian rock art, Chinook Jargon, and ethnobotany on the Columbia to literary and family history, the creation of an engineered river, and the inherent mythic power of place.

Since first contact between Euro-Americans and Native peoples during the late 18th century, the river’s history has been characterized by dramatic demographic, social, and economic changes. The remarkable set of essays in Great River of the West investigate these changes by highlighting important episodes in the history of the river. Readers meet mariners who challenge the Columbia River bar, a family torn by insanity, Native people who preserve fishing traditions, and dam-builders who radically change the Columbia.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780295977775
Publisher:	University of Washington Press
Publication date:	01/01/2000
Series:	Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

William L. Lang is professor of history at Portland State University, former Director of the Center for Columbia River History and founding coeditor of the award-winning Oregon Encyclopedia of History and Culture. He is the author or editor of many books on Pacific Northwest history, including Confederacy of Ambition: William Winlock Miller and the Making of Washington Territory (University of Washington Press, 1996) and Explorers of the Maritime Northwest: Mapping the World through Primary Documents (ABC-Clio/Greenwood, 2016).

Table of Contents

A Resurgent Columbia River: An Introduction

What Ever Happened to the First Peoples of the Columbia?

"Dr. McKay's Chinook Address May 11 1892": A Commemoration in Chinook Jargon of the First Columbia River Centennial

Riverplaces as Sacred Geography: The Pictographs and Petroglyphs of the Mid-Columbia River

On the Columbia: The Ruling Presence of This Place

"This perilous situation betwee hope and dispair": Meetings along the Great River of the West

"They have no father, and they will not mind me": Families and the River

Changing Cultural Inventions of the Columbia

What Has Happened to the Columbia? A Great River's Fate in the 20th Century

Contributors

Index

Editorial Reviews

Lang, a professor of history at Portland State University and director of the Center for Columbia River History, and Carriker (history, Gonzaga U.) present eight essays by historians and anthropologists. Topics include the fate of the First Peoples of the Columbia; Dr. McKay's Chinook address (composed for the first Columbia River centennial held on May 11, 1892); the pictographs and petroglyphs of the mid-Columbia River; and an epilogue to by author Lillian Schlissel. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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