About Celilo Falls: Parallel Lives Along N’Chewana
Presented by Native Consultant Ed Edmo and Lani Roberts, retired
OSU professor
In “Celilo Falls: Parallel Lives Along N’Che
Wana,”community icon and Native American Elder, Ed Edmo, and former
professor Lani Roberts write about growing up in rural Oregon during the 1950s.
Ed is Shoshone Bannock, Nez Perce, Yakama and Siletz and lived at the
fishing village at Celilo Falls until its destruction in March 1957. Lani grew
up six miles away just outside The Dalles, a descendant of an early settler
family. Although they grew up in the same area and are the same age, their
lives were lived in parallel fashion because of the differences in their ethnic
heritage. During their childhoods, signs in the windows of businesses read, “No
dogs or Indians allowed.” Their juxtaposed stories give a full picture of rural
Oregon and the parallel lives they led along the N’CheWana River.
About the Speakers:
Internationally acclaimed poet, storyteller,
actor and clay artist, Ed Edmo uses puppets to tell Indian legends to children
and adults - helping people learn to laugh again. Since 1981, Ed has traveled
to colleges, pre-schools, trade shows, pow-wows, and more as a Native
Consultant. In 1984, Ed earned top prize at the Interstate Firehouse Cultural
Center One Act Play Festival for his play, Through Coyote's Eyes: A Visit
with Ed Edmo. In addition to co-authoring “Celilo Falls: Parallel
Lives Along N’Che Wana” in, Seeing Color: Indigenous Peoples and
Radicalized Ethnic Minorities in Oregon, he
is also the author of A
Nation Within.
Lani Roberts (Ph.D., B.A., Philosophy,
University of Oregon) was a faculty member in the Philosophy Department at
Oregon State University from spring 1989 through spring 2011. She has now
retired and moved east of the Cascades, back home to the Columbia Gorge where
her family settled in the 1860s.
During her time in the OSU Philosophy Department,
Professor Roberts directed the Graduate Program, coordinated the Applied Ethics
Certificate, and directed the Peace Studies Program. She was a founding
member of Faculty and Staff for Peace and Justice at OSU, and a member of AFAPC
(Association of Faculty for the Advancement of People of Color).
Professor Roberts is the author of
"Duty, Virtue and the Victim's Voice" in Duties to Others,
edited by colleague Courtney Campbell. "One Oppression or Many?" and
"Barriers to Feeling and Actualizing Compassion," both were published
in The Journal of Philosophy in the Contemporary World. Roberts
served as co-editor of this journal from 2004 to 2011. She has also
published chapters in two books, one on the rationale and structure of classes
in the Difference, Power and Discrimination baccalaureate core at OSU, “Course
Rationale, Criteria, and Design,” in Teaching for Change: the Difference,
Power and Discrimination Model, and, secondly, with Ed Edmo, “Celilo Falls:
Parallel Lives Along N’Che Wana,” in Seeing Color: Indigenous People and
Racialized Ethnic Minorities in Oregon.
