News from Recovering Voices

Wanapum Community to Fish Out a Piece of Lost History from NMNH Collections

By: Judith Andrews & Laura Sharp

04/14/2015

From April 20-22, three community members of the Wanapum Band of Priest Rapids, WA will work in  the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History's (NMNH) and National Museum of the American Indian's (NMAI) collections with one goal in mind: to study and recreate a Wanapum “fishing wheel”, of which the Smithsonian collections holds the last two known to exist*. These particular fish wheels are of great significance to the White Bluffs fishery of the Wanapum. Over 75 years ago, the Wanapum lost access to their ancestral lands and fishing grounds at the White Bluffs along the Columbia River, lands that were claimed for use by the Manhattan Project. Over time, knowledge of traditional fishing practices that utilize the fishing wheel is in danger of being lost. And in fact the last Wanapum fisherman who actively used a fishing wheel has passed away.

The traditional use of a fish wheel was developed for night time gill net fishing, to weigh down the netting. Before passing, the last Wanapum fish wheel fisherman passed on his knowledge to one of the community members coming to visit the collections next week. Through the Recovering Voices Community Grants Program, these three Wanapum fishermen will be able to study the last remaining Wanapum fish wheels and work to replicate the objects to take back to their community.

The impact of this project is significant: through access to the knowledge that is preserved in the fish wheels and the techniques of making them, this community visit will provide currently non- existent groundwork for the revitalization and perpetuation of this fishing tradition for present and future generations of the Wanapum community. In addition, the Wanapum plan to create a replica fishing wheel, a craft that has not been put to use in nearly a century. 

Follow their visit and the results of consultation with the objects on Twitter @RecoverVoices and later here on our blog where we will share photos and stories of the visit.  

*Update-A third fish hoop was recently discovered at the Burke Museum in Seattle where the Wanapum community members recently viewed it.