Chief Tommy Thompson and Celilo Falls
This is Chief Tommy Thompson. I don’t hear his name mentioned much these days. When my father was a boy growing up in The Dalles he was legend. He would come to the schools and give talks to the children about the local native history and heritage. He was a man who was respected by all races.
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“Chief Tommy Thompson was a most exceptional human being, a cross between Jim Thorpe and the Pope. Tall, handsome, and athletic, a famed swimmer and boatman in his youth, he was married to as many as seven women at one time but never to a white woman; it would have been unthinkable. Chief Tommy Thompson was a holy man. His ancient religion was that of the Waashat, the drums.
He had begun serving as salmon chief at Celilo Village in 1875, when he was but twenty, after the death of the previous chief, his uncle Stocketly, who had been killed by friendly fire while serving as a scout for the U.S. Army. Tommy was salmon chief of Celilo Falls for the next eighty-five years, making him, without much question, the longest-serving public official in American history. Chief Tommy Thompson was also the most revered man on the river, the last true chief.
Chief Tommy was 102 years old when Celilo Falls were drowned. The death of Celilo Falls in 1957 foreshadowed the death of Chief Thompson two years later, at age 104. The River People believe he died of a broken heart. (from George Rohrbacher “Talk of the Past”)”
I was 8 years old and a student at Fairview Grade School in 1949, Chief Tommy Thompson and his wife visited my class, he wore his full feathered headdress, as I shook his hand, his wife said, that he did not speak English, after shaking his hand, I looked at mine, his wife then stated, “Don’t worry, the color doesn’t come off!”, the Chief just looked at me and smiled!. I’m 78 , and the memory of that day is still fresh in my mind!.
My father told a similar story of when they came to his school in The Dalles.
My grandmother taught at Fairview Grade School-4th grade–Adah Hays. A Mr. Seahorn was the principal. I have a picture of her with the chief and his wife and author Martha Ferguson McKeown who wrote Linda’s Indian Home. I even went to Fairview for a time. Alice Davison was my 4th-grade teacher and Jim Davis for 7th grade. I wonder if you might remember my grandmother?
My dad was friends of Tommy Thompson. I remember about dusk, one evening when my father told me that we were going to go see chief Tommy. When we got to the place of the meeting, it was pretty dark. I remember standing by a pick up with the two of them. Tommy give us a couple salmon and thanked my father for working on his truck/,car.. I’m 87 years old will not forget that dark night, later, my dad took me to, the village outside of Pendleton, where his uncle was the federal Indian agent, Charlie Hoskins. Dad also showed me where the celilo falls people buried their dead.
My father was born and was raised in The Dalles. He too had memories of Chief Tommy Thompson. He would visit the children in school and tell them about the natives that lived there. Thank you for sharing.