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A young man with two long, black braids clinging to his back took a deep breath before diving head first into a crevice at the base of the Willamette Falls, searching for a slippery Pacific lamprey — called Asúm in Sahaptin, the traditional language of Yakama Nation.

Though he didn’t catch any himself, he grinned as he held up a lamprey caught by another citizen of Yakama Nation.

Tom Farley, a 17-year-old citizen of Yakama Nation, grew up eating lamprey. He attended last year’s Lamprey Celebration at Clackamette Park, but this year marked his first time going up to Willamette Falls and learning how to harvest the eels.

17-year-old citizen of Yakama Nation, Tom Farely, grew up eating Pacific lamprey. On July 12, 2024, he traveled to the base of Willamette Falls to learn how to harvest them for the first time. (Photo by Nika Bartoo-Smith Cronogomet / ICT)

“If I get the chance to eat them, I’m definitely going to eat them – even if it’s just like a bite or taste,” Farley said as he watched community members join hands and dance to the beating of a drum. “I think it’s very sentimental, very culturally relevant to do lamprey stuff.”

As members from Yakama Nation, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the Nez Perce Tribe and the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs gathered at the base of Willamette Falls on July 12 to harvest lamprey, hundreds more gathered nearby at Clackamette Park in Oregon City for the third annual Lamprey Celebration hosted by Yakama Nation. 

Lamprey harvesting typically takes place early in the morning. So while only a couple were harvested on July 12, hundreds had already been gathered in weeks prior. Many of those were served at the celebration.

Pacific lamprey are over 450 million years old, predating dinosaurs. A young Yakama Nation tribal member holds up a dead lamprey at the base of Willamette Falls on July 12, 2024. (Photo by Nika Bartoo-Smith Cronogomet / ICT)

Hosted by Yakama Nation and widely attended by members of all four Columbia River treaty tribes — the Nez Perce Tribe, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon and the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation — the celebration was also open to the wider community. For some, this marked their first time eating lamprey. It also offered a chance for advocacy and learning about lamprey and their cultural significance.

“Lamprey aren’t really seen as a pretty fish, if you will,” said Erik Holt, Nimiipuu, while sitting on the mossy rocks at the base of Willamette Falls. “Some people don’t have an understanding of what lamprey really are and why they’re so important to the Indigenous nations that rely on them.”

A boat carrying citizens of Yakama Nation traveled to the base of Willamette Falls for Pacific lamprey harvesting on July 12, 2024. (Photo by Nika Bartoo-Smith Cronogomet / ICT)

‘The oldest fish on Earth’

The Pacific lamprey are one of the oldest species in the world — predating dinosaurs, they have been around for over 450 million years. Lamprey have long, slippery bodies and although they have no jaws or bones, they have a mouth full of teeth.

Farley, who grew up eating lamprey, remembers one particular origin story fondly.

“The snake and eel raced to the river and the last one their got their bones taken away. The lamprey lost,” Farley said. “It’s just a funny story.”

Pacific lamprey, a slippery, eel-like fish, have no bones in their body or jaws. But they do have a mouth full of teeth. (Photo by Nika Bartoo-Smith Cronogomet / ICT)

Numbers of lamprey are nowhere near what they once were. At one point in time, thousands of lamprey could easily be found at Willamette Falls. So many that the scene used to be referred to as “Mermaid’s Hair” as lamprey flowed up and down the falls.

“People just don’t understand the importance of them,” said Elaine Harvey, a citizen of Yakama Nation. “Some people even call him a trash fish, which is really sad, because it’s the oldest fish on Earth. They survived through the dinosaur age/ They survived through the ice age.”

Elaine Harvey stands with her mother, Cynthia Esperito, and her daughter, Alanna Harvey, 9, demonstrating how to butterfly filet lamprey. The three generations, all citizens of Yakama Nation, have all learned how to harvest and prepare lamprey. (Photo by Nika Bartoo-Smith Cronogomet / ICT)

Despite surviving hundreds of millions of years, Harvey has watched the decline of lamprey populations within her lifetime. Now, she fears lamprey are on the verge of extinction, which is why she advocates for them, now with her work at the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission as the watershed department manager.

At Clackamette Park on July 12, Harvey sat at a tent with her mom, Cynthia Esperito, who meticulously filleted and cleaned dozens of lamprey to string them up to dry.

Esperito raised her kids, and now grandkids, to know how to harvest and prepare lamprey. On July 12, she sat at a booth with four other elder women and demonstrated the butterfly filet method.

Rosalind Johnson, a citizen of the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation, separates the pieces of the Pacific lamprey in order to salt and air dry the fish as she demonstrates the method at the third annual Lamprey Celebration on July 12, 2024. (Photo by Nika Bartoo-Smith Cronogomet / ICT)

“The tribes are bringing awareness to the lamprey so that they won’t go extinct,” Harvey said. “Because they really are important in our ceremonies. And they’re just as important as salmon and the other first foods. All our Indian food we believe is medicine to us.”

For future generations

Over a dozen young women and girls dressed in their traditional regalia greeted hundreds of guests with a welcome dance at Clackamette Park on July 12, before introducing themselves and their royalty titles, first in their Indigenous language.

Many of the young women and girls who participated in the welcome dance at the Lamprey Celebration at Clackamette Park on July 12, 2024 hold royalty titles from different powwows across the region. (Photo by Nika Bartoo-Smith Cronogomet / ICT)

Yakama elder Davis “Yellowash” Washines greeted the crowd, speaking for the first three minutes in Sahaptin. Yellowash is the board chair and Yakama Nation delegate for the Willamette Falls Trust and helps advocate for creating meaningful, Native-led public access at Willamette Falls in his role there.

“So our way that we are taught recognizes what the creator has left for our people to come and gather the sacred food, our first foods, our salmon, our lamprey,” Yellowash said. “They would set up camps just like we are here today setting up a camp. Instead of teepees, we have these canopies nowadays.”

Yakama Nation elder Davis “Yellowash” Washines greeted community members at the Lamprey Celebration on July 12, 2024, speaking first in his Native language, Sahaptin. “We’re glad that you’re here and that you brought your children, your grandchildren, maybe even your great grandchildren,” Yellowash told the crowd. (Photo by Nika Bartoo-Smith Cronogomet / ICT)

Smiling at a crowd filled with citizens of Native nations and members from the wider community, faces both young and old, Yellowash reflected on a lamprey harvest he attended 30 years ago, back in 1994.

He remembered a very similar celebration — setting up a big tent and sharing a meal with friends, relatives and the general public

“The meal is a medicine to us, especially our first foods like the salmon and the eel. And it renews our strength,” Yellowash said. “I want to thank you for bringing the children, all these young people here. Because they’re the ones that are watching us. They’re listening to what we say, what we do. They’re the ones that are going to carry on into the future.”

Pacific lamprey can use the suction from their mouth to climb up vertical surfaces — such as the rocks that make up Willamette Falls. (Photo by Nika Bartoo-Smith Cronogomet / ICT)

Laughter and smiles filled the park as people enjoyed the medicine of a good meal, dancing and conversation. And lamprey held the spotlight, a promise that they will not be forgotten and people will continue to fight for their survival.

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Izvor: ( cronogomet.com / Fudbalski.com )