The Columbia River was once named Wimáł, Pabahúudu, and ‘Nch’í Wána by the tribes and bands that had been along the river since time immemorial. The water connected them directly to the lands, the rivers, the lakes and the creeks for thousands of years having learned from the animals, the seasons, and the elements.

Upon the arrival of sickness and immigrants, a significant change took place throughout the lands. Native, Indigenous, and (what immigrants called) Indian populations dwindled. Dark clouds were over the people for quite sometime as the establishing United States (U.S.) continued to inspire immigrants to flock to Indian territories and intrude upon sacred spaces. Word spread throughout the region of the invasive cultures coming from throughout the world. Tribes and bands adapted through their inherited resiliency, but invasive cultures began fencing and bordering-off the once open and vast root digging and hunting grounds of the Indigenous Peoples.

The U.S. treaties officially worked to remove the Indians from their homelands, and fearing for their lives many Indians relocated to the reservations far away from the Columbia River. Very few bands and families remained along the river and its tributaries. Tribes, bands, leaders, and chiefs continued to voice opposition having incurred death and forced assimilation. Their cultures and languages were fading into the past.

Some tribes and communities began documenting the languages and cultures while also teaching what was outlawed. Only until 1990 President Bush signed the Native American Language Act, giving all Native Americans the green light to finally study their own languages that had been physically beaten out of the Native Children through the boarding and reformatory schools of the 18’ and 1900’s.

The Columbia River Institute for Indigenous Development (CRÍID) Foundation was started to help with the revitalization and preservation efforts to save our languages, cultures, and identities throughout the region.