Native Spearing and Netting Salmon on the Colu [sic]

An iconic photo of indigenous Oregon fishermen in the early 1900s.

This striking photograph was created in 1901 by the studio of Benjamin A. Gifford in The Dalles, Oregon. According to the misspelled title, the image captures several ‘natives spearing and netting salmon on the Colu[mbia River.]’  A flimsy wooden platform juts across the rocks and out over the rushing water, supporting two anglers and their long, fork-tipped spears.

The advent of salmon canning technology in the 1860s revolutionized the industry and greatly increased local demand for the important food source. An 1894 report by the U.S. Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries catalogs a marked decline in salmon populations across several heavily fished regions, foreshadowing a period of economic hardship likely endured by those in the photo.

After learning the photography trade in Kansas, Benjamin Gifford moved to Portland in the late 1880s and was operating a studio by 1891. He moved to the Dalles a few years later. Gifford was well-known for his imagery of indigenous people, metropolitan areas of the Pacific Northwest, and Columbia River.

Sources: Oregon History Project; Archives West