The Wanapums and Priest Rapids (part 4).

Abstract

"The Public Utility District of Grant County has built two dams on the Mid-Columbia. The first of these was named Priest Rapids and by ordinary reckoning is 409.5 miles from the mouth of the Columbia River on the Pacific Ocean. Eighteen miles upstream from Priest Rapids Dam the PUD built Wanapum Dam. It was named for the River People. Their survivors remain, perpetuating an ancient culture into a generation of hydroelectric power, atomic force and space missiles. And the religion and ideology for which the Wanapums have always been known has been retained in the purest form of any Indian religion surviving."