Indigenous communities catch lamprey at Willamette Falls every summer

Indigenous communities catch lamprey at Willamette Falls every summer

Source: OPB

8/5/2024

Credit: Anna Lueck / OPB

At the base of Willamette Falls, a wall of 40-foot rocks towers over the reservoir. The falls are deafening. A mist hangs over the air.

Several people are submerged near the falls. They’re here every summer to catch lamprey the same way Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest have caught them for millennia.

Ralph Lampman, a Lamprey Project Lead for Yakama Nation Fisheries, is one of them. He takes a deep breath and disappears under the water. The falls crash directly above him, hitting against sharp rocks to froth and spray the air.