George W. Aguilar, Sr. is coming to Pullman Nov. 16 at noon for a book reading and signing in Terrell Library’s Quiet Study Lounge.
Aguilar is a Kiksht Chinook elder who is a member of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs in north-central Oregon. He spent a decade researching, writing, and editing his book, “When the River Ran Wild! Indian Traditions on the Mid-Columbia and the Warm Springs Reservation”.
Aguilar’s book was written primarily to help his grandchildren understand where they are from. The stories he told reveal his desire to provide the next generations with the past, giving them the historically grounded identity like he was able to develop growing up in Wolford Canyon on the Warm Springs Reservation.
The book is an American Indian elder’s searching account of his culture and his community, conceived and written by himself. The book is for the Kiksht people of Warm Springs. “When the River Ran Wild!” is the first book about their heritage to be written by one of their own. What Aguilar says about the Columbia is elegiac, a deeply personal farewell to what has been lost there in his lifetime. This is not a sad or sentimental book. There is much sly humor in every chapter.
Aguilar was born in 1930 and was raised by his grandmother, Hattie Polk, who taught him the traditional ways of his people, including the Klickitat Sahaptin language. Through her experience and knowledge, including stories she learned from her own grandmother, Aguilar gained an understanding of his people’s history.
His book was published in June 2005 by the Oregon Historical Society Press in association with the University of Washington Press.
For more information about the book signing contact Sadie H. Taskila Galloway, development coordinator at WSU Libraries. (509) 335-6205
Information gathered from: Telling the history of a shattered culture: an interview with George W. Aguilar, Sr.(Oregon Voices) Oregon Historical Society, 2005.
