The Enterprise, White Salmon, WA., January @15, 1937, page __
WILL NOT DISTURB MEMALOOSE DEAD
U.S. Engineers Correct Statement Printed in Daily
The Portland Daily Journal, under a Dalles date line,
January 15, published a story about Memaloose Island in the Columbia river,
between Rowena and Lyle. This island, whose name in the Chinook jargon means
"death" was the ancient burial place of the Columbia river Indians and of
one white man, Major Vic Trevitt, whose will directed his burial there.
The Journal story is correct in general and about Major
Trevitt, but it goes on to say that the U.S. Engineers have carefully gathered
up all the Indian remains and transferred them to a cemetery near Stevenson,
Washington. The engineers have not disturbed anything on Memaloose Island,
as it is safely above the back water created by the Bonneville dam, and the
grave area will not be inundated, except by a flood greater than that of
1894.
The Indian remains reburied by the U.S. Engineers near
Stevenson, where those uncovered at Bradford Island during the actual
construction of the Bonneville Dam.
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© Jeffrey L. Elmer