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Enhanced with spectacular photographs from John Clement, travel through time among the Palouse Country's beauty and expanse, starting with its First Peoples, then moving through the native-born Americans and Canadians, Irish and British, Chinese and Japanese, Empire, Volga, and Black Sea Germans, Norwegians, and Swedes who came and formed distinct settlements. Chapters cover the events that prompted emigration, describe the settlers' transitions and living conditions, chronicle significant people and families, discuss major influences that impacted the population, and recount how the communities grew and changed.

For generations into the twentieth century, Mary Jim, her family, and their ancestors lived a free and open life on the Columbia Plateau, traveling on horseback within a vast region--from the Snake River to Badger Mountain to Oregon's Blue Mountains. Denied a place on their ancestral lands, the original Snake River-Palouse people were forced to scatter. After most relocated to various Northwest reservations, maintaining their cultural identity became increasingly difficult. Still, elders continued to pass down oral histories. Rich in content, interpretation, and nuance, they insisted youngsters listen with rapt attention. Beginning in the 1970s and continuing over three decades, Naxiyamt'ama elders--in particular Mary Jim, Andrew George, Gordon Fisher, and Emily Peone--shared their stories with a research team, hoping to teach American Indian history in a traditional manner and refute incorrect versions. Multiple themes emerged--a pervasive spirituality tied to the Creator and environment; a covenant relationship and sacred trust to protect and preserve their traditional lands; storytelling as a revered art form that reveals life lessons, and finally, belief in cyclical time and blood memory. The featured elders had ties to the Plateau people's leadership families and had lived in the traditional way--gathering, hunting, and fishing. They participated in the ancient W'ashani religion and honored the Creator through First Food ceremonies. In their re-telling, the authors endeavor to capture those original voices and remain true to Snake River-Palouse oral traditions. Creation stories include "The Creatures of Cloudy Mountain," "Why Coyote Made the Palouse Hills," and "The Origin of Palouse Falls." Although Mary Jim's "How Coyote Learned to Fish," and Gordon Fisher's "How Beaver Brought Fire to the People," are similar to stories told by other groups, the versions in "River Song" offer a distinct Naxiyamt'ama perspective.

Food historian Jacqueline B. Williams describes cooking and dining practices from the earliest years of settlement to the time when railroads transported the latest ingredients and utensils, shedding significant light on a mundane aspect of our past.

As a reporter on special assignment for the Walla Walla Union Bulletin, Isabel Valle lived and traveled with a migrant family for an entire year. The newspaper and WSU Press have compiled her award-winning reports into a dramatic story.

The excitement of the 19th-century frontier comes alive in this history of early-day railroading in the Pacific Northwest. Combining narrative with fascinating photographs and maps, the author successfully conveys a sense of the enormous time, money, and hard work required to build the first Pacific Northwest rail lines. To the Columbia Gateway covers the origins of the Northern Pacific Railroad and the Oregon Railway and Navigation companies, the rise and fall of Henry Villard's first empire, and the completion of the transcontinental tracks that converged on the Columbia Gateway in the late 19th century. Tales of personal sacrifice and hardship, for both laborers and railroad entrepreneurs, echo through Lewty's account of this formative era in Pacific Northwest history.