Wanapum Tribe

Cindy Kelly:   I’m Cindy Kelly, Atomic Heritage Foundation. It is Monday, September 10, 2018. I have with me Tom Marceau, and I’d like him to tell us his full name and spell it. Thomas Marceau: Thomas E. Marceau. E is for Edward. M-a-r-c-e-a-u. Kelly:  Great. So, Tom, I’ve known you a long time, but there are […]

[At the top is the edited version of the interview published by S. L. Sanger in Working on the Bomb: An Oral History of WWII Hanford, Portland State University, 1995. For the full transcript that matches the audio of the interview, please scroll down.] Book version: I thought the Hanford site was perfect the first time I […]

[Interviewed by Robert W. Mull, from S.L. Sanger’s Working on the Bomb: An Oral History of WWII Hanford, Portland State University, 1995] We used to live in the tules (reed huts) until spring, then we take them apart, put them away and we move. First we move after the root feasts, clear up to Soap Lake […]

[Interviewed by Cynthia Kelly, Tom Zannes, and Thomas E. Marceau.] Tell us your name. Rex Buck, Jr.: My name is Rex Buck, Jr. R-E-X B-U-C-K J-R. What’s your Wanapum Indian name? Buck: My Wanapum Indian name is Puckhyahtoot. Can you spell that? Buck: P-U-C-K-H-Y-A-H-T-O-O-T. What does that mean? Buck: That means, like, a bunch of birds […]

Hanford, Washington, on the beautiful Columbia River, was the site selected for the full-scale plutonium production plant, the B Reactor. Today a popular tourist desination, the Hanford Site proved crucial to the success of the Manhattan Project.  Site Selection In December 1942, the Army Corps of Engineers worked with DuPont to establish criteria for the […]