Charles Otis "Chuck" Williams was born in Portland, Oregon, in 1943. Williams, who was Cascade Chinook and a member of the Confederated Tribes of Grande Ronde, was a lifelong advocate for Native people of the Columbia Gorge area. He grew up in Petaluma, California, and later worked as an engineer for Johnson Controls in Sausalito, where he designed computer systems for NASA. In the mid-1960s, he briefly worked for Boeing in Seattle, Washington, before returning to the Bay Area and earning a bachelor's degree in art from Sonoma College.

Williams became a photographer and writer, and lived much of his life in The Dalles, Oregon. His first book, "Bridge of the Gods, Mountains of Fire: A Return to the Columbia Gorge," was published in 1980, and he opened the Columbia Gorge Gallery in The Dalles in 1994. Alongside his work as a photographer, he served as the publications editor and public information officer for the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission; co-founded Salmon Corps, an AmeriCorps program for Native youth; and began the campaign to designate the Columbia River Gorge as a National Scenic Area. He also served as national parks expert for Friends of the Earth. Williams died in 2016.

Sources: "Chuck Williams (Cascade Chinook)," author biography for Oregon Encyclopedia, https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/about/authors/1000035/; biographical information in finding aid for the Chuck Williams Photograph Collection at the Oregon State University Special Collections and Archives Research Center, by Adriane Burk and Natalia Fernández, 2023, https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:80444/xv143084; information provided by Williams in his interview; vital records on Ancestry.com

In 1990, the Washington State Historical Society, Portland State University, and Washington State University Vancouver formed the Center for Columbia River History (CCRH) to promote research, education, and public programs about the Columbia River Basin. The center operated for more than 20 years. Among its work was the Columbia River Basin Project (CRBP), an umbrella project supported by a 1997 grant from the U.S. Department of Education. The CRBP included online exhibits, oral histories, and high school curricula about the history of the region's land, wildlife, and people.

As part of the project, CCRH partnered with the Oregon Historical Society Research Library’s oral history program, headed by Jim Strassmaier, to gather interviews. Oral Historian Michael O’Rourke spearheaded the Northwest Power Planning Council Oral History Series, while Oral Historian Clark Hansen oversaw the Columbia River Dissenters Oral History Series, with aid from two Portland State University research assistants, Dannette Rowe and Tania Hyatt. In addition, CCRH conducted oral history interviews for a third project, Columbia Communities, and later donated the interview recordings and transcripts to the OHS Research Library, where they are designated SRC 1.

The Columbia River Dissenters Oral History Series culminated in 59 interviews (approximately 184 recorded hours) conducted between 1998 and 2001. Interviewees included Native people, activists, farmers, conservationists, fishers, and others who contributed to the shaping of policies that have had, and continue to have, significant impacts on the Columbia River Basin in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and British Columbia. The interviewees opposed policies by agencies such as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Bonneville Power Administration, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and advocated for alternative visions of management and use of the Columbia River.

Sources: “Voices of the Columbia,” by Bryan White, PSU Magazine, Fall 1998, Page 17; Center for Columbia River History brochure, undated (circa 2000); Center for Columbia River History website (accessed July 10, 2025), https://columbiariverhistory.org/; email correspondence with Donna Sinclair, 2025; email correspondence with Tania Hyatt, 2025; Oregon Historical Society Research Library internal documentation.