Woody Guthrie and the Columbia River

The Bonneville Power company paid Woody Guthrie ten dollars a song to sell building dams on the Columbia River.  Shilling for Bonneville Power seems at odds with a man who wrote beloved folk songs and was a champion of  the underdog.

Bonneville Power hired him when he was poor and hungry.  Was he aware of the consequences of the dams?  Did he understand that it would destroy Celilo Falls which was a very important fishing site for native Americans?  Did he understand that it would turn the mighty Columbia into a big slow lake?  Did he know what it would do to the salmon?  I can't find answers to these questions.


Woody Guthrie and Bonneville Power