The chairman of the tribal council told us the missing men are Galen Espirito, Rommell Strom, and James Peters, Junior.
Tribal members tell us the men are related and young--only in their 20's.
And we learned one of the men's father died a year ago on the very same river where his son is now missing.

"I hope they find him, I hope he's alive."

Galen Espirito, Rommell Strom, and James Peters, Junior took off on their trip Tuesday and never came home.
Chris Whitebill says he grew up with Peters.

"We had our own little game in high school called 'four horsemen wrestling...'"

Chris told us Peters' dad died just one year ago, after his boat flipped on the Columbia.

"It was very tragic... he took it pretty hard. It was his first time going fishing in a long time..."

And while it may seem like a sad twist of irony to some, one tribal member we spoke to says tragedy on the river is taken in stride.

"You said the river takes somebody?"

"We believe whatever the river gives to us is a gift, and sometimes we have to pay..."

This woman says there's no tribal feast without fish.
And the three men weren't out there for sport.

"Whatever they were doing out there was for their families," she says.

Valerie Hurst/Reporting: Here at the Yakama Nation Agency, tribal council members met behind closed doors to help organize search and rescue efforts. They actually sent a council person as a representative to lend support and keep the tribe informed."

"If we could ask some of the tribal members to join together and help in some of the search and rescue efforts and extend our sympathies to families missing loved ones at this point in time..." says chairman Ralph Sampson.

We also learned Davis Washines, former tribal police chief is an uncle to these three young men.
He's been down on the river since yesterday.
He tells me his nephews often went out on the boat together.