History in the Vouchers: Joel Palmer’s Expense Journal
I have spent much time on Palmer’s and other early settler’s and explorer’s letters that I have gained a good understanding of the history of the tribes. Some…
Author: David G. Lewis' Ethnohistory Research, LLC
Joe Lane 1849 : Report of the Tribes and Bands of the Oregon Territory
General Joe Lane was an early politician and war hero for Oregon. He served as the Indian Superintendent for Oregon as well as Governor of the territory in…
Joe Lane’s Report of the Rogue River battle at Evans Creek, 1853
In 1853, the Oregon Territorial militia commanded by General Joseph Lane was fighting a series of battles in the Rogue River valley, the main battle at Evans Creek.…
Pee-You Kalapuyans of the Southern Willamette Valley
In the 1850’s, settlers came to Oregon and renamed many valleys, features, and places. Many of them brought names from the eastern states, place-names like Portland, Springfield, and…
Popular American Cultural Theft of Totem Poles
The story of the Ritz Sauna Totem pole is rich with cultural history. The Ritz Sauna has been associated with the Oregon Country Fair since the beginnings of…
Savage System
Often, I address white American attitudes towards native peoples. How historians have ignored whole sections of our history, racism and genocide against native peoples, the lack of education…
Clackamas Fishing Culture
The Clackamas were major fisher people in the Willamette and Columbia. The Willamette Falls is second only to Celilo in the lower Columbia for fishing for salmon.…
Indifference to the Needs of the Tribes: Testimony of William Miller, Physician at Grand Ronde, 1862
In 1862, there remained many problems at the Grand Ronde Indian Reservation. Problems of food and shelter, medicine and education where not solved yet. The seven treaties of…
Stories of Change Among the Clackamas at Grand Ronde
The Clackamas Come to Grand Ronde Reservation Preparing to Leave The Clackamas are addressed in letters as living in small encampments near Oregon City. They likely had a…
Lessons from the Indian Internment at Indian Reservations and Boarding Schools
From the 1830’s (Indian Removal Act) to 1900 most of the Tribal Reservations were established in the United States holding a population of over 350,000 people. The people…
Lt. William A. Slacum, United States Spy in the Oregon Territory, & Chief Slacum of the Clowewalla
Lt. William A. Slacum, a Navy purser, was sent by the President, through the Department of State, as a special investigator to the Oregon Territory to investigate the…
Drucker’s Records of Clackamas Villages
The Clackamas (Tlakamas) lived along the Clackamas river and along the lower Willamette. Their villages and associated territorial claims extended from Willamette Falls to the Willamette Slough. Schol…
Are Tribes Ready for Termination, Again?
Are Tribes Ready for Termination, Again? In the past few weeks a number of federal administration officials have made statements which suggest that a concerted effort is underway…
Native Kinships and Wealth among the Middle Chinookans
Native kinships are incredibly complex. They do not follow the nice neat patterns of kinship that Americans have adopted from their European ancestors. Native peoples did not only…
Bison of the Western Rockies
For years, I have stated that the tribes did not have bison in Oregon, so they would not have made tipis. This is why the tribes have…
Ethnography of Oregon Indians 1841: Horatio Hale of the U.S. Exploring Expedition
Horatio Hale’s created what may be one of the earliest ethnographies of the tribes of the Pacific Coast. Remarkable as it is, Hale’s ethnography is both interesting and…
James Swan; Fishing Culture of Coastal Washington Tribes
James G. Swan is a legendary scholar of Native people of the Northwest coast. He is an early federal employee in the Oregon territory and lives in the…
Decolonizing Anthropology: Comprehensive Exam Practice
Describe what is meant when anthropology is labeled “colonial.” Anthropology has aided colonization by dehumanizing and stereotyping Natives, by causing an erasure of Native history and identity, by…
Foundations of American Ethnography of the Northwest Coast: Comprehensive Exam Practice
Area 2: Ethnographic Accounts of Pacific Northwest Native peoples This subject entails the discourse and dialogue between Native peoples and societies and ethnographers on the Pacific Northwest…
Oregon Native Place Names in the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, Part 2
The next section map of the coastline, (770c) begins with Cascade Head and ends at the Cape Meares. Every major feature of the Coast has a Native name.…
Oregon Native Place Names in the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, Part 1
In the map collections of Oregon Historical Society there is a selection of Coast Survey maps. Most of these maps date from 1874 and there are some later.…
The Mills, Second Buildings at Chemeketa-Salem
In the earliest lore of the City of Salem, the location was an Indian village named Chemeketa, next to Chemeketa Creek. Before this village was known by Americans,…
A Stable Kalapuyan Anthropogenic-Environmental Model?
It is noted that humans have had an extreme effect on the environment everywhere they have lived. These changes became much more radical some 12,000 years ago when…
Origins of the Willamette Valley Treaty Map of 1851
Leonard White was a steamboat captain that began his career in early Oregon at Salem. White was born in Indiana in 1827 and came to Oregon Territory in…