Encounters with Chief Kiesno of the Columbia
Chief Kiesno was one of the most powerful chiefs on the Columbia at the time of the fur trade and American settlement. He was related to tribes throughout…
Author: Ethnohistory Research, LLC | David G. Lewis, PhD
A Petition to Change the Name of Lane County
In this new period of “wokeness” there are calls for the elimination of racist names and statues from our institutions. Christopher Columbus statues have been torn from…
Revisiting the Schools I Attended
As a native person, a member of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde and a descendant of the Santiam, Takelma, and Chinook peoples of western Oregon, I have…
The Second Plague: Indian Reservations
Much has been written about the impact of pandemics on indigenous populations. Columbus and his exploratory contemporaries brought slavery and conquest to the new worlds, and that conquest…
Nicholas Day Saves the Umpqua Indians
The following story appeared in the Oregonian in 1900. Nicholas Day was an Indian agent who was hired by Joel Palmer to manage the Umpqua Indians. Day took…
The Willamette Mission Development
Thanks to Jim Sheppke, former State Librarian for the state of Oregon, I received a digital copy of the thesis“Mill Place” on the Willamette a new Mission house…
How the Trade and Intercourse Acts Aided Colonization of Native Lands
Foreword As an instructor in Native Studies and anthropology, I get bombarded with having to explain why native peoples on the reservations live the way they live. People…
An Early Account of Native People Near Falls City
Each archive I enter I find new information about the native peoples of that county. Generally, the stories are of early encounters with a few native people, experiences…
Agent of Rebirth, Kalapuyan Culture in Linn County
The Kalapuyans, for their part, accepted the settlement of the whites at first, as they saw the great wealth in new things brought to them, metals, fabrics, weapons,…
Waukikum Treaty of 1851
Treaty between the Waukikum tribe and the United States, negotiated by Anson Dart, Superintendent of Indian Affairs. The treaty negotiations at Tansey Point on the Columbia River were…
Commissioner Brunot Lectures Tribal Chiefs on Moral Living, 1871
In 1871, the BIA had just gotten some direction from President Ulysses S, Grant to go ahead and train the Indians to be civilized so that they may…
Slavery at Canyonville, 1853
The subject of slavery in Oregon goes back to the first wave of settlers who came to the territory in 1844 and after. These first settlers combined with…
Dart Introduces the Clackamas Treaty to the US Senate
Anson Dart departed from Oregon in late 1851 after completing the negotiation of 19 treaties in Oregon with tribes. Dart had replaced the Willamette Treaty Commission in June…
Coles Valley settlers want the Resources on the Umpqua Reservation, 1854
The following two letters are an example of how the settlers could not live with the tribal people having any resources. The settlers in 1854 had won, and…
The Umpqua River Indians Prepare for Removal
William Martin, the Sub-Indian Agent of the Umpqua and Coos Bay was appointed to the position by Jole Palmer in June 1853. He worked to understand the tribes…
Preparing for Purchase, First Indian Agent in Coos Bay, 1853
When Joel Palmer was appointed to Superintendent of Indian Affairs in May 1853 he had a good working knowledge of the tribes but had never visited the southern…
Causes of the 1853 Rogue River War
The first Rogue River War was a series of skirmishes and battles between mainly gold miners and the tribes. The miners had no regard for the tribes and…
Baleful Gifts of Civilization: Smallpox Epidemic 1853
It is well recording in numerous sources that diseases from Europe came with the exploring Whitemen and infected millions of the indigenous peoples of the World with…
Major Benjamin Alvord discusses Eastern Oregon Settlement, 1853
In 1853, the former Superintendent of Indian Affairs of Oregon Anson Dart had been forced to resign as none of his nineteen treaties with the tribes were ratified.…
Soc-te-la Chief of the Luckimute Kalapuya People
The following section of a letter to General Joel Palmer details that at least one chief Soc-te-la knew they were to remove and was working to gather his…
John Collier and Indian Termination Policy
As Commissioner of Indian Affairs, John Collier was a long-term advocate for Indian tribes. In the 1920s, John Collier, a trained sociologist, led efforts in Washington, D.C. to…
Elijah White Romanticizes Oregon Tribal Peoples
Dr. Elijah White was a missionary and the first Indian sub-Agent of the Oregon territory. He was then (1837) part of Jason Lee’s Methodist Mission but had a…
Horatio Hale’s Description of Oregon Tribes
Horatio Hale has been the subject of much attention by me in recent months, in particular his Ethnology and Philology volume 6, United States Exploring Expedition, 1846. His…
Ancient History of the Molala (La’tiwi)
The Molala (Mollala, Molalla, Molele, La’tiwi) are a tribe of Western Oregon. They lived on the eastern periphery of the Willamette and Umpqua Valleys. There were at least…