Anson Dart and the Willamette Treaty Commission
Many scholars of Oregon tribal history have assumed, as have I, that Anson Dart, the Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Oregon from 1850 to 1852 was responsible for…
Tag: General History
Dart’s Instructions of Colonization and Assimilation in 1850
In 1850, the United States passed The Oregon Donation Land-claim Act. This act gave American men 640 acres, one square mile of free land in Oregon, allowed other…
Rejection of the Nineteen 1851 Oregon Treaties
Anson Dart, the Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Oregon, from 1850 to 1852, remains an enigma. His nineteen treaties with the tribes of western Oregon, negotiated by the…
The Battle of Abiqua, Second Battle of the Willamette Valley
The Battle of Abiqua In February 1848, six months after the Whitman Massacre, the settlers in the Willamette valley were very tense, concerned that the tribes would gather…
Klickitat Bands Colonize the Columbia River and Northwestern Oregon
The Klickitat (Klikitat, Clickitat) tribe are for many people, synonymous with “Oregon Indians.” Yet, the Klickitats are not originally from Oregon at all. Their habitations in the 19th…
Lower Chinook Vocabulary by Robert Shortess, 1853
Robert Shortess married a Clatsop woman in the late 1840s in Astoria, Oregon. He had arrived in Oregon in 1839 and was active around the Willamette Valley for…
The Original 1855 Belden Map, Compared to the Redrafted Version
In 1855, the United States was on a campaign to purchase all of the land from the Oregon Tribes and remove them to reservations. Joel Palmer, Superintendent of…
Trade Between the Interior and the Coast; Kalapuyans, Klikitats, Coosans
Previous to the Americans and the British In Oregon, the tribes had a millennium of interrelationships with one another. Trade was a major part of the lives of…
Oral Histories of Native Experiences at Yahaats Sub-Agency
Yachats, today, is a tourist area on the Oregon Coast. The area is known for its amazingly beautiful coastline, for sea lions, and whale watching and weekend vacationing.…
Andrew S. Charles, Siuslaw Informant 1931
In 1931, the coastal tribes were in the midst of a lawsuit against the federal government. The tribes of the southern coast, between the California border and North…
The 1851 Tansy Point Treaty Journal: The Clatsop Treaty
For the Tansy Point Treaties, Dart worked to get all the land from the tribes. By this time the tribes had already heard rumors of the treaties, and…
The 1851 Treaty Commission: the Ya-su-chah at Port Orford
This second treaty at Port Orford was with a tribe south of the Rogue River, likely the Chetleshin tribe. This is another athapaskan speaking tribe that already had…
The 1851 Treaty Commission: Coquille, Euchre, and Tototan at Port Orford
The Coquille are a Miluk speaking tribe and the other tribes, Euchre Creek and To-to-tan, are athapaskan speaking tribes that already had several problems with explorers and…