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.…
Tag: General History
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Chemeketa Creek Becomes Mill Creek
A creek in Salem, Oregon, presently named Mill Creek (GNIS 1163145), was named such in the 1850’s. To aid the flow of the original creek, that had been…
Stagaush Tribes remove to Salmon River: Excerpts from a History of the Little Nestucca
This book-length essay is from the Oregon Historical Society Library. It appears to be completely unpublished. The author Alexandra Ley Rock, was none too generous towards her characterizations…
A Trip to Tillamook, By Way of the Salmon River: the First Journey of Warren Vaughn
I encountered this history, partially unpublished I believe, in the Oregon Historical Society Library. The published book of his journal focuses on the second trip down the coast…
Blueprints of the New Salmon River Highway
All this Salmon river research has led me to the Oregon State Archives. There they have the records of the Oregon State Highway Commission. Commission records go back…
Contributions of William and Almira Raymond to Native Administration in Oregon
William Raymond was a sub-Indian agent from 1851 until at least 1857. He administered the tribes first at the Astoria sub-agency, then later moved the agency to Tillamook.…
When the Roads in Grand Ronde Were Paved
Until about 1923, all roads on the Grand Ronde Reservation were “improved roads.” They were originally trails used for horse and buggy and then later graveled and…
Wagon Roads From Grand Ronde to the Coast
In the 1860’s, the Indians of the Grand Ronde Indian Reservation needed a route to get to the coast to gather fish. The Indian agents Continue reading
Devil’s Lake and Salmon River Encampment
Devil’s Lake is in Lincoln City, in fact it is the only such lake and state park completely contained within a city in Oregon. The Continue reading
Conditions of the Alsea Indians and the Salmon River Encampment 1876-1878
As addressed in previous essays, in about 1875, most Indian annuities for the Western Oregon tribes ended because the 20 year payments were exhausted. This Continue reading
Siletz Tribal Council 1876
The year 1876 appears to have been a key year to discuss further reductions of the Siletz Reservation. The original Coast reservation was a Continue reading
Warm Springs Speeches 1876
It is well known that the Coast Reservation was reduced in 1865 and 1875 to make way for white settlement. A similar threat was posed Continue reading
Surviving Oregon Native Languages; Online Sources and Links
Oregon Tribal Languages have been endangered for over 100 years. From an original base of some 100 languages and dialects, the number of surviving Continue reading