Questions about the recent Supreme Court case Trump v. Barbara, and how a decision will affect American Indians’ rights are completely valid. There is a danger that all Native people who were born on Reservations, or all Native people born in the US, and/or born after the date of the executive order, could be denaturalized … [Read more…]
The Commissioner of Indian Affairs’ record The Nestucca were native peoples who lived on the central Oregon coast at the Nestucca River. They were a tribe of Salish-speaking people, one of the Tillamookan tribes, which extended from south of the Clatsop territory to just south of the Siletz River. These tribes were the Nehalem, Tillamook, … [Read more…]
The Clatskanie are a tribe that is not well known to many scholars in the region. There are rare documents about them, and many people, I feel, have assumed they have gone extinct. Some years ago, when I was a student at UO, I recall organizing and attending the University of Oregon Pow wows (1990s), … [Read more…]
Reading early descriptions of the Tualatin Valley, they are all focused on the valley’s potential in agriculture. This theme is similar throughout the Willamette Valley; settlers and farmers did not think about the valley in any other way but for its readiness for agriculture. Considering this all-consuming focus, the traditional native nature of the land … [Read more…]
Dairy Creek sign In the past 2 years, I have worked on signage projects in the Portland area for agencies of the city or state. In 2025, I consulted on a sign for the Dairy Creek project on Sauvie Island. Over the period of several months, I met with people in the West Multnomah Soils … [Read more…]