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), and a man by the name of Gerald Center was a regular attendee. He would normally play at one of the drums. Sometime later, I learned that the Center family was descended from the Clatskanie. I have since then assumed they are Clatskanie descendants, even though I have not done any genealogy to determine that they are the correct Center family. I do not know the status of the family nor how many claim Clatskanie tribal heritage at this time. But if they still live in Portland, they may be one of the few families that may legitimately claim Portland, or at least West Portland- the area out by Sauvie Island- as their Traditional Homelands.
Some years ago, I also did some work on the 1851 treaties, those that went unratified. The Clatskanie signed one of these treaties. In the treaty, there is a description of their land claims. In very clear language, they claim part of the waterfront acreage on the Columbia River, an area near Scappoose, as part of their traditional land claim. That fact has been ignored by most scholars who apparently have never read that document. Most maps of the Clatskanie traditional territory show them only living in the Tualatin Mountains, but in 1851, this was not accurate.
Still, other scholars have never found evidence of the Clatskanie being moved to the Grand Ronde Indian Reservation. Daniel Boxberger documented the Nepechuck in 1839 in a census by the Hudson Bay Company. Robert Boyd documented the tribes being moved into a reserve on the Columbia, the Milton Reserve, in previous reports. The Clatskanie were there in 1855 with the Nepechuck- likely the remainder of the Multnomah tribe. But what Boxberger and Boyd did not know until recently, is that the Reserve at Milton (a place, a mill, which has since disappeared and been renamed- but was across the slough from Sauvie Island) was part of a system of reserves and encampments set up by Joel Palmer to temporarily moved to tribes to a place of safety until they could be moved onto a permanent reservation. This reservation opened in 1856 and was called the Grand Ronde Indian Reservation.
A further complication with the Clatskanie is that they did not sign the Willamette Valley treaty in January of 1855 with most of the other tribes in the valley. Instead, they and the Nepechuck sign the treaty on January 20, 1856- a year later. The signed documents of five tribes who missed the 1855 window do not arrive until March 1856 in Washington D.C,. fully a year after the treaty was ratified by Congress. I think this fact, which I have published about, suggests that maybe the Clatskanie never moved to Grand Ronde. But as you will see, they absolutely did. Records after this initial period of 1856 are spotty, tribal censuses are inconsistent, and it’s tough to track any individuals for at least a couple of decades. So we do not know if the Clatskanie remained at Grand Ronde after the initial move. It is likely some did remain and that others did return to their homeland to integrate with the new American settlements being established along the Columbia River.
Nepechuck and Klatskanie peoples censused at Grand Ronde 1856, Palmer Papers
The information below is set in a historic timeline format.
Palmer Pocket diary for 1856, Palmer papers
(Palmer here is completing the negotiation of the Willamette Valley Treaty of 1855- Palmer had not gotten the signatures of some five tribes and in January of 1856 he is completing the negotiations with the Clatskanie and perhaps the other tribes “Ne-pe-chuck, Mountain and of Molalla, Chiwean Band of Santiam, Santiam Forks Band of Molalla”- see the Missing Pages essay.)
1/29, Remained in office. Mr. Jennings and Smith having arrived with the Claskanine Indians, who have been sent for for the purpose of treating with.
1/30, Today we had a talk with the Clatskanines, several of the Clackamus, ten Twaltine Indians were present, as also the —- Bands. Continued council until one at night.
1/31, This morning the Indian again assembled and the treaty consummated and signed, and the goods given to the Indians. The Clackimus [sic] Indians returned home.
(Were the Ne-pe-check being called Clackamas here- like they are a band of the Clackamas tribe? Its unclear what additionally is being negotiated as the Clackamas signatures went to Washington, D.C. in January 1855.)
(evidence of removal are in the Joel Palmer Papers (online))
(Duplicate doc) 1856. Jan. 23
“To Str. “Jenny Clark” … passage of the following persons from Portland to Oregon City… enrout to visit the Supt of Ind. Affairs, at Dayton… ten Indians belonging to the Klatskania, two Ne-pe-chuck band, … Thomas Smith, local agent…(returned Feb 3)
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(Letter of January 31st 1856)
“…William a Ne-pe-chuck Indian is the chief of his band…a treaty for the estrangement of the title to the land claimed by them and the Clatskanies having been negotiated by which they are confederated with the Tribes of the Willamette Valley,… They are permitted to reside at their usual places of abode until such time as the proper improvements are made upon the reservation designed as their permanent … In the mean time the usual privileges of fishing hunting and cultivating their patches has been guaranteed them. Joel Palmer”
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(Duplicate doc) 1856 Febry 4
“To Str [Steamer] Multnomah passage of the following persons Portland to Milton… from visiting…To negotiate treaty…(ten) Klatskanie and Nepechuck indians… Thomas Smith.. and one case of Indian goods… received Feb 4th 1856.”
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(Invoice of March 31, 1856) Lot Whitcomb, Special Sub Agent
“ February 15, 1856. For the services of himself, & horse on duty as special sub agent in collecting together & locating the Tumwater & Klickitat Indians on south side of the Columbia River, and the Clatsop Indians between Milton and Astoria, etc. as per the instructions of Joel Palmer, supt. Ind. Affairs of 19th October 1855. Commencing October 21st 1855 and ending February 15, 1856 being 118 days at $3.50 per day… $413.00”
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(Abstract of April 5, 1856) B. Jennings, spec sub Ind agent
“I hereby certify the following articles of subsistence was issues by me to the Klamath & Clackamas tribes of Indians, with others of various scattering tribes of the north, whilst assembled at Oregon city, for transportation to the Grand Ronde Reservation, on the 2nd of April 1856. The Said Indian being under my charge, as Special agent and conductor, and numbering about three hundred and thirty.”
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(Abstract of April 11, 1856) John Crosby
“… for services of himself going from Dayton to Portland on route to St. Helens, in company with Indian woman of Klatskania tribe– by direction of the superintendent Indian affairs, herewith, (the woman had been separated from her infant, which was found with local agent Thomas H. Smith, at Portland, enroute with that band to Dayton) and returning thence to Dayton.”
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(Abstract of April 11, 1856) Thomas H. Smith
“…Collecting together the Nepechuck Band of Indians at Milton Encampment, and conducting them to Dayton… March 29th -April 14th…” (return to Milton on the 12, 13, 14th)(therefore arriving at Dayton April 11th)
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(Abstract of April 11, 1856) Thomas H. . HSmith
“…Provisions delivered by me to the Band of the Nepechuck Indians… as special conductor from the Milton encampment… between the 8th and 11th of April 1856.”
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(Invoice of April 11, 1856) Thomas H. Smith
“…Travelling expenses in conducting Indians from Milton Encampment to Dayton…”
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(Abstract of 18th of April, 1856) John Flett
“…Clackamas and the Clowewalla and Wallalah (Tumwater) bands of Indians , at the Dayton Encampment, enroute to the Grand Ronde Reservation for sixteen days commencing the 3rd and ending the 18th of April, 1856… total 209 (Indians)”
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Voucher no 9, Abstract of provisions , Provision return 2nd Quarter 1856, April 30, 1856
Return of Provisions issued on the road, in the removal of Indians from the Dayton Encampment to the Grand Ronde Reservation by, and under the charge of W.D. Woodcock, Special conductor, under the orders of Joel Palmer, Superintendent of Indian Affairs, in April 1856,
[Table of ] Molallas, Clackamas etc, Klamath, Klatskania, Klikatat, Callapooya
Klatskania, 8 men, 7 women, 5 children, 20 total
[emphasis added]
For April 16 to April 20, 1856
No of days- 4 1/2, no of rations- 90, lbs of beef- 90,
lbs of flour- 112 1/2, lbs of bacon- 18
[signed by] W.D. Woodcock
Certified [by, signatures of ] David Hamilton, Porter Holdredge
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(Abstract of April 1856) W.D. Woodcock, Conductor
“Removal of Indians from the Dayton Encampment to the Grand Ronde Reservation, by, and under the charge of W.D. Woodcock, Special conductor, under the order of Joel Palmer…”
(table) Molallas- counts of men, women, children- total 90, 12 Apr-13 Apr
Clackamas etc- total 209, 19- 20 Apr
Klamaths- total 141, 19-20 Apr
Klatskania- 8,7,5,-total 20, 16-20 Apr [emphasis added]
Klikitat- total 11, 27-27 Apr
Callapooya- total 12, 27-27 Apr
Total (of all) 483
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(Census list of Indians located on the Coast Reservation and Grand Ronde Attached thereto, undated- likely 1856)
St Hellens – Klats-Kania & Ne-pechuck, 16 men, 15 women, 10, children, 41 total
(more tribes listed)
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Discussion
It is my feeling that sometimes “Nepechuck” was used as the name for all of the tribes from the Milton encampment- a very common practice- we see this common name associated with a reservation name too, Ex, all Indians on the Umpqua reservations are labelled Umpquas at times- even if there were four different tribes on the reservation. But only later, during removal from Dayton to Grand Ronde (Woodcock abstract), are the Klatskania individually named, separate from the Nepechuck. Here are enough references to them to conclude they were removed to Grand Ronde.
The timeline would be
March 29- April 11th- conducted by Smith to Dayton
April 11-16- at Dayton being counted and fed- awaiting further removal
April 16-17 Conducted by Woodcock to Grand Ronde Reservation
Most references are from the Joel Palmer Papers– search by year. The abstracts and invoices are the evidence, not traditional correspondence. There are also several files of censuses.
Robert Boyd is in the midst of a book project, “Portland Before Portland,” which will also include this information.
Boxberger, Daniel L. “THE HUDSON’S BAY COMPANY 1839 FORT VANCOUVER CENSUSES OF INDIAN POPULATION.” Journal of Northwest Anthropology 46.1 (2012).
Lewis, David Gene. Tribal histories of the Willamette Valley. Ooligan Press, 2023.