Category: Anthropology

Anthropology, colonization, General History, Native Issues, Oregon Coast, Oregon indiansLeave a comment

Tribal Reactions to the 1851 Treaties

David G. Lewis, PhD

In the history of treaty making , there were two treaty periods for western Oregon, 1851, and 1853 to 1855. The 1851 treaties, 19 of them, were negotiated with tribes in four locations, Champoeg, Tansy Point, and Port Orford were the sites of the main negotiations, The final location, Oregon City, was where the Clackamas treaty was negotiated twice and finally agreed to by the tribe in late 1851. Anson Dart, the Indian Superintendent of Oregon then takes the treaties to Washington, DC and there, in 1852 they died in Congress, Dart finally advising Congress to never ratify them because … Continue reading Tribal Reactions to the 1851 Treaties

Anthropology, General History, Native Issues, Uncategorized, Willamette ValleyLeave a comment

Socialites and Indian Baskets: Success of Harwood Hall at Sherman and Chemawa

David G. Lewis, PhD

I have always been confused as to why there is a Chemawa Jr. High in Riverside CA. The word Chemawa is from the Kalapuya tribes of the Willamette Valley and designates a village just north of Salem, Oregon. As well there is a Native boarding school, Chemawa Indian School, that began in 1880 located north of Salem that is still operating.  In recent research I found there was a pre-existing Chemawa Park in Riverside which predated Sherman Indian Industrial school by one year (1901), and Chemawa Jr. High, built within the former park, which is still operating as Chemawa Middle … Continue reading Socialites and Indian Baskets: Success of Harwood Hall at Sherman and Chemawa

Anthropology, General History, Grand Ronde ReservationLeave a comment

Influenza on the Reservation

David G. Lewis, PhD

The tribes removed to the Grand Ronde Reservation in 1856 never realized the safety and security of a reservation they were promised in seven treaties. They were forced into poverty, living on whatever the federal government was able to send to them from the east coast. The first years were full of starvation deprivation, and death as hundreds of traumatized people from more than 2 dozen tribes were forced to live in federal confinement. The tribes from the Rogue River area had been preyed upon for over a decade by white settlers and gold miners, and after having enough had … Continue reading Influenza on the Reservation

Anthropology, General HistoryLeave a comment

Genealogy of Racism on American Indians

David G. Lewis, PhD

Notes transcribed from Smedley, Audrey. Race in North America, Origin and Evolution of a Worldview, 2nd edition, Westview press, 1999, Comments are my own. The origins of racism in America as employed by the United States Indian Service are in the English treatments of the Native people of Ireland.[1]  The English people for centuries attempted to fully colonize Ireland to little results. The Irish people resisted every attempt to conquer them either through war or through social reorganization (ie: acculturation, assimilation and colonization). The English merely have carried of a protracted war of colonization that continues to the present era. … Continue reading Genealogy of Racism on American Indians

Anthropology, General History, Oral History, Oregon indians, Umpqua Valley3 Comments

Native Details of the Battle of Hungry Hill

David G. Lewis, PhD

As noted by Dr. Mark Tveskov in his 2017 article “A “Most Disastrous” Affair: The Battle of Hungry Hill, Historical Memory, and the Rogue River War” (OHQ Vol. 118, no. 1- find the full text on Academia.com) the battle was one of the most famous for Oregon and perhaps the most disastrous for the Oregon Territorial volunteer militia troops. Tveskov tracked down many accounts for his narrative from newspapers and military sources and was able to show how the descriptions of the battle were altered by some of the narrators. Tveskov remarks that it is likely the case that the … Continue reading Native Details of the Battle of Hungry Hill