Category: columbia river

anson dart, columbia river, treaties, Willamette ValleyLeave a comment

Dart Introduces the Clackamas Treaty to the US Senate

David G. Lewis, PhD

Anson Dart departed from Oregon in late 1851 after completing the negotiation of 19 treaties in Oregon with tribes. Dart had replaced the Willamette Treaty Commission in June 1851 after they negotiated the Kalapuya and Molalla Treaties at Champoeg. Dart had sent letters to Washington DC stating that the commission were not properly representative of the US government and he was, so that he should assume the responsibility of negotiating treaties. Evidentally this reasoning was successful because Dart became the chief treaty negotiator and duty with consumed the remainder of his time in Oregon.  He also got the budgets for … Continue reading Dart Introduces the Clackamas Treaty to the US Senate

Anthropology, colonization, columbia river, General History, Native Issues, Oregon indians1 Comment

Baleful Gifts of Civilization: Smallpox Epidemic 1853

David G. Lewis, PhD

  It is well recording in numerous sources that diseases from Europe came with the exploring Whitemen and infected millions of the indigenous peoples of the World with waves of pandemics, causing the death of more people in the exploratory period than all of the wars of humankind. An estimated 100-300 million indigenous peoples worldwide died in this manner, a number which is a broad estimate because no one knows for sure how many indigenous peoples existed before the disease and viruses visited them. Many indigenous people, those of the island communities, Australia, and the Americas had no resistance to … Continue reading Baleful Gifts of Civilization: Smallpox Epidemic 1853

colonization, columbia river, General History, Kalapuya, Native Issues, Washington Territory, Willamette ValleyLeave a comment

Modeste Demers Ethnographic Descriptions of the Tribes, 1839

David G. Lewis, PhD

Modeste Demers was assigned with the Oregon Territory, in 1837, at the same time as Francois Norbert Blanchet and they traveled together overland to their assignment in canoes and on horseback, in Hudson’s Bay trading party.  Along the way, Demers and Blanchet take time to have short missions with the tribes and baptize more than 100 people. Demers set up his initial residence in Fort Vancouver and spent three months learning Chinuk Wawa (Jargon), which was the language the missionaries used to instruct nearly every tribe they encountered in the region. In the following early report of the tribes encountered … Continue reading Modeste Demers Ethnographic Descriptions of the Tribes, 1839

colonization, columbia river, General History, Native Issues, Oregon indians1 Comment

Blanchet’s Mission to Vancouver, 1841

David G. Lewis, PhD

Reverend Blanchet traveled to Fort Vancouver after his mission to the Clackamas. In Vancouver, there was much more orderly town life, the chapels in the fort being served by the Anglican priests. Nevertheless, he is likely politely invited to give sermons in the various chapel locations. The Chapels are likely based on the highly segregated populations at the fort, one for the officers, one for the white laborers and one for the Natives who provided the vast majority of labor for the fort, yet most were never allowed to enter the fort and lived instead in the Kanaka village. Blanchet … Continue reading Blanchet’s Mission to Vancouver, 1841

colonization, columbia river, General History, Native Issues, Oregon indians, treaties1 Comment

Blanchet’s Mission to the Cascades, 1841

David G. Lewis, PhD

Blanchet’s mission to the Cascades is perhaps his first visit to this location. His interactions with Tamakoun, also later called Tomaquin, are quite revealing of the tribe and its divisions. The notation about villages on the two banks suggests a different leadership and some division in the tribe. Tamakoun does not suggest that the attentions of the Methodists or the Catholics are in any way undesirable only that there is a difference, yet he had become coverted to Catholic by this account. It is in this location that Blanchet’s ethnographic notes really show the tribal culture. His notes about the … Continue reading Blanchet’s Mission to the Cascades, 1841