Category: dart

colonization, columbia river, dart, General History, Kalapuya, Native Issues, Oregon indians, trade, Willamette Valley1 Comment

Stingy American Settlers of the Willamette Valley

David G. Lewis, PhD

  The Kalapuyan tribes of the Willamette Valley have lived here for more than 10,000 years, some 500 generations of people. The whole of the valley was owned by these tribes who had distinct yet overlapping territories. A few sections of the valley were owned by relative newcomers, the Molallans, who lived in the foothills and parts of the northeast valley. The northern part of the valley, where the Willamette River flowed over 35 foot falls, was occupied by The Clackamas tribes, who settled thickly along the upper  Willamette, Clackamas, and parts if the Columbia rivers. These tribes lived in … Continue reading Stingy American Settlers of the Willamette Valley

columbia river, dart, General History, Oregon indians, treaties, Willamette Valley2 Comments

Anson Dart and the Willamette Treaty Commission

David G. Lewis, PhD

Many scholars of Oregon tribal history have assumed, as have I, that Anson Dart, the Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Oregon from 1850 to 1852 was responsible for negotiating treaties with the western Oregon tribes. In fact, numerous histories of this time intimately describe these responsibilities, but this may not have been originally Dart’s responsibility at all. I recently wrote an essay about Dart’s orders. His orders were to manage whiskey trade, aid in the assimilation of the tribes, set up tribal jurisdictions, maintain the peace, and undermine Hudson’s Bay Company among the tribes. In fact, there is no mention … Continue reading Anson Dart and the Willamette Treaty Commission