Eliza Young (Indian Eliza, Liza), was a native of the Mohawk Valley. The Mohawk Indians, were originally called the Peyu (Pee-you, Pe-u) Kalapuyans and were re-named by settlers after the river was renamed by early settler Jacob Spores. The Spores family had come from New York in 1847, the original homeland of the Mohawk … [Read more…]
Contemporaneous with the now famed Summers Collection, the Bureau of Indian Affairs was also collecting traditional implements from the tribes on reservations in the 1870s. The Summers Collection is today a collection of some 600 articles from the tribes of Oregon. At least 300 of the articles are directly from the Grand Ronde Indian Reservation. … [Read more…]
Fear of the Kalapuyans Fearing of “Indians” in the 1850s in Oregon was a real and powerful feeling among the white settlers. Tribal people did not live like white people, did not obey the laws of the United States and seemed to have their own harsh forms of justice. As such, the humanity of the … [Read more…]
The Census was found at the Oregon Historical Society Archives in the William W. Raymond Collection on May 9, 2019. That afternoon after my PSU class I took the opportunity to check out a few leads looking for information from Indian agents on the Oregon Coast. Raymond is not so well known, but he spent … [Read more…]
Most estimates suggest that there were 19 tribes and bands of the Kalapuyans. This estimate was made in the early 20th century and does not really address the complexity of counting tribes and bands. In the 1850s there were probably less than 19 due to amalgamation of communities because of a huge reduction of populations … [Read more…]