Years ago my research on the records on the tribes revealed to me that George Gibbs was a significant part of the history of the tribes at the time of the treaties. An early ethnographer and Chinuk Wawa speaker and a translator for both the Oregon and California treaty commissions, he was highly influential in … [Read more…]
Early in my studies, I did work with the various Christian efforts to colonize Oregon. Some of that appears in my dissertation. Lately I have begun to think that the United States policy of treaty making is part and parcel following the same pattern as that devised by Christian Missionaries to the tribes. This all … [Read more…]
This is a common issue with the early Anthropologists, linguists and folklorists. The researcher approaches their subject without much understanding of the people or culture. they were told, or inculcated in the notion that the tribes were savages and disappearing from the earth. Leo J. Frachtenberg, having been hired by Boas to come to Oregon, … [Read more…]
Recent investigations or explorations into the Historic Oregon newspaper Databases have revealed additional articles. This will happen as the project continues to add many more thousands of pages in the coming years. Sometime in 2014 pages of the Chemawa American will be available. But these articles consistently tell me we are either already extinct or … [Read more…]
Been thinking about and talking about the collapse of native societies in the northwest in the past few years. Also been thinking about the lack of definition in many theories of agriculturalists and complex hunter gatherers. I think I have a theory that connects these issues. The collapse of the societies due to epidemics caused … [Read more…]