The Battle of Abiqua In February 1848, six months after the Whitman Massacre, the settlers in the Willamette valley were very tense, concerned that the tribes would gather together and attack. Many of the men had volunteered for a militia and were in eastern Oregon for the Cayuse War, so additional citizen militia were established … [Read more…]
Crooked Finger (Loshuk), the Molalla Chief, lived in an upland valley in the foothills of the Cascades, above present day Scott’s Mills. This area is called Crooked Finger’s Prairie even today. Loshuk received his American name Crooked Finger when as a boy he was playing with a rifle and it went off, disfiguring his hand. … [Read more…]
The Molalla tribes, North, Santiam, and Umpqua valley (southern), were traders between the Chinookans to the north, the Klamaths to the south and the Paiutes to the east and the Kalapuyans in the west of their territory. Their name is a corruption of the Chinook Wawa word “ulali” meaning berry or huckleberry.