Tag: dickie prairie

General History, Oregon indians, treaties, Uncategorized, Willamette Valley25 Comments

Molalla Chief Crooked Finger, the Battle of Abiqua and the 1851 Molalla Treaty

David G. Lewis, PhD

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. In his time he was renowned for speaking against the American settlement of his land and set about to harass Americans whenever he could as partial retribution for the losses his tribe was sustaining. Some reports suggest that he drank heavily of a rum from … Continue reading Molalla Chief Crooked Finger, the Battle of Abiqua and the 1851 Molalla Treaty

General History, Oregon indians, Uncategorized, Willamette Valley4 Comments

Temporary Reservation and Removal of the Molalla Band of Indians 1855-1871

David G. Lewis, PhD

The Molalla Indians were several tribes that lived in the foothills of the Cascade Range in the Willamette Valley. They ranged throughout the Cascades gathering berries and hunting in the mountainous environments. Many anthropologists have placed their homelands within the Cascades and have organized the tribes as North, Santiam and South, but they did not live there. The Northern Tribe lived in the foothills near Molalla, Oregon, at Dicky Prairie and ranged to the Columbia and Willamette Falls for trade and relations. The Santiam Molalla band lived at  the headwaters of the North Santiam and  south to the MacKenzie. The … Continue reading Temporary Reservation and Removal of the Molalla Band of Indians 1855-1871