Once the tribes were removed to the reservations, additional work began to civilize them. The Indian Agents and teachers disregarded the tribe’s cultures and previous life-ways and immediately began a program of education. Adults got their education through changing the ways they used the land. No longer were the tribes allowed to freely travel about … [Read more…]
In the 1850s, the United States made treaties with confederations of western Oregon tribes consisting of over sixty tribes consolidated on two reservations. In following decades, the U.S. government implemented on-reservation and off-reservation boarding schools in order to assimilate Indian children into American society. The initial educational protocols were based on those developed by religious … [Read more…]
Native oral history is based on actual historic events of their tribal past. For the Kalapuyans this is also true. Some 15,000 to 12,000 years ago a series of megafloods occurred (upwards of 40 in some theories) in western Oregon. The glacial dams created by the glacial masses which reached the Columbia River during this … [Read more…]
An eventful year, 2016, for Indigenous peoples! We began the year with [nearly] a bang when the Malheur Wildlife refuge in Oregon was taken over and occupied by an American militia who basically wanted free land and free leasing of federal lands. This blog responded with a series of articles about the native indigenous history … [Read more…]
Kalapuyan History (summary) From original 25,000 Kalapuyan people (estimated) in 19 tribes and bands, they were reduced to about 800 by 1850 through diseases like malaria. The loss of population caused cultural collapse and the confederation of many different villages to a very few. This left the land open to settlement from other tribes and … [Read more…]