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Red Caps Murder Patora

David G. Lewis, PhD

In March 1855, Patora a chief of the Yurok tribe was murdered by volunteers on the Klamath River in California. The Yurok at this time were peaceful and trusted the military and distrusted a band of volunteers called the Red Caps. The Military under Capt. Judah was organizing to arrest the Red Caps with the help of the Yuroks who knew the territory well. The following is an account of how Patora was murdered, and account which is remarkably similar to other genocides in California and Oregon. Capt. Judah and Mr. Whipple arrived in the Indian Country March 22nd. They … Continue reading Red Caps Murder Patora

Anthropology, colonization, columbia river, General History, Native Issues, Oregon indians1 Comment

Baleful Gifts of Civilization: Smallpox Epidemic 1853

David G. Lewis, PhD

  It is well recording in numerous sources that diseases from Europe came with the exploring Whitemen and infected millions of the indigenous peoples of the World with waves of pandemics, causing the death of more people in the exploratory period than all of the wars of humankind. An estimated 100-300 million indigenous peoples worldwide died in this manner, a number which is a broad estimate because no one knows for sure how many indigenous peoples existed before the disease and viruses visited them. Many indigenous people, those of the island communities, Australia, and the Americas had no resistance to … Continue reading Baleful Gifts of Civilization: Smallpox Epidemic 1853

Anthropology, General History, Native Issues, Oregon indians3 Comments

We Tricked them-We Are All One People

David G. Lewis, PhD

Aunt Pat in a low whispering voice was speaking to me before a Culture Committee meeting at Grand Ronde. Pat Allen was the chair and I was vice-chair, and I had learned not too much earlier that Pat and I are distantly related through the Tom family, probably called shirt-tail cousins among the rez folks. Pat had become a close confidant and had grown up at the Warm Springs Reservation along with her sister Cheryle Kennedy, the tribal chair. Their mother and father had met during the WWII at the Kaiser shipyards, formed a bond and moved to Warm Springs … Continue reading We Tricked them-We Are All One People

General History, Oregon indiansLeave a comment

Oregon Catholic Indian Education History

David G. Lewis, PhD

The Catholic Indian education program was initially supported by a policy decision by the U.S. Department of War in 1819. Then the USDOW was in charge of Indian affairs and they began a Congressionally approved “civilizing fund” of $10K under the below-stated goal, “Such associations or individuals who are already actually engaged in educating the Indians, and who may desire the cooperation of the government will report to the Department of War… In proportion to the means of the government, cooperation will be extended to such institutions as may be approved, as well in erecting their necessary buildings as in … Continue reading Oregon Catholic Indian Education History

colonization, columbia river, General History, Grand Ronde Reservation, Oregon indians1 Comment

Blanchet’s Mission at the Walamette Village, 1841

David G. Lewis, PhD

The following is report from a Notice, Notice No. 4, part of a series of reports of the Catholic missionary Francois Norbert Blanchet (September 30, 1795 – June 18, 1883) from 1841 to 1842 about his missionary conversion work among the tribes of the Willamette and Columbia Rivers, in the middle Chinookan area. Blanchet visits the villages at Willamette Falls, Clackamas, Vancouver, and the Cascades from May 1841 to early 1842. Blanchet had arrived in Oregon in 1839 and began holding sermons at St. Paul in the area of French Prairie, the north Willamette Valley. His first visitors would be … Continue reading Blanchet’s Mission at the Walamette Village, 1841