Oregon Native Place Names in the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, Part 1

In the map collections of Oregon Historical Society there is a selection of Coast Survey maps. Most of these maps date from 1874 and there are some later. They are blueprint copies of the original maps, which are likely in College Park, Maryland in the NARA Cartography collection center. These maps I had found and photographed some five years previously (very badly). Then I “discovered” that a couple of the maps had some Native Place names. It is on maps # 770 b & c where there is documentation of the survey from Siletz to the Tillamook area. The maps … Continue reading Oregon Native Place Names in the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, Part 1

The Gateway on the Central Oregon Coast, Fort Umpqua and the Umpqua Sub Indian Agency

The southern and central Coast of Oregon is a relatively unknown area in Native American history. As the area is not well researched it is generally assumed to have been vacated during the Indian removals of 1856. However, federal records show us that this is not the case at all. That there were tribes and bands living on the central coast, even below the southern border of the Coast Reservation, and there was quite a lot of traffic of Native groups moving up and down the coast as they were either forced into the reservation and its encampments, or tried … Continue reading The Gateway on the Central Oregon Coast, Fort Umpqua and the Umpqua Sub Indian Agency

War on the Umpqua Tribes and Removal to the Umpqua Reserves

Much has been written and published of the Rogue River, Modoc, and Yakima Wars in the Oregon Territory. These wars were, by-and-large, reactions of the tribes to extreme attacks on their land, and their survival.  There were a number of other such conflicts that did not reach the status of war for historians. In the Umpqua Valley there is such a history of attacks on the tribes. In 1855, within the Umpqua Valley was the Umpqua Reservation, at the forks of Calapooia Creek and the Umpqua. The reserve was thought to be created in the Treaty of the Cow Creek … Continue reading War on the Umpqua Tribes and Removal to the Umpqua Reserves