Dr. Elijah White was a missionary and the first Indian sub-Agent of the Oregon territory. He was then (1837) part of Jason Lee’s Methodist Mission but had a falling out with Lee and left Oregon for the east. White returned in 1842 leading the first wagon train on the Oregon Trail. He was then appointed … More Elijah White Romanticizes Oregon Tribal Peoples
The Molala (Mollala, Molalla, Molele, La’tiwi) are a tribe of Western Oregon. They lived on the eastern periphery of the Willamette and Umpqua Valleys. There were at least five concentrations of them: The Northern Molala were situated in Dickie Prairie on the other side of the ridge from the contemporary town of Molalla, their village … More Ancient History of the Molala (La’tiwi)
Reverend Jason Lee established the first Methodist Mission near Champoeg in 1835. By 1839 the mission had been damaged by flood waters and Lee established another farm and school in what is now downtown Salem. Lee had the sawmill built first, and with the sawed timbers built first the grist mill then his house on Broadway … More Methodists in Oregon
In 1850, the United States passed The Oregon Donation Land-claim Act. This act gave American men 640 acres, one square mile of free land in Oregon, allowed other claims by wives (160 acres), and children, and proved up on the previous land claims of other Americans. A recent manuscript by Julius Wilm (2017) points out … More Dart’s Instructions of Colonization and Assimilation in 1850
This second treaty at Port Orford was with a tribe south of the Rogue River, likely the Chetleshin tribe. This is another athapaskan speaking tribe that already had several problems with miners on the coast. The emphasis on maintaining the peace and access of Americans across their lands suggests there were many problems in the … More The 1851 Treaty Commission: the Ya-su-chah at Port Orford
