On March 26, 1856, a year after the Willamette Valley treaty is negotiated (Jan. 22, 1855) there is an uprising on the Columbia near the Cascades. There are numerous versions of the story, but it is associated as an extension of the Yakima Indian Wars, where Klickitat and Yakima and perhaps some Cascades Indians were … [Read more…]
In an apparent twist of history, it was not the Americans who were first among the group of civilized Christian nations that settled in Oregon. In about 1725 a Spanish trading ship, perhaps a galleon, wrecked on the coast, in the vicinity of the Columbia River Estuary. Spanish ships had been exploring the region for … [Read more…]
Dentalia shells, a mollusk, is collected from the sea floor off of Vancouver Island and is used by native peoples in a broad region of North America. They grow up to 3 inches (or more) long for the North West Coast dentalia, while 2 inch dentalia are not uncommon and 1-1.5 inches are the most … [Read more…]
Fur traders with the Pacific Fur Company, an American company, left Fort Astoria in 1812, 23rd, October (Franchere), for the Willamette Valley to establish a fur trading outpost. The intent was to establish a fur trading post close to the Kalapuyan tribal villages and form positive relationships with the tribes. Wallace House was built by William … [Read more…]
Champoeg is a monument to early Oregon settlement by French- Canadians and Americans from the 1820s to the 1850s. Champoeg, situated on the edge of the French Prairie, the breadbasket of early pioneer Oregon territory, served as a center of community governance, as a cultural center and as a trade port where shipments of grains … [Read more…]