The following letters detail one side of the conversation with Joel Palmer, Superintendent of Indian Affairs in Oregon, and John Wool, commander of the Pacific Department. (I don’t yet have Palmer’s letters.) Wool’s assistant Townsend, when Wool was visiting Puget Sound, sent orders to help Palmer move the tribes from Southern Oregon, at the Table … More Planning the Reserve on the Sea Coast
The following two letters are an example of how the settlers could not live with the tribal people having any resources. The settlers in 1854 had won, and they were about to gain the whole Umpqua Valley. There had been no war or any real conflicts from the Umpqua tribes. The tribes of the Umpqua … More Coles Valley settlers want the Resources on the Umpqua Reservation, 1854
William Martin, the Sub-Indian Agent of the Umpqua and Coos Bay was appointed to the position by Joel Palmer in June 1853. He worked to understand the tribes of the Umpqua better, to follow Palmer’s orders and describe the tribes as best as he could. He did this for more than six months without even … More The Umpqua River Indians Prepare for Removal
When Joel Palmer was appointed to Superintendent of Indian Affairs in May 1853 he had a good working knowledge of the tribes but had never visited the southern Oregon coast. He began to scope out and plan how southwestern Oregon was to be managed as there were numerous tribes in that region. His first effort … More Preparing for Purchase, First Indian Agent in Coos Bay, 1853
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 … More Baleful Gifts of Civilization: Smallpox Epidemic 1853
