Tag: row river

General History, Oregon indians, Umpqua Valley, Uncategorized5 Comments

Reconnoiter to Row River 2017

David G. Lewis, PhD

The Row (Rou) River feeds into the Willamette River just about where Cottage Grove is today. In mid-March I took a short trip up the Row River to figure out just about where the Chief Halotish village might be. I drove and stopped when I saw an interesting landmark. I took many pictures of landscapes and hillsides that would have been a common site to the Yoncalla Kalapuyans before their villages were abandoned in the mid-19th century. It occurred to me that since the landscape’s hills and many upland prairies appeared to be undeveloped and not heavily forested that they … Continue reading Reconnoiter to Row River 2017

General History, Oregon indians, Umpqua Valley, Uncategorized6 Comments

Chief Halotish Village on the Row River

David G. Lewis, PhD

On the sleepy banks of the Row River, near the Calapooia Mountains in western Oregon,  by the town of Cottage Grove, was once a vibrant Kalapuyan village. Townsfolk on the early 20th century wrote in the newspaper that there were two communities of about 100 Native people in the area, the village on the Row River occupied by the family of Chief Halotish and the village at Pleasant Hill occupied by other “Pleasant Hill” Kalapuyans. They would travel back and forth and visit one another, attending summer camp meetings on the site of the heritage fairgrounds in Cottage Grove, while, … Continue reading Chief Halotish Village on the Row River