Tag: shasta

California Natives, General HistoryLeave a comment

General Wool in California

David G. Lewis, PhD

The following is a series of statements by General John E. Wool and his underlings in the 1850s, from their administrative moorings in Benecia, California, the offices of the Department of the Pacific. General Wool was in this time pacifying California for settlers, working on arrangements with Mexico following the Spanish-America War, and also dealing with the new territories on the west coast, Oregon, and Washington and Utah. In this territory there were innumerable tribes of Native peoples, and a huge number of American immigrants who flooded the territories in the tens of thousands causing numerous conflicts with the tribes. … Continue reading General Wool in California

California Natives, General History, Grand Ronde Reservation, Native Issues, Oregon indians, Siletz Reservation3 Comments

Ka’hosadi Shasta Peoples of Oregon and California

David G. Lewis, PhD

Chief John, Tecumtum, was the leader of the Rogue River Confederacy for over a year in southwestern Oregon. The Confederacy formed when tribal bands on the Table Rock Reservation were attacked by Americans seeking to punish and exact retribution on the Indian there for previous battles, skirmishes, and petty thefts in the region. The region of southwestern Oregon and northern California was a conflict zone for about eight years by 1856 with settlement and gold mining causing numerous territorial conflicts in the region. Gold miners, in particular, were apt to make a try at gold mining for a year or … Continue reading Ka’hosadi Shasta Peoples of Oregon and California

California Natives, General History, Grand Ronde Reservation, Oregon indians, Rogue Valley, Siletz Reservation4 Comments

Treaty with the Chasta, Negotiated November 18, 1854, Ratified March 3, 1855

David G. Lewis, PhD

The Treaty with the Chasta was signed on November 18, 1854, ceding a good portion of the Illinois and Rogue River areas, west of the Rogue Valley, to the United States. The Chasta, or Chasta Costa, were athabaskan speakers, like the Tututni, Upper Umpqua, and Tolowa Deeni peoples of the region. The Athapaskans are theorized to have been one of the more recent migrations into the area, perhaps 1200 years previously. Tolowa Deeni oral history suggests they migrated with canoes from the frozen north, landed at Yontocket (Burnt Ranch) a village site just south of the Smith River in Northern … Continue reading Treaty with the Chasta, Negotiated November 18, 1854, Ratified March 3, 1855

California Natives, General History, Native Issues, Oregon indians, Rogue Valley, Uncategorized4 Comments

The Land is Our Heart: Protect the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument

David G. Lewis, PhD

The Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument spans more than 66,000 acres of forest lands in southern Oregon and Northern California. These are the traditional homelands of the Takelmans, Athapaskans, Shastans, and Klamath peoples. The Rogue River tribes, as they are known today at Grand Ronde and Siletz reservations, were the Takelma, Athapaskan, Shasta and some Umpqua tribes of the region. Therefore, this monument, established in 2000 at around 24,000 acres, and expanded by president Obama in 2016 to over 66,000 acres, spans the territory of three tribes from Grand Ronde, and including the western edge of the Klamath territory. In this territory … Continue reading The Land is Our Heart: Protect the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument

California Natives, General History, Native Issues, Oregon indians, Rogue Valley, Uncategorized2 Comments

Sparking the Rogue River War

David G. Lewis, PhD

In 1854, many of the southern Oregon tribes were already on the Table Rock Reservation. They had signed several treaties selling their lands and were moved to Table Rock, awaiting the completion of the Siletz Agency on the Coast Reservation. The reservation was somewhat porous and many of the tribes were allowed to come and go in search of food and supplies. As well many of their brethren tribes further away remained off-reservation, having refused to remove, and were engaged in conflicts with the American settlers and gold miners. On about May 12th Lt. Bonnycastle at Fort Jones in Northern … Continue reading Sparking the Rogue River War