20 Years of the Southwest Oregon Research Project

  Southwest Oregon Research Projects & The Archival Collection In 1995, I attended an event that would impact me for many years. The event was a potlatch held by the Coquille tribe and the University of Oregon. There was given away copies of some 50,000 pages of information collected from the Smithsonian Institution to the Tribes of Oregon. It was amazing to see all of these national figures in anthropology and the university and local tribes attend and receive their gifts. I did not known much about the project then, nor did I view the collection. It wasn’t until 1997 … Continue reading 20 Years of the Southwest Oregon Research Project

Native Community History of Eugene Area

Original Peoples The earliest history of Native people in the Eugene-Springfield area is that of the Kalapuya tribes from the area, Chifin, Winefelly,  Pee-u (Mohawk), and Chelamela tribes. These people signed a treaty with the United States in 1855, and were removed to temporary reservations in the Willamette valley. The Yoncalla, in the Umpqua valley, and in the Calapooia Mountains just south of Cottage Grove were removed to the Umpqua reservation after they signed the Kalapuya and Umpqua treaty in 1854. The tribes in the Eugene area of the Willamette Valley were taken to Spores farm to live for a … Continue reading Native Community History of Eugene Area

Freely given: Ethnographic collections and their Informants

Tribal traditions, languages, ethnography are integral to research on the cultures of tribes. These are part the libraries of tribal knowledge that are somewhat preserves and lost over the past 200 or more years. Elders have stated that whenever an … Continue reading Freely given: Ethnographic collections and their Informants