“To improve the status of our first citizens” Oregon Governor Douglas McKay, July 14, 1950 Introduction McKay’s comment, is meant to be a statement of assurance and commitment to the tribes from the Oregon State government. However the irony is that the agreement reached did not honor the promises implied. The tribes were not treated … [Read more…]
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 … [Read more…]
In the 19th century, in the United States, Tribal nations were rounded up and placed on reservations. There Tribal people were subjected to the forces of assimilation that worked to change Tribal culture and make the people into Americans. The national policy of this time was to assimilate American Indians into the “melting pot” of the United … [Read more…]
The situation on the Malheur Reservation is very reminiscent of what happened to the tribes in the 19th century, when thousands of acres of Indian reservation lands were taken from the reservations and allotted to Americans seeking their piece of land, with the promises of opportunity. This notion maybe connected with that of Manifest Destiny, … [Read more…]
My 2009 dissertation Termination of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde: Community, Politics, Identity was completed at the Department of Anthropology, University of Oregon after about six years of work. For the first few years I was studying tribal history and finding sources of where to find records. I was writing drafts of subjects and … [Read more…]