Tag: trade

General History, Native Issues, trade2 Comments

How the Trade and Intercourse Acts Aided Colonization of Native Lands

David G. Lewis, PhD

Foreword As an instructor in Native Studies and anthropology, I get bombarded with having to explain why native peoples on the reservations live the way they live. People just do not understand why Native peoples live in such poverty and simply remain, seeming victims of their own culture. Students are surprised to discover that tribal people are not allowed to have an industry or commerce unless they gain approval from Congress to trade their goods beyond the reservation borders. Some tribes in the past have gained approval, Menominee and Klamath for Timber products, and Osage for oil are some of … Continue reading How the Trade and Intercourse Acts Aided Colonization of Native Lands

Anthropology, General History, Native Issues, Oregon indians3 Comments

We Tricked them-We Are All One People

David G. Lewis, PhD

Aunt Pat in a low whispering voice was speaking to me before a Culture Committee meeting at Grand Ronde. Pat Allen was the chair and I was vice-chair, and I had learned not too much earlier that Pat and I are distantly related through the Tom family, probably called shirt-tail cousins among the rez folks. Pat had become a close confidant and had grown up at the Warm Springs Reservation along with her sister Cheryle Kennedy, the tribal chair. Their mother and father had met during the WWII at the Kaiser shipyards, formed a bond and moved to Warm Springs … Continue reading We Tricked them-We Are All One People

Anthropology, columbia river, General History, Kalapuya, Oregon indians1 Comment

Native Kinships and Wealth among the Middle Chinookans

David G. Lewis, PhD

Native kinships are incredibly complex. They do not follow the nice neat patterns of kinship that Americans have adopted from their European ancestors. Native peoples did not marry inside their own tribes, but were influenced by societal norms to marry someone from outside of the tribe. People born of royalty were encouraged to or arranged to marry royalty in other tribes and in this manner leadership roles and genealogies were kept within certain families. It can safely be said that all of the tribes in a particular region are all interrelated with one another by Native laws of marriage. But … Continue reading Native Kinships and Wealth among the Middle Chinookans

colonization, columbia river, dart, General History, Kalapuya, Native Issues, Oregon indians, trade, Willamette Valley1 Comment

Stingy American Settlers of the Willamette Valley

David G. Lewis, PhD

  The Kalapuyan tribes of the Willamette Valley have lived here for more than 10,000 years, some 500 generations of people. The whole of the valley was owned by these tribes who had distinct yet overlapping territories. A few sections of the valley were owned by relative newcomers, the Molallans, who lived in the foothills and parts of the northeast valley. The northern part of the valley, where the Willamette River flowed over 35 foot falls, was occupied by The Clackamas tribes, who settled thickly along the upper  Willamette, Clackamas, and parts if the Columbia rivers. These tribes lived in … Continue reading Stingy American Settlers of the Willamette Valley

columbia river, coos bay, General History, Kalapuya, Oral History, Oregon Coast, Oregon indians, trade, Umpqua Valley, Uncategorized, Willamette Valley2 Comments

Trade Between the Interior and the Coast; Kalapuyans, Klikitats, Coosans

David G. Lewis, PhD

Previous to the Americans and the British In Oregon, the tribes had numerous interrelationships with one another. Trade was a major part of the lives of all tribes. Some tribes had vast resources, but only in a few items were they specialized. The Chinookans, had vast amounts of dried salmon because of owning the best salmon fishing sites on the Columbia and Willamette rivers, as well as access to all of the trade items in the Columbia River Trading region, a vast trade zone which stretched from the mid-west American plains to the Pacific Coast. While the Kalapuyans had lots … Continue reading Trade Between the Interior and the Coast; Kalapuyans, Klikitats, Coosans