Among the most amazing realizations I have had as a Native of the tribes of Oregon and scholar of tribal history is how pervasive starvation was once the tribes got the reservations. The Federal government and their agents were wholly unable to feed the tribal peoples once they were removed to the reservations. Then the … [Read more…]
*Note- these speeches were transcribed from reports in the M234 microfilms for the Washington Superintendency. They occur near the end of the Cayuse War when it appears that the Army assumed that The Nez Perce were hiding members of the Cayuses, relatives of the Nez Perces. What the transcriptions do not detail is that the … [Read more…]
This is an article meant to clear up some mistaken histories. In the past historians have mixed up the two treaties and the meetings between Joseph Lane and Chief Jo. At times historians have attributed the 1850 events as taking place in 1853. The history of Oregon Indians is not a neat and clean history … [Read more…]
Over the course of the years one question about the tribes of western Oregon has never been fully answered, Do the Tribal Members of the Grand Ronde and Siletz Reservations possess fishing rights? This essay offers a few case studies and a short analysis of the issue and question, that in many ways still exists … [Read more…]
In the 1850s and 1860s the Tribes of Oregon were treated with by the federal government, they signed at least 16 treaties, and Congress ratified them. The Tribes were paid for their lands in a system of annual payments. The federal government bought the majority of Oregon for less than 1.5 million. Afterwards, the tribes were … [Read more…]