Book completed
Jan. 12th, 2024 10:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eve_primeTribal Histories of the Willamette Valley, by David G. Lewis. Professor Lewis is an anthropologist at Oregon State and a member of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, as (if I remember correctly) his family includes Santiam Kalapuya and Molalla ancestors, the indigenous people living in and near what is now our state capital: Salem, Oregon. He's an interesting speaker who wrote this book to tell what happened to the people who were living in the valley when our white ancestors came as settlers. Most of these people were Kalapuya (including those living here in Eugene), and there were also Molalla; Klamath people from further south had strong social ties with the Molalla, and Klickitat from north of Portland often crossed the river to trade.
Before the settlers came, malaria killed up to 97% of the Kalapuya population, so the long-time communities had already been disrupted and had often relocated and merged. The settlers started coming in the 1840s or thereabouts, and by the mid-1850s, the white government had decided it would be necessary to relocate all the Native people to reservations. Most of the Kalapuya went to Grand Ronde - they numbered only in the hundreds, I think. Maybe 2000 people altogether, from quite a few tribes, were relocated to Grand Ronde. They were sent there with threats and promises, and some of the whites were talking about exterminating them, so it did make some sense, but the promises weren't met, and many who had been relocated eventually escaped and went to live among the white people as farmhands.
Lewis does a great job of sharing the stories of the people, collectively and often individually. I wish it were easier to find the numbers I was looking for, when I was writing the above paragraph; the index could certainly have been improved. I agree with him that it is extremely important for these other perspectives to be shared. The Kalapuya perspective is every bit as important as the perspective we've been taught up to this point, and ethically it should outrank the perspectives of those who came later.
I know my house is on stolen land, and obviously I'm not going to give it back, but I do have responsibilities to the Kalapuya. Maybe it would make sense for our property taxes to help support their tribal goals.
Before the settlers came, malaria killed up to 97% of the Kalapuya population, so the long-time communities had already been disrupted and had often relocated and merged. The settlers started coming in the 1840s or thereabouts, and by the mid-1850s, the white government had decided it would be necessary to relocate all the Native people to reservations. Most of the Kalapuya went to Grand Ronde - they numbered only in the hundreds, I think. Maybe 2000 people altogether, from quite a few tribes, were relocated to Grand Ronde. They were sent there with threats and promises, and some of the whites were talking about exterminating them, so it did make some sense, but the promises weren't met, and many who had been relocated eventually escaped and went to live among the white people as farmhands.
Lewis does a great job of sharing the stories of the people, collectively and often individually. I wish it were easier to find the numbers I was looking for, when I was writing the above paragraph; the index could certainly have been improved. I agree with him that it is extremely important for these other perspectives to be shared. The Kalapuya perspective is every bit as important as the perspective we've been taught up to this point, and ethically it should outrank the perspectives of those who came later.
I know my house is on stolen land, and obviously I'm not going to give it back, but I do have responsibilities to the Kalapuya. Maybe it would make sense for our property taxes to help support their tribal goals.