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Kalapuya - Chinuk Wawa Ikanum

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A Kalapuya & Chinuk wawa Ikanum

Ikanum is a Chinuk wawa word referring to Oral histories. It has become an operative word from the Grand Ronde tribe, the basis of their Indigenous theory of research. Ikanum underscores and provides foundation for traditional stories, for new stories, and for archaeological research practices. The Grand Ronde tribe has a long term Chinuk wawa language program with at least 4 years of immersive…

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Camas Trek 2026: State Fairgrounds

Heritage Oaks- a nice little oak savanna across 17th from the fair. The blue atop the grasses is camas.  In Salem, the state capitol is a number of camas fields, perhaps the most native of them is the two fields at the state fairgrounds. The Fairgrounds encompasses a large area bordered by 17th street, Silverton Road and Sunnyview. On Sunnyview, which bifurcates the south end of the fairgrounds…

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Mountain Molalla at Lost Valley

Records of the Mountain  Molalla are very limited. Besides a few records of the tribe living around Pleasant Hill, at Lost Valley, there is nearly nothing known of their culture and territory. They were interrelated with the local Kalapuya peoples, of the Yoncalla (Komemma), and with the Klamath peoples, and likely related to the other Molalla tribes. The Mountain Band Molalla range to the Middle…

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Tribal Histories of The Willamette Valley

Tribal Histories of the Willamette Valley by David G. Lewis The Willamette Valley is rich with history—its riverbanks, forests, and mountains home to the tribes of Kalapuya, Chinook, Molalla, and more for thousands of years. This history has been largely unrecorded, incomplete, poorly researched, or partially told. In these stories, enriched by photographs and maps, Oregon Indigenous historian…

Tribal Histories of The Willamette Valley

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14th Amendment, Citizenship and Voting Rights

Questions about the recent Supreme Court case Trump v. Barbara, and how a decision will affect American Indians’ rights are completely valid. There is a danger that all Native people who were born on Reservations, or all Native people born in the US, and/or born after the date of the exeutive order, could be denaturalized by a decision that affirms the view of the present regime and their racist…

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Nestucca Move To Nechesna and Grand Ronde, the COIA record

The Commissioner of Indian Affairs’ record The Nestucca native peoples lived on the central Oregon coast at the Nestucca River. They were a tribe of Salish-speaking people, one of the Tillamookan tribes, which extended from south of the Clatsop territory to just south of the Siletz River. These tribes were the Nehalem, Tillamook, Nestucca, Nechesna, and Siletz tribes. In the 1850’s, the Nestucca…

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Records of Clatskanie Resettlement to Grand Ronde Indian Reservation.

The Clatskanie are a tribe that are not well known to many scholars in the region. There are rare documents about them and many people, I feel, have assumed they have gone extinct. Some years ago when I was a student at UO I recall organizing and attending the University of Oregon Pow wows (1990s), and a man by the name of Gerald Center was a regular attendee, he would normally play at one of the…

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The Beaversoils of Onion Flat and Tualatin

Reading early descriptions of the Tualatin Valley, they are all focused on the valley’s potential in agriculture. This theme is similar throughout the Willamette Valley, settlers and farmers did not think about the valley in any other way but for its readiness for agriculture. Considering this all-consuming focus, the traditional native nature of the land had very little chance. All descriptions…

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Returning Native History: Portland Metro Area Signs

Dairy Creek sign In the past 2 years, I have worked on signage projects in the Portland area for agencies of the city or state. In 2025, I consulted on a sign for the Dairy Creek project on Sauvie Island. Over the period of several months, I met with people in the West Multnomah Soils and water Conservation district to produce an interpretive sign that would capture the native wildlife of the…

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We Are American History

America-the United States, is a multicultural, multi-ethnic country composed of indigenous peoples and peoples who have emigrated here from every other country and land in the world. For much of the history of the nation, its history was written as if people of color, minorities and Indigenous peoples either did not exist or did not matter. This is an understanding of US history that has been…

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Jim Kirk of Brownsville

A set of news clippings from the 1870s is helping to hone in on where the Indian encampment was in Albany, OR. Previously, it was said to be on an island near Albany. But the murder of Charlie, by Jim Kirk a native man who apparently as raising on the Kirk Homestead in Brownsville elicits details about the location, near the Albany Cemetery. “Yesterday Morning about three o’clock, at the Indian…

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Warm Springs Encampment on the McKenzie River, 1860

The upper McKenzie River, in Oregon, is a vast wilderness and a tourist fishing location for the past 100 years. Some 30% of the clean water in the Willamette River comes down the Mckenzie. In the latter part of the 19th century, gold mining and began and brought more people to the area. Then hot springs were found (Belknap) and several businesses began. The trail up into the upper river was very…

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Anthropology and Government Policy

Essays written in preparation for my Comprehensive exams, nearly 20 years ago. Anthropology and Government Policy Part of the government’s role regarding Indian people was to figure out what to do with them. Historically, the European nations and formed contracts and relationships with Indian tribes. Most of these contracts were based on trade. The United States also adopted a trade based…

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Woodbridge Memorial: the Initial Plan to "Help" the Indians of California

Sylvester Woodbridge, a Presbyterian pastor, may have been one of the first to suggest a plan for the initial California Reserves. This certainly helped the effort for writing treaties with the tribes in 1851. Sylvester Woodbridge, January 23rd, 1850 Benecia, California (Recd. 18 March 1850) To General Zachary Taylor President of the United States Memorial on behalf of the Indians of…

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Beginnings of Fort Yamhill

In April and May 1856 Joel Palmer hired 60 men to be the Grand Ronde Guards, to build a fence and control access and egress to the Grand Ronde Indian reservation. They were all laid off in early May likely due to the fact that threats from settlers upon the Indian did not happen. In June the Rogue iver tribes arrived on the reservation after having gone through stressful and grueling war and…

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Mystery Soldiers At Fort Yamhill, Grand Ronde

Recently, I came upon a number of postcards of soldiers at the Grand Ronde Reservation. It was a common practice to turn photos into postcards. On Ebay these images were available for purchase. Image 808 is labelled Grand Ronde 1911 on the back.   and this image, I assume it could be 1911 like the photo above. The tent behind it is a Sibley tent and none of the men are identified by name or…

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