The Native Kalapuyan Indians, Migrant Men, and Migrant Women

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The Willamette River Valley: The Native Kalapuyan Indians, Migrant Men, and Migrant Women

Introduction

The first true white settlers of the Willamette Valley, men, women and children who made the arduous journey from Missouri to the end of the Oregon Trail, encountered little resistance from the native populations of the Valley. Disease, spread to the native tribes by transient explorers and traders, helped make possible the settlement of the Willamette Valley by these pioneers, almost without resistance. Further, the continued wave of white settlers that poured into this fertile valley completed the collapse of the existing Indian culture. Unlike the areas that the pioneers had just traveled through (those occupied by the Rogue and Nez Perce Indian tribes) there never was a ‘Willamette Valley Indian War.’ The Kalapuyans, natives of the Valley, were peaceable people who manifested a very different character from the Indians east of the Cascade Mountains.1 The attitudes of many men and women settlers to the Willamette Valley regarding the native population are best reflected in a statement by Leslie M. Scott in The Oregonian: “Always it will be a source of thanksgiving that the destruction of the Indians of the Pacific Northwest by diseases spared the pioneers the horror of a strong and malignant foe.”

The combined efforts of men and women and the lack of resistance from the native peoples, resulted in the successful settlement of white Americans in the Willamette River Valley. The following essay represents a collection of knowledge about the Willamette River Valley during the 1830's thru 1860's, with a focus on : understanding the native populations, the white men who traveled to and laid claim to the Valley, and the women who supported these men throughout the journey to and settlement of the Willamette River Valley.

Part I ~ “Those who gave so much for so little: The story of the Indians of the Willamette River Valley”

The Willamette Valley, the fertile trough of land nestled between the Coast Ranges and Cascade Mountains of northwestern Oregon, marked the geographic end of the Oregon Trail for pioneer Americans and immigrants to the Pacific Northwest. We should not forget that this land Mackey, Harold, PhD. The Kalapuyans: A source book on the Indians of the Willamette Valley, Mission Mill was also the home of a native people, the Kalapuyans, who had occupied this valley for about 10,000 years before the arrival of Euro-Americans in the early 19th century.

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