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tribal history
A Piece of Siletz History
by Robert Kentta, Cultural Resources Director
This is the third in a series of articles, each dealing with
specific period in our Siletz Tribal history. The first article posturing that was the reality of the day. Employees of the fur
was a general introduction to who our Siletz ancestors are comPanies also manned many smaller outposts and trap lines.
bl ® *he U S- Constitution recognized our native
and attempted to describe the incredible richness and diversity
in languages, cultures and lifeways of our people.
7
people s right to our homelands (aboriginal title), the United
The second article focused on the early period of contact Sta es also participated in constitutionally contradictory
with non-lndians and the effects of that contact (deadly P°n!'Ca P,raC,tlCeS’ H subscribed to the same European
diseases and severe cultural, political, social and economic concepts that permitted colonization of foreign lands and
^ruP*'°ns)- This article will discuss the beginnings of land- peoples and empire building by European nations.
based trade and exploration by foreigners within our lands
In 1832, John McLaughlin, chief factor at the Hudson Bav
t S,
Vancouver’ordered a" attack on the Yaquinas.
Please contact me with comments or questions.
Two HBC trappers were running a trap line in the Yaquina/
Alsea territory without permission of our local people. The
Part Three - Fur Trade and Early Exploration
trappers paid for their disrespect with their lives.
When news of their deaths reached Fort Vancouver
The previous article also addressed the fur trade and early McLaughlin ordered some HBC employees to teach the north
exploration, but only the early period of contact. At that time
central coast natives a lesson. He wasn’t sure who was
WaS re'a"Vely brief and often “raited t0 trading XXth°U9ht ‘hat a reprisal anywhere in the
conducted in canoes and sailing ships on the open ocean
neighborhood, (ssued with sufficient force, would deliver the
X y XT® occurred in our villages within a very short desired message.
nX ? 9,UP ‘° *he time ,hat land-based foreigners took in h Jh
k
a V' age at Yaquina Bay (well-documented
the next steps of colonization. The mass epidemics transmitted in both HBC records and our tribal oral histories) was brutal
thernh X
C°n.,aC,S dramatica"y reduced populations and enough that it (combined with the epidemics) was given as a
thereby the people s ability to protect our own interests when reason that so few Yaquina people survived into the
push came to shove.
reservation period. Some of the fur trappers and traders took
?e.^cuPa"°n °f our lands took place gradually and bdian wives such as Jean Baptiste Garnier on the Umpqua
the slow infiltration probably was not recognized in most areas River, as did many of the fur company employees in the
until lt was difficult to resist. Also probably not understood were Willamette Valley. This eased some relationships in local
the complex, artificial European laws and customs supporting
areas, but strangers stomping through our lands with little
desXXc laXT ^b’8 ” “^b*by COnquest ’ “«s^
respect or humility were not welcomed.
” ‘ "y’ T
hat "0U d COfne in,° Play-Also not understood
As the fur trade era faded, many of the trappers became
which Christian conversion would be
rmers and by the late-1830s, various missionary settlements
expected of all native survivors of colonization
revolved around the main Methodist mission at what is now
tn 1805, Lewis and Clark made their way down the
Wi lamette University (Salem). A mission school for our
Columbia River to its mouth. They were the first to make the
children in the valley was one of the first non-lndian structures
overland trip from the middle of the continent to our shores
The relationships between our tribal people and the settlers
¿XT'*8 thf ‘,hey made upon ,heir re,um led »° land-based
c anged slightly or radically, depending on the rate of
fur trading posts and (later) to Christian missions in our country,
population influx and the main activity of the new population
nf
IS °ften described as a friendly period as the focus switched from fur trade to permanent
/ ’ ii X That may have been ,rue in some cases
settlement activities.
how ^7 eadles!Phases’Once ,he ,rappers discovered
It doesn’t appear that our ancestors resisted settlement
how to get from one place to another, however, they began
to the point that they thought all foreigners should be kept
own trAA9| US 'n economic warfare- They started running their
T
tned ’° accommodate settlers who were
XX,P X 'n °Ur coun,ry-instead °»depending upon our
respectful. Each year our people grew weaker in number
p pie to sell furs to them. These were some of the early signs
however, as the strangers grew stronger in number
XX 9®
eXPeC‘ °f ,he ,oreigners - taking without
and presence.
permission or apology.
~,Jhe
Si9ni"9 be,ween Great Bri,ain and the United
In the early trade on the coast, the Spanish and Russians
States in 1846, and the subsequent establishment of the
t(aS<X
‘b® BnoSh’ Americans and others) were involved
X*0? and a Provisional government, would change
p X
df9rae’But by ,he mid-1820s. however, the only the direction of all future encroachment on our homeland^
• /RriX 9 XT comPe,i,ors were the Hudson Bay Co.
Our people s interaction with the citizens of the new Oregon
and F ah v
C FUr C0’(USA)’ Fort As,oria (P F Co.) Territory end United States will be the subject of the
and Fort Vancouver (H.B. Co.) were signs of the politica
next article.
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