EIZER times
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Vol. 43 • No. 25
APRIL 08, 2022
Does Keizer sit on stolen land?
BY CHARLES GLENN
Of the Keizertimes
The April 4 Keizer city council meet-
ing opened with what Mayor Cathy Clark
called a “teaching moment,” as senior
members of the Confederated Tribes
of the Siletz and local historian SuAnn
Reddick offered a Native American per-
spective about the land on which Keizer
sits.
Courtesy Photo - Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde
A prior city council meeting, on
March 21, provided the impetus for the
history lesson. About 20 local and out-
of-state tribal activists attended last
month's meeting, carrying signs which
read “You are on stolen land,” and “Keizer
is on Kalapuya land.” Several registered
to speak at the public hearing portion,
and used their time to express outrage
over the Reawaken America Tour being
held at Volcanoes stadium on April 1-2,
which they characterized as racist and
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white supremacist.
The event was being held at a private
venue and the city has no provision for
preventing the stadium owners from
renting the space out. Event security
did not permit Keizertimes to enter and
report on it, but Keizer Police Chief John
Teague said there were no significant dis-
turbances beyond some traffic conges-
tion and a couple of minor altercations
between event-goers and protestors.
Regardless of what may or may not
be the rally organizer’s ultimate politi-
cal goals, Clark didn’t want to miss the
opportunity to clear up misconceptions
and misunderstandings the meeting may
have generated. Representatives from
Grande Ronde and Siletz were invited,
but the Grande Ronde contingent was
pulled away at the last minute and was
unable to attend.
Confederated Tribes of the Siletz
chairpersons Delores Pigsley and Bud
Lane spoke to the council about why
these issues are important to the local
tribes, their deep connection to the land
and how history has shaped relations
between the tribes and white settlers.
“All of Oregon was tribal before the
settlers came,” said Pigsley, who attended
Keizer schools as a youth. She pointed
out that the Kalapuya are just one tribe
among a confederation of 50 different
Willamette Valley peoples who trace
their lineage back to before Europeans
arrived to settle North America.
“We have seven different treaties that
were signed,” she said. “All them say
things like ‘as long as water flows and
grass grows’ and all that … which really
never happened.”
The initial treaty involving Kalapuya
land had the tribe – along with all the
other Oregon tribes – moving to the
Oregon coast and joining what was sup-
posed to be the Siletz Reservation.
“It wasn’t until 1857 that the Grande
Ronde was established as a reservation,
and those who didn’t move to Siletz were
moved to Grande Ronde.”
Lane, vice chairman of the Siletz tribal
council, who teaches history courses for
tribal schools, said the truth about the
land is complicated.
“In the 1840s, the Land Donation Act
was passed,” said Lane. “Land grants
were given out at 360 acres apiece for
settlers to come in and improve the
land. Unfortunately the United States
did not have title to Oregon at the time
– they were giving out land without
actually securing legal title. Hence you
have a flurry of treaty-making signed
in the 1850s … that’s because they were
in a crunch to get title to land they had
already settled on.”
He said the federal government
policies toward the tribes came under
scrutiny in later years, leading to the
Restoration Acts. He explained that
Photo courtesy Oregon Historical Society
much of this history can’t be found in
textbooks written before the 1970s, and
work is on-going to put together a more
complete tribal history for Willamette
Valley.
“The rest is history, as they say,” said
Lane. “We’ve been rebuilding since 1977
… Senate Bill 13, passed a few years ago,
makes an effort to tell Oregon’s history
through the tribe’s perspective – making
it mandatory in public schools that this
curriculum be taught,” he said.
This emphasis on historical accuracy
is ultimately about healing -both for the
tribes and the other people living in
Oregon.
“To us, it’s the way we heal,” said Lane.
“It’s the way we go forward – by recogniz-
ing and understanding the past, right or
wrong – things that happened, how land
was taken, how our people were treated
– by recognizing those things, I think we
can forge a better future together.”
SuAnn Reddick, an independent
researcher and historian (and mother of
councilor Elizabeth Smith), called into
See KALAPUYA, page A8