Reservation Plan (Continued)
developments and to management of the environment by the native
population.
About 3,000 years ago the valley became cooler and molster, but these
changes seem not to have radically altered the existing environment of the
valley. Perhaps this was because the occupants of the valley were able to
maintain the open nature of the country by periodic burning of forest
cover. The cultures continued relatively unchanged, in so far as
artifacts are concerned, for the next thousand years. In this period the
first remains of pit houses are found.
From about 2,000 years ago, there is increasing evidence of contact with
people In surrounding regions. Sea shells, shell ornaments, and whale
bone clubs indicate contact with coastal people, although these items may
have been traded via the Columbia River, rather than over the Coast Range.
There is also evidence of contact with Great Basin people and with people
south to California. Obsidian for tools was obtained from locations as
far distant as eastern Idaho. By the end of the prehistoric period, it is
clear that although the Willamette Valley people were fairly
self-sufficient in an environment with varied and abundant resources, they
nevertheless had extensive trade contacts in every direction.
The cultures of the Willamette Valley did not change dramatically over the
last few thousand years of prehistory. The people lived primarily by
hunting and making use of uncultivated plants in an environment which was
characterized by a mild climate and rich flora and fauna. Deer, elk, and
other game were abundant. Social and political organization in the valley
remained simple, as it was at the time of European contact. All the
evidence suggests that the Willamette Valley people had achieved a
remarkably stable equilibrium with their environment. At the time of
contact, these people spoke dialects of Kalapuyan, Molalla, and Clackamas
Chinook languages. The ancestors of these people may very well have been
the first settlers in the valley.
The prehistory of the Salish-speaking Nehalem, Tillamook, Nestucca, and
Salmon River people of the Oregon coast, some of whom were eventually
relocated on the Grand Ronde Reservation, is distinct from that of the
Willamette Valley peoples just discussed. By 2,500 years ago, Sallsh
speakers were settled Just south of the mouth of the Columbia with a fully
developed Northwest Coast fishing culture similar to that of their kin on
the Washington Coast and in the Puget Sound region. We do not know
whether people were living along the coast much before the past few
thousand years. If there were sites occupied in earlier times, presumably
they have disappeared with rising sea levels along the stormy Oregon
coast.