10/11/2021
Today, Oregon joins 10 other states in recognizing the significant contributions of Oregon’s nine federally recognized tribes to the culture of our state through the celebration of Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
Kalapuya refers to a group of people living in tribal territories containing numbers of related and like-speaking, but basically autonomous villages, near one or more tributary watersheds of the Willamette and Umpqua Rivers.
For generations, Kalapuyans subsisted on a wide range of animals and vegetables specific to these different habitats, moving across their tribal territories in response to seasonal availability. Bulbs of the camas lily were harvested, layered between leaves, and roasted in pit-ovens. Brown and sugary when done, they were then dried for storage. Some were further processed into small cakes, which were important articles of inter-group commerce. In drier months, the local Kalapuyans camped under minimal shelter near the confluence of the Calapooia and Willamette.
The Kalapuyan people suffered catastrophic population declines due to introduced diseases such as smallpox. In 1782-1783 almost two-thirds of the Kalapuya were wiped out due to the disease. By the time the first census was taken at Grand Ronde Reservation, to which all Kalapuyans were removed in 1856, a small fraction of their population remained. Life did not get easier. The services provided by the US government, such as sanitation and health care, were poor and mortality was high.
The Kalapuya treaties were eventually restored through bills in 1977 and 1983. There are an estimated 4,000 Kalapuyan descendants.
Learn more:
https://libraryguides.lanecc.edu/kalapuya
https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/kalapuyan_peoples
