Kalapuyans of the Central Willamette Valley: History and Culture

This Sips 'n' Science virtual pub talk aired on October 18, 2022 as a part of the Luckiamute Watershed Council's Love Your Watershed program. Learn more about the Luckiamute Watershed Council and subscribe to receive LWC event updates at www.luckiamutelwc.org/
This presentation by Dr. David Lewis addresses various Kalapuyan tribes and bands of the Central Willamette Valley. We look at their original culture, how they stewarded their lands and the adjustments they had to make when settlers arrived. We dive into the removal process, treaties, encampments and payments, and the likely understandings of the Kalapuyans, and work by Indian agents to remove them all to the Grand Ronde Indian Reservation. Finally we address their context on the reservation for the first 20 years.
About Dr. David Lewis: I am Santiam, Takelma, Molalla, and Chinook, a member of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde. I grew up within the Chemeketa Santiam Kalapuyan territory (Salem), my education was within the lands of the Pomo peoples (Santa Rosa), and the Chifan and Chelamela Kalapuyans (Eugene), and I have worked within the Yamhill lands and now within the homelands of the Pinefu peoples, known as Champinefu (Corvallis).
​I am a past manager of the Grand Ronde Cultural Resources Department, and past Tribal Museum Curator & Tribal Historian. I have a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Oregon, where I directed the Southwest Oregon Research Project. I served two terms as an Oregon Heritage Commission member, and two years as the chair of the Commission. I now work as an educator, teaching in local universities, since 2018 at OSU as Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Ethnic Studies.
To view David's extensive research, blog and other writings about the Kalapuya and other Oregon Tribes, visit his Quartux Journal at ndnhistoryresearch.com/

[@hobhamwich]

Thank you so much for posting this. At the last second I had to miss the Zoom last night, and I was bummed about it.