The Umpqua people[2] are an umbrella group of several distinct tribal entities of Native Americans of the Umpqua Basin in present-day south central Oregon in the United States. The area south of Roseburg is now known as the Umpqua Valley.
At least four tribal groups have historically lived in the Umpqua River Basin: the Southern Molalla, the Lower Umpqua tribe, the Upper Umpqua tribe, and the Cow Creek Band of the Umpqua Tribe of Native Americans.[3] Before European settlement in the region, the tribes spoke several different languages, including Siuslaw (Lower Umpqua), Yoncalla (Southern Kalapuya), Upper Umpqua, Takelma, and the Molalla language.
Archaeological evidence indicates that the Native American settlement in the Umpqua region began at least 8,000 years before the arrival of European settlers. [3] The name "Umpqua" likely derives from a Tolowa word for "a place along the river."[4] Other theories report that "Umpqua" means "thundering water," "dancing water" or "bring across the river."[5]
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Gathering of the Tribes Part 2/16 - Original Peoples - Shell Middens
Transcription
>>So the big question is, who were the first people of the Yachats and Cape Perpetua area? >>[applause] >>[Robert Kentta] First, I just want to apologize for putting everybody at a late start today. Every time I have a little bit of an ailment, I feel really sorry for myself. I had a bit of that going on today, I apologize. Referring to the original people here, if we go back to our ancient stories of the people on this part of the coast. I am a Siletz Tribal Member, butmy native ancestry is from the Roge Valley country and upper Klamath River, Shasta, Applegate River ancestry. In my position, I am... I've had to school myself on all the other tribal traditions of our confederation. And when we go back to our ancient stories from this area, the story of the origins of the Yaquina, Alsea, Yachats, Siuslaw, Lower Umpqua people; they all recognized each other as having a common ancestry, a common origin; and even though the linguists, for the most part, of today... (maybe Patty isn't of exactly the same mind as the mainstream linguists) but, uh, they don't recognize those people as all speaking a common language, even though in that story Origin they say "we are all one people, we speak one language." So, that's such an ancient story that there was enough dialectic divergence had uh, come to exist over many thousands of years, probably, since the beginning of that story, being told, that linguists today won't recognize those languages as that closely related. So, um, right here at this spot, it was the Yachats people. To the north, they had the Alsea and Yaquina; to the south their relatives Siuslaw, Lower Umpqua. And, um, right here in Yachats we had one of the tallest, biggest recorded shell middens of the Oregon coast. There were many large ones, but this one was, what, 28 feet or so? >>I don't know, but it was very, very large. >>Yeah, very large. And as with most of the coastal middens, especially the large ones that were in one big deposit, they could back a wagon (or, later on, a dumptruck) up to it, scoop a bunch into it and haul it off for garden fertilizer or for road surface, or... for other uses. Many times artifacts were being mined out of those places as that was going on. That's been a big wound in our tribal communities for a lot of years. In fact-- >>Could you explain to the audience what a midden is? >>Well, there's different types of midden, but generally you'll see a lot of concentration of sea shell. There's a lot of mussel shell, sometimes clam shells from on the bay or ocean beach. Sometimes I've seen middens where first, clean off a surface of it, it's absolutely purple with sea urchin shell. But then, within a few minutes that sea urchin shell bleaches out white in the sun. And some of them are almost entirely sea mammal bones, because that's what their purpose was, a sea mammal hunting camp, or butchering camp after returning from the offshore rocks and doing hunting. So there's different purposes, they have slightly different looks to them at times, just based on the use of the place. Usually dark soil. The thing that concerns us a lot is that there's very sensitive resources there, and often cemeteries associated with them, so, um... I know this is being recorded, and a lot of times we don't talk about these things, but if we don't talk about them then people don't know to stop and report it to the State Historic Reservation office, so the tribes can contacted and take care of these things properly when they come up. When a house foundations get excavated, um, you tell there's being put in all those kind of things. We've had those same situations here over and over, in the Yachats area in the past few years... some of it on State Parks land. >>Is this the time to ask a question? Is that okay? What I was wondering, um, was it just the Yachats Indians that worked with shell middens? Did other tribes come from other places to do their gathering? >>[Robert Kentta] Um, there would've been.. Home people would be the primary users. And of course there were dances and ceremonies, and different things that different communities would host up and down the coast, and they would invite their relatives and friends from other villages; and so out-of-town people would be coming, using the resources too, but it was pretty much always by permission of the home town people. And, really they wouldn't be gathering their own and preparing their own; they would be hosted by the home community. Extra resources, mussels, fish and things would be collected and prepared for them. Traditional economy was very strict about protocols of using other people's resources. You ask permission, you pay. Maybe part of your ketch you gave to them, in payment for incurring into the area. Does anybody have anything to add to all that? >>You want me to talk about language? >>There's a question over there. >>You're probably aware of the photographs in the Florence Library? About the shell middens, showing how high they were? And I believe there was an actual photograph of a midden that was on the point... I'm not sure if you've seen that, but at the Florence Library there are some very old photographs and explain where all the middens disappeared to at the turn of the century, cause they were used up for concrete and hauled away. It's sort of a blurry photograph but it shows you how large that midden... >>Is that the city library or the confederate library? >>Yeah. >>Florence. >>The city library? >>Florence. Florence. >>Yeah, but in the city library or the Pioneer museum library? >>The city library. >>I know there are quite a few historic photographs of the midden by the Adobe Motel at the Oregon Historical Society, but I haven't seen the ones at Florence, so thanks for bringing that up. >>[Patty Whereat Phillips] I think I've seen photos like that before. You know when you see a big midden like that, people were living there a long time; that was many, many, many years worth of the remains of people's feasts, processing clams... Oh yes, the garbage bin. For an archaeologist, garbage tells a story. As you know, as you go through that, you find out what people were processing there, so it gives a window in to let you into a particular moment of time - what kind of resource people were using there, and middens could contain different things, which is ok, in this can they were processing this. So when someone's trained they can tell a story.
Overview
Lower Umpqua
The Lower Umpqua (Kuitsh) tribe spoke the Lower Umpqua (Kuitsh/Quuiič) dialect of the Siuslaw language. Their self-designation was Kuitsh, Quuiič or Quuiich (″The Southern People″, probably derived from the words qiiuu, ″south″, and hiich, ″people″).[6] Prior to European settlement, the Lower Umpqua (Kuitsh) lived on the coast from Siltcoos River south to Tenmile Creek. [7]
Today, the Lower Umpqua (Kuitsh) people are represented by the following tribes:
- Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians
- Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, and
- Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon
Upper Umpqua
The Upper Umpqua people lived mostly on the South Umpqua River, near present Roseburg, Oregon and the Umpqua River upstream of the head of tide (present-day Scottsburg, Oregon). Their self-designation was Etnemitane, Tl'uu-dv-nee-yu (literally "prairie people") or simply Dv-nee-yu / Dv-ne ("people").[8] The now-extinct Upper Umpqua language formed with three other closely related languages the ″Oregon Athabaskan cluster″ of the Pacific Coast Athabaskan languages.
By neighboring Athapascan-speaking peoples they were known as ″Umpqua River People″—in the original languages:
- Tututni and (Upper) Coquille-Tututni: Ci-cta-́qwût-mê ́ t̟ûn-nĕ
- Chasta Costa-Tututni: Ci-stá-qwŭt dv-nee-yu
- Naltunne-Tututni: Cac-taⁿ-́qwût me-́t̟ûn-nĕ
- Chetco-Tolowa: Ûm-́kwa-me (origin of the English word Umpqua)
Today, the Upper Umpqua people are represented by the following tribes:
- Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon
- Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, and
- Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians
Cow Creek Band of Upper Umpqua
Originally a band of the Takelma people along the South Umpqua River, Myrtle Creek, and Cow Creek, the Cow Creek people were called Cow Creek Takelma, or The Cow Creek Band.
Today, the Cow Creek Band of Upper Umpqua are represented by the following tribes:
- Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Native Americans
- Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians, and
- Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon
The Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Native Americans is one of nine federally recognized indigenous Tribal Governments in the State of Oregon.[9] They were the first tribes in the Oregon Territory to sign a treaty with the US government, on 19 September 1853.[3] As a result of the treaty, the Cow Creek Tribe became a landless tribe, ceding more than 800 square miles of Southwestern Oregon to the United States.[9] The Cow Creek Tribe never received the reservation their treaty promised, but even without a reservation, the people remained in their homelands.[9]
Southern Molalla
The Molala were living along the Deschutes River. They later moved to the headwaters of the Umpqua River and Rogue River.
Today, the Molalla people are represented by the following tribes:
- Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon (with 141 of the 882 members in the 1950s claiming Molalla descent)
- Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, and
- Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians
History
The Native Americans who lived in the Umpqua region prior to European settlement
were highly dependent on the annual cycle of nature. Their cultures were rich and complex, with distinct rituals, rites and responsibilities. In winter, the people lived in cedar plank houses in permanent villages. Here they made baskets, clothing, tools, and weapons, and recounted a wide variety of stories including creation stories and tales of a magical time when animals and humans shared the same language. In the spring, summer, and fall, they went to seasonal camps to take advantage of seasonally-abundant food resources.[3]
The first known contact with whites was with fur trappers in the late 1700s. In the 1820s, the Hudson's Bay Company began intensive trapping of beavers and regular trade with the Native Americans in the Umpqua Basin.
Relations with fur trappers were generally good, although there were occasional skirmishes. An especially notorious conflict occurred in 1828 between the Lower Umpqua Indians and a party of fur traders led by Jedediah Smith. Due perhaps to inappropriate advances of Smith's men toward Indian women, or due perhaps to the alleged theft of an ax by a young Native American, a Lower Umpqua man was killed by Smith's party, for which the Lower Umpquas retaliated and killed 15 of the 19 of Smith's men.[3]
Footnotes
- ^ Clark, Patricia Roberts (21 October 2009). Tribal Names of the Americas: Spelling Variants and Alternative Forms, Cross-Referenced. McFarland. p. 10. ISBN 978-0-7864-5169-2.
- ^ Alternate spellings include A-ampkua amim or Aampkuqamim.[1]
- ^ a b c d e "Oregon Explorer Topics | oregonexplorer | Oregon State University". oregonexplorer.info. Retrieved 12 October 2021.
- ^ "Umpqua River". www.oregonencyclopedia.org. Retrieved 12 October 2021.
- ^ "What Does "Umpqua" Mean? The Oregon Community College Name Has A Special Origin". Bustle. Retrieved 12 October 2021.
- ^ Shichils' Blog - Meanings of tribal names
- ^ Macnaughtan, Don (2004). "The Siuslaw and Kuitsh Native Americans of the Oregon Coast: Bibliography of the Siuslaw and Kuitsh , An Indigenous People of the Central Oregon Coast". Retrieved 30 May 2018.
- ^ ILDA - Indigenous Languages Digital Archive
- ^ a b c "Tribal Story – Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of". Retrieved 12 October 2021.
Further reading
- Bakken, Lavola J. Land of the North Umpquas. Grants Pass, OR: Te-Cum-Tom Publications, 1973.
- Thoele, Mike. "She Keeps the Memory of Coastal Indians Alive." The Register-Guard, 8 May 1990: 3B. Profile of Florence, Oregon resident Marge Severy, last full-blooded member of the Kuitsh and Siuslaw.
- Macnaughtan, Don (2004). "The Siuslaw and Kuitsh Indians of the Oregon Coast: Bibliography of the Siuslaw and Kuitsh Indians, An Indigenous People of the Central Oregon Coast". Retrieved 30 May 2018.
External links
- Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians homepage
- Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw homepage
- Coos, Lower Umpqua & Siuslaw Tribes profile
- Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon homepage
- Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians homepage
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This page was last edited on 29 May 2024, at 19:52