Indigenous History of Oregon

The site was compiled by Pacific University's archivist, Eva Guggemos, MA, MLS, who is a non-Native with a background in academic historical scholarship. It is based on tribal web sites and other published sources. It has less authority than the voices of Natives , who are the ultimate authorities on their own histories. Corrections, comments, questions, etc. are welcome! Please email archives@pacificu.edu

Acknowledgments: Thank you to the many Native historians and Non-Native scholars who created works are compiled in this guide. Special thanks to David Lewis, author of the NDN History Research site, where he has published dozens of important articles; the Lane Community College guides to the Kalapuyans and Chinuk Wawa, who inspired the sources here on languages; to linguist-ethnographer Henry Zenk, whose many works on the languages and cultures of the Willamette Valley have been extremely helpful (and whose hand-drawn map is adapted on the Tualatin Kalapuyas page); and to the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, to whom we are grateful for their generosity in teaching their culture and in sponsoring many works of published research. 

This guide can be shared, re-used or revised as long as it includes an attribution to this original version. If revised, we ask that you retain a respectful standpoint towards the Native communities of Oregon and that you privilege the work of Oregon's tribes to tell their own history.