Indian Petroglyph, c.1930 Marshall Family Collection L311-919

According to scientists, humans may have occupied Oregon’s diverse landscapes for more than 15,000 years. By the sixteenth century, dozens of bands were scattered across the future state, with concentrated populations along the lower Columbia River, in the western valleys, and around the numerous coastal estuaries and inlets. In about 1800, according to anthropologist Robert Boyd, before the ravages of exogenous diseases dramatically reduced their numbers, about 300,000 people lived in the Pacific Northwest. Those widely differing groups spoke a welter of languages, with the greatest linguistic diversity existing along the rugged Pacific Coast. In Oregon’s interior valleys and especially east of the Cascade Range, people shared common language patterns across a larger geographic area. Each cluster of bands practiced its own cultural traditions and skillfully adapted to available resources. In each instance, however, autonomy extended only through the local village or band that served as the basic social and political unit.

Because abundant food sources were so close at hand, coastal groups tended to live in fixed village sites with some seasonal movement to upstream places to gather berries, camas, and other plants. These complex cultures enjoyed relatively mild winters and a wealth of easily obtainable fish and shellfish from nearby streams and estuaries. The western interior valleys marked a transition zone between the coast and the area east of the Cascades, where Native people gathered roots, nuts, seeds, and berries that were available seasonally from the prairies, oak savannas, and foothills. They also hunted deer, elk, and waterfowl and fished local streams for salmon and freshwater fish. Native people in the interior plateau lived in fixed winter villages and followed seasonal “rounds” to gather plants, to fish, and to hunt. In the spring and fall, when the salmon ran heavy in the Columbia River, they came together at important fishing places such as Celilo Falls, near present-day The Dalles. The Indian bands who lived in today’s basin and range country also moved seasonally to favored fishing spots and to hunting and gathering places. More than any other human group in early historic Oregon, however, the people who lived in the rugged desert were forced to travel considerable distances to good hunting and gathering sites.

© William G. Robbins, 2002

Themes: People and the Environment

Regions: Willamette Valley,Columbia River,Oregon Coast

Date: 15,000BP

Author: William G. Robbins

Summary:
According to scientists, humans may have occupied Oregon’s diverse landscapes for more than 15,000 years.