Recent OHS Press Titles

River of Renewal 

Myth and History in the Klamath Basin
by Stephen Most

 

Ever since the Gold Rush, the Klamath River Basin has witnessed a succession of wars and resource conflicts. It is a place where myths of the West loom large, amplifying the differences among its peoples. At the core of the controversy today is the overallocation of the waters of the Klamath Basin. This dispute has pitted farmers and ranchers against locals whose cultures and livelihoods depend on fishing and others who would forestall the extinction of wild salmon.

River of Renewal takes readers into the Basin’s communities for a greater understanding of the people and their connection to the land.

Stephen Most is a playwright and documentary storyteller. He has contributed to numerous documentary films, including Wonders of Nature and Promises, both of which won Emmy Awards, and the Academy Award-nominated Berkeley in the Sixties.

288 pp; 40 photos, 3 maps, 7 x 9 in.
$22.50 paper ISBN: 0-295-98622-0

Published by the Oregon Historical Society Press in association with the University of Washington Press

Wiyáxayxt / Wiyáakaa'awn/

As Days Go By

Our History, Our Land, Our People 

The Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla

edited by Jennifer Karson

 

In this history of the Umatilla , Cayuse, and Walla Walla people, tribal members of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation have taken on their own historical retelling, drawing on the scholarship of non-Indians as a useful tool and external resource. Beginning with ancient teachings and traditions, moving to a period of first contact with Euro-Americans, the Treaty Council, war, and the reservation period, and then to today's modern tribal governance and the era of self-determination, the tribal perspective takes center stage. Throughout, readers will see continuity in the culture and the ways of life that have been present from the earliest times, all on the same landscape.

320 pp; 50 illus., 8 maps, 7 x 9 in.
$23.95 paper ISBN: 0-295-98623-9

Published by the Tamastslikt Cultural Institute and the Oregon Historical Society Press in association with the University of Washington Press

Coming To Stay

A Columbia River Journey

by Mary Dodds Schlick

Coming to Stay is an intimate look at the author’s journey from stranger to friend on the Colville, Warm Springs, and Yakama reservations. The story takes place against a backdrop of change -- from the uncertainty caused by federal efforts to terminate reservations in the 1950s through the growth of tribal self-determination that began in the 1970s and the subsequent renewal of Native arts and ceremony. These true stories illustrate the growth in understanding what is possible for those who view one another as individuals with their own important history and culture.

Mary Dodds Schlick is the author of Columbia River Basketry and Gift of the Ancestors, Gift of the Earth and is a recipient of an Oregon Governor's Arts Award for her encouragement of Native arts and artists.

208 pp; 35 photos, 1 map, 7 x 9 in.
$23.95 paper ISBN: 0-295-98670-0

Published by the Oregon Historical Society Press in association with the University of Washington Press

Reading Portland

The City in Prose

edited by John Trombold and Peter Donahue

 

Ranging from stories told long before Euro-Americans arrived in the Pacific Northwest to those published in the twenty-first century,

Reading Portland is a literary exploration of the city’s past and present. In over eighty selections, Portland is revealed through histories, memoirs, autobiographies, short stories, novels, and news reports. A CD with additional materials is available to teachers from the Oregon Historical Society. To make a request, email Marianne Keddington-Lang at mariannk@ohs.org.

John Trombold teaches at Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon. Peter Donahue teaches at Birmingham-Southern College in Alabama and is the author of many short stories and books, including Madison House. Together, they edited Reading Seattle: The City in Prose (University of Washington Press).

608 pp; 50 photos, 6 x 9 in.
$25.00 paper ISBN: 0-295-98677-8

Published by the Oregon Historical Society Press in association with the University of Washington Press

Frances Fuller Victor Award for General Nonfiction

 

Oregon

This Storied Land

William G. Robbins

Oregon is a landscape of brilliant waterfalls, towering volcanoes, productive river valleys, and far-reaching high deserts. It is also a land of stories. People have lived on the Oregon landscape for at least twelve thousand years, and during that time they have established communities, named places, built railroads, harvested fish and timber, and made laws that both protected and threatened the land. It is a history of commodification and conservation, of despair and hope, of progress and tradition.

Oregon, This Storied Land tells many of those stories, giving us a broad, sweeping history of a state that has resisted being made into a stereotype. “We live in a place rich with complex social, economic, cultural, and ecological meaning,” the author tells us, and then he proceeds to unravel the complexities and uncover the riches for us.

William G. Robbins is Emeritus Distinguished Professor of History at Oregon State University in Corvallis. An expert in the history of the American West and environmental history, Robbins has written dozens of articles and is the author or editor of seven books, including Colony and Empire: The Capitalist Transformation of the American West and Landscapes of Conflict: The Oregon Story, 1940-2000. He served as editor of Environmental History from 1986 to 1988 and in 1997 received OSU’s highest faculty award when he was named Distinguished University Professor. Robbins has also served on the council of the Pacific Coast Branch of the American History Association and the council of the Western History Association and on the editorial boards of the Pacific Historical Review, the Pacific Northwest Quarterly, the Oregon Historical Quarterly, and the Oregon State University Press.

224 pp; 40 photos, 2 maps, 7 x 10 in.
$19.95 paper ISBN: 0-87595-286-0

Sarah Winnemucca Award for Creative Nonfiction

 

When the River Ran Wild!
Indian Traditions on the Mid-Columbia and the Warm Springs Reservation
George W. Aguilar Sr.
Foreword by Jarold Ramsey

In this remarkable personal memoir and tribal history, George Aguilar tells us about the Kiksht-speaking Eastern Chinookans, who lived and worked for centuries connected to the rhythms and resources of the great fishing grounds of the Columbia River at Five Mile Rapids. When the River Ran Wild! is the history of names and naming, of deep family connections, and of traditional customs. It is a descriptive catalog of the plants the River People used for sustenance and medical purposes, and it is a detailed guide on how to pack out an elk and how to tan a hide. Aguilar has written this book to help us what the River People have lost on the Columbia River over the decades, but he also gives testimony to what has been conserved and enlivened by a people who love the land and who honor tradition and those who came before. He takes us, perhaps better than anyone else can, back to a time when The River Ran Wild!

George W. Aguilar Sr. is a Kiksht Chinookan who is a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs in north-central Oregon. Born in 1930, he has lived on the Warm Springs Reservation for seventy of his seventy-five years. Aguilar served in the U.S. Army from 1949 to 1952 and has worked as a fisherman, transient field worker, timber faller, carpenter, service station retailer, auto mechanic, and owner and dealer of blackjack gaming tables. He was the construction manager for the Tribes and continues to work as a general building and reforestation contractor. His research for this book took him into libraries and archives throughout the Pacific Northwest.

272 pp., 120 illustrations, 7 x 9 in.
$22.50 paper ISBN: 0-295-98484-8

Published by the Oregon Historical Society Press in association with the University of Washington Press

Oregon Geographic Names
Seventh Edition
By Lewis A. McArthur and Lewis L. McArthur

“Oregon Geographic Names is the authoritative work on the geographic names of Oregon and serves as a national model."
—Roger L. Payne, executive secretary
U.S. Board on Geographic Names

An Oregon classic since 1928, Oregon Geographic Names is a comprehensive reference to place-names throughout the state. Generations of readers, from librarians and researchers to travelers and people interested in Oregon history, have used and enjoyed this fascinating and definitive resource. The seventh edition is significantly expanded, with more than 6,200 entries reporting what is known about the origin and meaning of each name. An accompanying CD holds biographical and geographical indexes and maps that show the locations of over 1,600 post offices and nearly 1,300 communities and geographic features.

Lewis A. McArthur published the first edition of Oregon Geographic Names in 1928 and prepared all or most of the next two editions. His son, Lewis L. McArthur, took up the project with the fourth edition. Retired from a career as an executive with a Portland-based steel firm, McArthur is active in various preservation projects and serves on the Oregon Geographic Names Board.

Reference
2003. 1088 pp, 27 photographs, 1 map, 6" x 9"
CD, PC and Mac compatible, maps, indexes
$75.00 cloth, ISBN 0-87595-278-X (book and CD package)
$35.00 paper, ISBN 0-87595-277-1 (book and CD package)

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