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The first people who lived in the Willamette Valley were called the Kalapuyans. They lived in this area for up to 10000 years before the arrival of European Americans in the early 19th century. The Kalapuyans were not a single tribe but rather a loose classification of many independent bands which had similar languages and lifestyles.

The Kalapuyan people have been broken down into groups to distinguish between the regions in which they lived. Some of the groups were the Tualatin, Champeog, Pudding River, Chafan, and Long Tom. At the peak of their civilization, the Kalapuyans numbered about 10,000 to 20,000 relatively peaceful persons.

The Kalapuyan bands made seasonal migrations and often set up the same winter and summer camps. They followed the seasons of the food supply. Common foods included roots like camas, wapato (wild potato), seeds, berries, and insects. They fished in rivers and streams for salmon and trout, and hunted deer and other game using arrowheads from obsidian and animal bones.

The most important food in the Kalapuyan diet was the camas root, which like rice, corn or wheat in other cultures, was an important and valuable staple. The camas' onion-like bulb was pried from the ground with antler-handled digging sticks. The bulbs were then baked in earthen ovens or rock kilns for several days, then eaten, dried, or placed in a stone mortar to be smashed by a pestle and fashioned into cakes and stored for future use. The Kalapuyans had a reputation for preparing and preserving camas better than any other Northwest tribe. They often used it for barter.

The Kalapuyans also managed their natural food sources by burning the valley annually. Controlled burning was an ingenious way to eliminate overcrowding of their food source by trees and other plants; it was also a way to keep down vegetation so they could more effectively hunt game. An approaching enemy could also be more easily detected. Finally, the Kalapuyans used fire to entrap and kill game.

Due to the variety of seasonal camps, the Kalapuyans lived in a number of house types. During the winter when greater insulation was necessary, they constructed semi-permanent plank or bark shelters. These were packed with dirt and utilized a central fire hearth. Temporary brush huts were used during warmer seasons and often partial shelters were made of blankets or pieces of bark thrown over bushes.

Women made baskets to carry food and men would build canoes for traversing large bodies of water. Canoes were made of cedar and hollowed out by the use of fire. The canoe in the Marion County Historical Society museum was found near Monroe, Oregon, just north of Eugene. The Kalapuyans did not extensively use horses, which arrived in the valley late in the 18th century, thousands of years after the Kalapuyans migrated here.

What happened to these people? In the late 1700's early explorers spread smallpox, tuberculosis, and venereal disease which began to greatly reduce the Kalapuyan numbers. The arrival of European-American settlers and their permanent farms and towns further disrupted the traditional migratory Kalapuyan lifestyle. For example, the plowing of fields to plant wheat often tore up camas ground where Kalapuyans had found important food.

In 1855, the remaining Kalapuyans, about 240, were moved onto a reservation at Grand Ronde, located west of Salem. Today there are about 2,000 people of Kalapuyan descent alive.

It may be difficult for us to imagine today what the Willamette Valley and its inhabitants were like so long ago, but as we walk on the ground that they walked upon, we may at least hope to share their understanding and appreciation of this beautiful land.

1. When do we think the first Kalapuyans lived in the Willamette Valley?

2. Did the Kalapuyans live in the same place all year? If not, why not?

3. Was fire important to the Kalapuyans only for warmth and cooking? If not, for what other purposes was fire used?

4. In your opinion, why did the Kalapuyans not make as great use of horses as other groups of Indians did in North America?

5. Approximately what percent of the Kalapuyans died between 1700 and 1855?

6. Describe what was happening historically in Japan in about 1800? What did the most developed areas of Japan look like in 1800? Why do you think the situation was so different in Oregon?

7. What personal observations or questions do you have?

8. Words you learned in this reading, with a native-language or English equivalent.

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