"The white men fired back. That is the story."

I was doing some research in the Oregonian the other day and came across a 1931 interpretation of Euro-American settlement of Oregon that will likely strike some modern readers as quite dated:

"But They Fought Back," Morning Oregonian, June 20, 1931, p6.

In case you're not able to read the text, the pertinent and eyebrow-raising sections are as follows:

Thinking about Siletz basketry

A recent Oregonian article got me thinking about Siletz & Siletz basketry.[1] I poked around the Internet briefly and came across some websites selling historic baskets.

The Confederated Tribes of Siletz website has a few images of basket making.

Tribal member Bud Lane makes baskets and is featured in an Indian Country Today article and the video below.[2]



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[1] Karen Rathe, "Basket: Few willing to mess with a sacred item," Oregonian, Sep. 24, 2010, p. E3.

[2]Jack McNeel, "Siletz basketmaker keeps the art alive," Indian Country Today, Aug. 30, 2006.

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Blogs of Note: H2ONCoast

I recently stumbled upon a great resource: H2ONCoast, a blog about "Water, Climate and Community on Oregon’s North Coast."

From the blog's "about" page:

Twenty-first century Homo sapiens have built dams, laws, ditches, dikes, treatment plants, industries, and agencies to manage our water. Yet it all comes down to a few simple facts with water–we can’t live without it, we have to keep it clean, and we have to understand its cycle on the planet. This blog is mostly about water in a wet place. The North Coast of Oregon is a place balanced between the Coast Range to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. On the north, it is bordered by the mighty Columbia River and in the South by the Siletz River. It is a landscape that is blessed by a super-abundance of water during the fall, winter and spring, and can be as dry as a bone in the summer. What you can expect from this blog:

1. Research-based facts. I am in the business of bringing the best of the academy to the people of the North Coast and Oregon. Expect some social and biophysical science.

2. Opinion. This site takes its cue from the blogosphere, which is quite opinionated. I will, however, always try to back up my opinions with facts. Note that these are my opinions and not always those of my employer, Oregon State University or Sea Grant Extension. If you have a beef with something you read here, contact me.

3. News. Water hits the headlines regularly. Expect to see entries culled from common and uncommon news sources.

4. Other perspectives. Water is both a global and local concern. Expect to see things related to water around the region, continent, and globe. There are usually lessons to be learned in these examples.

Vintage Roadside t-shirts

Pixieland t-shirt design, Vintage Roadside

About a year ago now I bought a t-shirt with the design above from Vintage Roadside t-shirts. I ran in to their booth at a Crafty Wonderland sale in the basement of the Doug Fir here in Portland. I ran in to the two proprietors of Vintage Roadside again back in April at the American Society for Environmental History / National Council on Public History 2010 conference held here in Portland.

Vintage Roadside produce a number of classic roadside advertisements on very high-quality t-shirts for a reasonable price, and they donate some of their proceeds to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. I highly recommend their products.

Pixieland in Lincoln City closed before we moved to Oregon in 1978, so I never went there. I do recall driving by the Pixie Kitchen restaurant, however. You'll find other great images of Pixieland and Pixie Kitchen here and here.

On a somewhat related note, I also recall driving by Lil' Sambo's restaurant in Lincoln City. I think we even ate there once or twice. As I've remembered this restaurant over the past few years, thought that it was related to the Lil' Black Sambo's chain of restaurants that used to exist. After reading this, this, and this, it doesn't appear to be a direct connection between the two. Nonetheless, it seems a bit insensitive for a business to continue to use such racially pejorative names -- not that doing so is unique, by any means.

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Veracity in the movies: Oregon Trail

There comes a movie, every now and again, that reflects the historical record so accurately and so thoroughly that nothing more needs to be said beyond the movie's trailer.

Enjoy.

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Thanks to dana @ EotAW for bringing this video to my attention.

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Noteworthy Blog: "Musing on Beaver Creek Marsh"

Michael W. Davis recently posted a comment on my blog post "Commercial fisheries bycatch mortality rates." He's a retired aquatic biologist living in southern Lincoln County, OR. I clicked through his profile page to find the blog that he and his wife Jackie have created and an article he wrote on the fisheries issue.

I'm bringing Michael & Jackie's blog to my readers' attention as the first installment of my "Noteworthy Blog" series, and as a way to keep this blog on my own radar.

In perusing his blog, "Musing on Beaver Creek Marsh," I see quite a number of links of interest to various topics relevant to the central Oregon coast. People who are interested specifically in the environment, cultural history, and natural history of this region will find many relevant links. As the sub-title of the blog states, blog posts themselves are the authors' "Observations of life on Beaver Creek Marsh . . . including art, wildlife, history, natural science, and other spontaneous topics."

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Inaccurate and offensive Oregon history

I discovered something quite disappointing the other day when I typed in the search terms "oregon history" into Google. Link # 5 led me to:

http://www.sonofthesouth.net/texas/oregon.htm

On this website I came upon such gems of inaccuracy and offensiveness as . . .

Mt. St. Joy Division

I mark every May 18 with at least a personal moment of silence for the untimely death of Ian Curtis and a reflection upon the eruption of Mt. St. Helens, both of which occurred on May 18, 1980[1].

The latter event I recall, to some degree: I was almost eight years old, living in Siletz, and I clearly remember scraping with my hand some of the light dust that had fallen on Mom's old blue Maverick when we were living in the double-wide on Willow Court. I recall Mom admonishing me for actions that could potentially harm the delicate finish on the highly valuable and pristine metallic blue Ford Maverick.[2] What a silly little boy was I! I retained a baby-jar-full of ash for many years, until I left home after graduating high school in 1990 and it disappeared in the unplanned and random dispersal of my belongings as I transitioned into and out of the U.S. Navy.

The former event -- Ian Curtis' death -- did not register with me at seven years old. I didn't get in to Joy Division until I was about 16. It was some time around the summer between my junior and senior years in high school, so that would have made it 1989. I recall clearly that one of my sister's friends' friends had made a set of mixed tapes titled "Music for the Moderns," or some such, and I, in turn, recorded these from her. On this tape were songs from certain bands and certain genres that subsequently have become the soundtrack of my life. More than that, actually -- songs and genres that have subsequently helped me define my place in the universe.[3]

History of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians

The video above showcases Charles Wilkinson's latest project, The People Are Dancing Again: The History of the Siletz Tribe of Western Oregon (UW Press, Fall 2010).

I'm excited about this. While growing up in Siletz in the 1980s, I didn't learn much at all about the tribe's history.

Internet sources on Siletz history can be found here, on the website of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, and through the Oregon Encyclopedia. The National Museum of the American Indian also contains some information on Siletz Indians.

One other, printed, source that I just recently discovered is the Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 7: Northwest Coast (1990). I've made use of this source in writing the first portion of Chapter 1 of my book on Willamette River pollution.

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Hilligoss, Hillygus

I must be related to Candace Hilligoss some how, as well as Sunshine Hillygus.

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A Bitter Fog

Has anyone reading this post yet read Carol van Strum's A Bitter Fog: Herbicides and Human Rights? If so, what did you learn from this book? This 1983 book details the effects of herbicides sprayed in the Coast Range of Oregon to facilitate the growth of Douglas Fir industrial tree farms (aka managed forests). I haven't read it yet myself but it's high up on my reading list. I'll post about it when I read it.

The image above is a screen shot of a 1991 article in the Eugene Register-Guard on van Strum and the topic of chemical warfare in Oregon's Coast Range[1].

Here's a link about herbicide and pesticide use in forestry.

Here's a review of van Strum's book from The Quarterly Review of Biology.

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[1] Joe Mosely, "Battling Through a Bitter Fog," Eugene Register-Guard, June 16 1991, pp. A1, A4. See this link.

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"Historians have the ability to control our minds"

My cousin (on my mom's side) Nancy wrote this back in 1976 on the first of five index cards that I assume were prompts for some kind of oral presentation she was to give in school on the topic of a class paper she wrote on Michael Hillegas.

Michael Hillegas -- as you all know -- was the first Treasurer of the United States of America, as we're all taught in school.

When my cousin wrote her paper, she didn't have the luxury of going to the Internets to learn about Hillegas, so she and my aunt Grace sent away to the National Archives in D.C. for photocopies of relevant materials. My aunt recently sent me these materials, and Nancy's school paper.

In her index cards, Nancy continued: "Some of the writers who have prepared our history text books have been biased by their own religious and cultural backgrounds, thus depriving the readers of important facts of our nation's history."

Thanks, Cuz, for representin' back in the day for your newest little cousins James and Kristina, and for puttin' a shout out for the need for a more inclusive and representative historical narrative!* You must have known that little cousin Jimmy would grow up to be a historian! Also, I commend your deep understanding of some of the key factors that influence the practice of history (and all other cultural endeavors), particularly considering you were about 14 at the time. Bravo!

Below are images of a key once owned (I think?) by Michael Hillegas, or one of his descendants (not me). City of Portland Archivist (and fellow Northwest History Network member) Brian Johnson sent these images to me the other day.



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* I know, I don't do this kind of slangy-talk very well.

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We're related in some way

The benefit of being descended from parents with relatively unique last names is that when I see one of those names out there and it's not me or someone I know I'm related to, it generally means I'm related to them in ways I don't know.

Like this, and this.

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1/2 of my genetic mixture . . .

. . . comes from my mom, of course. According to the dominant cultural practice of the day, when she was born she received the last name of "Elting," the name of her father's clan.

My mom's sister--my Auntie Grace--has recently birthed a blog dedicated to the Elting clan and all of it's many constituent branches, oxbows, and filigree.

Grace is the family genealogist & historian, a position of much value and honor in any clan. I'm indebted to her work preserving and making available our family's history, and for her involvement in the Bevier-Elting Family Association (BEFA). The BEFA is headquartered in New Paltz, New York. The Eltings and Beviers go back to the 17th century Dutch and Huguenot settlement in this and other communities up the Hudson from NYC. A fascinating chunk of this history is preserved at Historic Huguenot Street in New Paltz.




For example, the Bevier-Elting house, above, built in 1698, well before I was born.

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