Having been introduced to this topic while living in Eugene, OR for a few years, this well-researched and accessible title certainly belongs among the growing library of hyper-local tribal histories that are being written throughout the United States, filling gaps and capturing missing or quieter voices in the complex history of the nation. I especially appreciated learning about how the tribes of the Valley interacted with other parts of the state and region, linking the more modern history most Americans associate with Lewis and Clark expeditions to the earlier history of the region. I was also fascinated by how the changes of natural surroundings and ecology affected the societal growth or decline. The maps and archival images were useful to get a sense of the place and observations of the times. This would make a good inclusion to local history collections or instruction, as well as exhibitions and academic study. Highly recommended. ( )

David G. LEWIS, the author emeritus of this magnificent work of memory, aimed at rehabilitating these first peoples of America, in "Tribal Histories of the Willamette Valley", is graduated with a Ph.D. Department of anthropology.

He has always done extensive research on the tribal histories of peoples - his people -
Quite naturally, he became a prominent member of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, being also a descendant of the Takelma, Chinook, Molalla and Santiam Kalapuya peoples of western Oregon, and a member of "Grande Ronde".
Today, he teaches in the company of Ethnohistory Research, LLC, in Salem, Oregon, his native basin, since 2014 until today, where he is a Consultant.

Through this book, he legitimizes the way his ancestors - among other tribes - were driven from their lands, and rewrites their history; the one from which they were dispossessed.

Thanks to his research work, other researchers collect and share historical documents/testimonies/microfilms archived from their regions, and thus support a more precise Ethnographic Study, which prove - supporting evidence - that it is many human consequences, which have led to deforestation and the destruction of an entire ecosystem!

By conducting his own observations with a panel of users representative of the target population, namely the study of the 19 tribes that make up "the Kalapuyan", he takes a fresh look at the living conditions of these natives, including we learn their ways of feeding themselves without harming the fauna and flora, the seasonal cycles they practiced, inter-tribal marriages, but also the slavery of children placed in settler families...abducted from their region of 'origin! This until 1856 when this process becomes illegal.

The study of “exotic societies without writing, based on oral tradition” is neglected by some anthropologists today, but David G. LEWIS was keen to transmit a tribal heritage that did not appear anywhere before. Native Americans did not exist!

The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination in the United States, which entered into force on January 4, 1969, insists that the United Nations has condemned colonialism and all the practices of segregation and discrimination that accompany it, under whatever form and wherever they exist, and that the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples of 14 December 1960 [General Assembly resolution 1514(XV)] affirmed and solemnly proclaimed the need to put an end to it quickly and unconditionally.
That is to say a century after the shameful actions of settlers, who, from 1804, traveled through the western United States in order to find this northwest passage, collect the resources to be exploited - including an annual hunting calendar, which was "given to them "? -

The colonial project "aimed to extend to the American West, wild and inviolate, to the Pacific.
These settlers then claimed the land crossed, not without telling "the story of their rescue, in order to better appropriate their property"...
The highly fertile Willamette Valley, an object of covetousness, then inexorably changed its landscape: the forests gave way to cleared land, the meadows were transformed into agricultural fields, the rivers dried up to serve mills and sawmills, and promote river transport, wood, but also furs... Emblematic animal species, hunted to extinction... Acres of hectares are torn from the Amerindians, in order to allow civilization to expand and bear fruit!
Thus, they are purely and simply "moved" towards the east... only their dignity remains, flouted, resignation, poverty and... more diseases, transmitted by the colonists!

An amazing book! Read it! I learned so much from reading it! Moving and revolting at the same time!
It says a lot about the true nature of men, when they think of enrichment, profit, and lack of scruples.
A wonderful lesson in humanity!
This book, virtuoso, knocks on the door of a History of America that had never really been told in this way.
"Tribal Stories of the Willamette Valley" is the thread that unites individual trajectories with America's collective memory. Fascinating, when one seeks to understand the motivations and designs of the "invaders".

A book which should appear, accessible, for the young public on the bench of the schools.

THANKS. ( )

This is an intensely researched epic of the histories of so many tribes of that region, most of whom I had never heard of before. It depicts the relationships of those people with their environment and explains how they survived and prospered for so very long, until the arrival of the settlers. The newcomers disregarded the wisdom of the Natives and the environment, wreaking havoc, the end of the way of life for the Natives, and the destruction of the natural world. The author covers so many tribes and how they interacted with one another to share goods and improve relationships. The settlers took so very much from the Natives and never really ceased in their greed. Some current day restitutions have been attempted but so very little and so very late. The author also shared his personal insights which enriched the book even more. Very highly recommended. ( )