The Kalapuya people are believed to have entered their historical homeland in the
Willamette Valley by migrating from the south of the valley northwards and forcing out earlier inhabitants. Each of these bands occupied specific areas along the
Willamette,
Umpqua, and
McKenzie rivers. Prior to contact with white explorers, traders, and missionaries, the Kalapuya population is believed to have numbered as many as 15,000 people. Catastrophic
epidemics of infectious diseases such as malaria,
smallpox, and other endemic diseases occurred after Natives contracted diseases from the white explorers, traders, and missionaries who entered the region. These diseases were endemic among the Europeans and Americans, but the Native Americans didn't have immunity to them and died at a high rate as a result. Some accounts tell of villages devoid of inhabitants, standing in grim testament to the high mortality of these epidemics. Blanchet reported in 1839 that diseases "reduced [them] to a very small population threatening to decline more and more." On April 12, 1851, at the Santiam Treaty Council in
Champoeg,
Oregon Territory, Santiam Kalapuya tribal leaders voiced strong opinions over where they would live. The Santiam leaders Alquema and Tiacan wanted to maintain their traditional territory between the forks of the
Santiam River. In the 1854
Treaty of Calapooia Creek, Oregon, Umpqua and Kalapuyan tribes of
Umpqua Valley ceded their lands to the
United States. In the
Treaty with the Kalapuya, etc., at
Dayton, Oregon (January 22, 1855), the Kalapuya and other tribes of the Willamette valley ceded the entire drainage area of the
Willamette River to the United States.
Reservation era Most Kalapuya Indians were removed to the Grand Ronde Agency and
reservation. Some were assigned to the
Siletz Reservation (known then as the
Coast Indian Reservation) on the central Pacific Coast of Oregon,
Warm Springs Reservation east of the Cascade Mountains in what are now Wasco and Jefferson Counties, or
Yakama Reservation in Southern Washington State. Settled in 1855 as a temporary reserve, the
Grand Ronde Reservation was first called the Yamhill River Reserve or Yamhill Valley reserve. It was officially renamed and established as the Grand Ronde Reservation by
Executive Order in 1857. With members of at least 27 tribes removed to Grand Ronde, life at the reservation was difficult. Some of these tribes had historically been enemies. In the early years, the reservation was managed by the
US Department of War. As it had earlier waged war against the tribes, it supervised Indian affairs across the country.
Fort Yamhill was established to oversee the Indians. Later Indian management was taken over by the
Commissioner of Indian Affairs and finally the
Bureau of Indian Affairs, placed within the Department of Interior. Rev. Adrien Croquet (Crocket) of
Belgium was the Roman Catholic
missionary at Grand Ronde and established St. Michael's church. The
Roman Catholic Church also established a school there in the late 19th century with approval by the United States. The school was an on-reservation
boarding school to which children from other sites were at times forcibly removed and made to stay at school throughout the school year. Many children were later sent to off-reservation
Indian boarding schools, such as
Chemawa Indian School in
Salem. Most children were taught rural skills such as blacksmithing, farming, sewing, etc. believed to be important to their future lives on the reservation. Sanitation and health care at the reservation was poor, and mortality was high. In the 1850s a total of 1,000 people had been moved there. By 1900, only about 300 people survived.
Termination and restoration In the mid-20th century, Federal policy continued to be directed at assimilation of Native Americans. Congress believed that some tribes were ready to enter the mainstream society and end their special relationship with the government. All of the bands and tribes of the Kalapuya descendants were terminated in 1954, along with all other western Oregon tribes, in the
Western Oregon Indian Termination Act of 1954. This ended their special relationship with the federal government. Under final termination actions, the government sold most of the reservation lands, removed its services, and published final rolls of the tribe in the
Congressional Record in 1956. In the late 20th century, the Kalapuya and other peoples in the confederated tribes reorganized to assert their Native American culture. The United States restored federal recognition in 1977 to the
Confederated Tribes of the Siletz and in 1983 to those who were part of the
Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon. The Kalapuya have intermarried extensively with descendants of their neighboring tribes. Most of the estimated 4,000 Kalapuya descendants today are enrolled in Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon. This community is working to revive a common creole Native American language, long used for trade among various tribes and now known as
Chinuk Wawa, by developing an immersion program for their children. They have had success in producing native speakers and are expanding the program through the eighth grade. == Kalapuya Traditional Ecological Knowledge ==